The Cincinnati Bengals have more problems than would fit into any one article. The team is poorly managed from the top down, the defense is an unmitigated mess and the offensive line isn’t far behind.
One of the lone bright spots for the Bengals is the passing game with quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Even then, it’s marred with issues.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis points out that Burrow’s pressure rate compared with his time to throw is maddening.
Sharp posted on X that it’s the “most brutal stat you’ll read today: Joe Burrow has been blitzed at the #1 LOWEST rate of any QB the last 4 years–but–he has been hit within 2.5 seconds of snap at the #1 HIGHEST rate.
“Burrow has been hit within 2.5 seconds 25% MORE than the #2 most hit QB in the NFL.”
That’s pretty amazing. Teams aren’t even trying to blitz him and they are still getting into his kitchen on a regular basis.
SIDE NOTE: I’ve added capital letters to the posts when applicable because for some reason Sharp isn’t in love with punctuation and capitalization on X.
“It’s insane to me the criticism of Burrow lately,” Sharp continues. His 2.5 seconds to throw is #4 fastest, WAY below average with the #1 lowest blitz rate faced…
“And the #4 fastest release, he shouldn’t get hit often, yet he’s the #1 fastest hit QB in the entire NFL. Why?”
Burrow continues to be criticized
So, Burrow clearly has poor protection, a mediocre running game and a poor defense. Yet, some people like to continue to blame Burrow for the Bengals’ 9-8 season that didn’t produce a playoff berth.
Former Cleveland Browns‘ and Bengals’ wide receiver Andrew Hawkins was asked recently about whether or not the Bengals were doing Burrow a disservice by not surrounding him with talent.
“I don’t think so,” Hawkins said before blaming Burrow directly. “I think everyone’s had a hand in it. When you look at Joe Burrow — a top-five quarterback — there’s going to be holes in your team whenever you’re getting paid what you’re getting paid. More importantly, he made it very clear that he wanted his guys; he wanted Higgins and he wanted Chase. Get the deals done, I don’t care. So when that happens, now some of this is on your shoulders as well to make whatever the circumstances are… work.”
Someone could blame Burrow for making a ton of money, but many quarterbacks make a lot of money. It affects every team, except the ones that stink and have plenty of cap room because they don’t have a good quarterback. That’s the cost of doing business in the NFL if you want a good one.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler points out that while Burrow gets paid a lot, he never blames anyone else for the team’s struggles even though we all know he could.
“He puts it all on his shoulders,” Fowler said. “He says we have to get this done. But he does acknowledge that this is a distraction. That getting Hendrickson done is important. Now, Burrow has stumped publicly for Trey getting paid. He did the same for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. And those guys got taken care of. So still the hope for the Bengals’ blueprint is that Hendrickson is that third star that they pay.”
The Bengals’ offensive line is a huge culprit as per usual
Sharp thinks the pressure stats on Burrow are largely a failure of the Bengals’ offensive line. And the stats are astoundingly bad.
“How about instead of blaming the guy with the lightening fast release, we look at his OL?,” Sharp continues. “The Bengals OL is the ONLY OL to rank #25 or worse in pass block win rate for FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS:
2021: #30
2022: #30
2023: #27
2024: #32
They’re the worst pass blocking line in the NFL.”
And not for nothing, outside of drafting guard Dylan Fairchild in the third round of this year’s draft, the Bengals didn’t do a ton to address the line this offseason.
“Despite the NFL-worst pass protection, despite the NFL-most quick pressure faced, Burrow has produced ELITE passing statistics the last four years
#1 in overall completion rate
#1 in third down completion rate
#2 in accuracy
#2 best passer rating (103.3)
#3 best TD rate”
I’ll say it again: Burrow isn’t the problem in Cincinnati.
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