It’s easy to write the 2019 season off already and usher in the Burrow-era with excitement and hope. The 2019 Bengals were not supposed to be 2-14; we knew they would not be a playoff team but fans did expect a .500 season even though the likes of ESPN predicted far worse. A crazy series of events occurred which led us easily down that path.
It started on June 25th when our shiny #1 draft pick Jonah Williams underwent a MRI and found out he tore his labrum. He was placed on IR (eligible for return) and the OL began to shift. This pushed Cordy Glenn back to the starting LT position when it was widely speculated that the Bengals could push him to RT to make up for the less than stellar 2018 performance of Bobby Hart.
The next shoe to drop was the retirement of our starting LG. Clint Boling out of nowhere was forced into retirement because of a dangerous blood clot in his right leg. Boling was widely viewed as our best offensive lineman and could swing into LT when asked to. When you lose your best player on the OL it’s never a good swing.
Just for fun we had a third shoe to drop and that was the concussion of Cordy Glenn on August 18th. Everything that happened thereafter with Glenn was extremely questionable but later returned for the end of the season. This tallies up three potential starting left tackles, our starting left guard and our newly (speculatively) right tackle. Ready for the next one?
Billy Price is a bust. He Eric Ghiacuic stinks! Let’s be honest we have not had a great center since 2006 (Rich Braham) and the investment in Price made a ton of sense when drafted. This was a miss and this was the year that was make or break for Price. He did not make it and the line clearly suffered for that. He was replaced by Trey Hopkins later in the season and it appears Hopkins is the new long-term solution at the position. Ok so that is 4 of 5 starting positions on the offensive line.
Let’s just round up and address the fifth. The RG position was going to be a battle between Michael Jordan (rookie), John Miller and Christian Westerman. We love competition and may the best man win. It seemed as if no one really panned out over the season and there was no consistency to hang your hat on. Jordan finished up at the end of the season getting more reps mostly in an audition and young experience capacity. The position was in flux. Did I mention that Bobby Hart played RT (poorly) all season because of Jonah, because of Glenn, because of Boling……
Doomed was the OL from the beginning. Did the defense really stink or was it that the offense could just not stay on the field long enough? Did Dalton really have a bad season or did he have no time? Was Mixon off all year, until the end, or did he literally have nowhere to run.
It stopped and started with this offensive line. Sure we need a linebacker (or two), another DT and a CB but the biggest need is to protect Burrow and improve the run. Let’s not forget how we got to 2-14.