Our line still stinks and we didn’t do enough in the offseason to make it better. I am a broken record and you are tired of hearing about this. I don’t care. What I care about is protecting our most important asset, ensuring we can run the ball and giving enough opportunity for the offense to convert a third down. In steps Larry Warford…not a RT to replace Bobby Hart but someone that can immediately start and be a large upgrade.
Warford was cut by the Saints and it isn’t because he stinks. His PFF score is lower for pass protection than Xavier but his run score is much higher. The storyline is that this benefits Mixon but it takes his money so we lose him anyway. If we cut Hart and Redmond we make the money back and still have the Dalton money to re-sign Mixon. So we lose a RT and have to figure that out. Okay so we rely solely on Fred Johnson to be the starter but can he really do worse than Hart?
Warford has been to the Pro Bowl the past three seasons (last season as an alternate). Which OL on the Bengals made the Pro Bowl last season? Who was the last player on the OL? Oh that was Whitworth who wanted to stay but was being shunned for smaller shillings to go with Cedric O-goodbye. Warford is a known commodity and has been in the league for 7 years. He is 28 and not past his prime. The knock is that he is fat so write a contract that is tied to weight goals and bonuses. Get this done.
Here is what the OL would look like in all of this scenario: Williams – Su’a-Filo/Jordan – Hopkins – Warford – Johnson. That is better than Williams – Jordan – Hopkins – Su’a-Filo/Price – Hart.
Get this done Bengals. Get it done now.