Cincinnati Bengals: Analyzing the offensive line

Going in-depth and breaking down the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line following two major departures.

The offensive line was once the strength of the Cincinnati Bengals. It took a major step back last season however, and could be an even bigger problem in 2017. With the departures of Kevin Zeitler and Andrew Whitworth, the Bengals could be in trouble.

Given that we’re in the dog days of summer with no NFL football, the offseason calls for an assessment of the team. We’ve been going position-by-position and looking at each group thus far.

This time, we dive into the offensive linemen.

Offensive Linemen

*Russell Bodine (1,060 snaps; 77.7 OVR, 63.6 Pass Block, 75.5 Run Block)
*Clint Boling (942 snaps; 77.0 OVR, 84.7 Pass Block, 55.9 Run Block)
*Cedric Ogbuehi (680 snaps; 39.4 OVR, 35.5 Pass Block, 55.9 Run Block)
*Jake Fisher (300 snaps; 43.5 OVR, 42.5 Pass Block, 52.7 Run Block)
*Andre Smith (182 snaps; 39.3 OVR, 41.6 Pass Block, 38.7 Run Block)
Eric Winston (279 snaps; 59.5 OVR, 50.3 Pass Block, 70.5 Run Block)
Trey Hopkins (10 snaps; 50.6 OVR, 60.0 Pass Block, 45.5 Run Block)
T.J. Johnson (95 snaps; 50.6 OVR, 77.8 Pass Block, 49.3 Run Block)
Christian Westerman (N/A)
Alex Redmond (N/A)
Kent Perkins (N/A)
Dustin Stanton (N/A)
J.J. Dielman (N/A)
Landon Lechler (N/A)

* = expected starter | 2016 Pro Football Focus grades in parenthesis

Throughout the recent playoff runs for Cincinnati, their offensive line has stood as a key strength. Football Outsiders rated them as No. 4 in pass protection in 2011, No. 3 in 2013, and No. 5 in 2014. 2012-14 saw the Bengals stand as the No. 11 run blocking unit every year by the Football Outsiders metrics, and 2015 had them leading the entire league as a unit. 2016 was a step down. They ended up being passable in run blocking, but plummeted in pass blocking efficiency.

That’s immediately evident in the number of sacks allowed. From 2011-15, they were a top eight team in sacks allowed four times, giving up no more than 30 sacks three times and never giving up more than 32 in those years. The only year where they didn’t was 2012, a season which looked similar to their 2016 blocking performance. That season, they gave up 46 sacks — seventh-most in the league.

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That 2012 unit was on the upswing amid recent changes, however. Andre Smith just finished the best season of his career. Whitworth was in the midst of yet another high-end season in a career full of them. Zeitler has a good start to what would be a Bengals tenure filled with highly-graded seasons. Clint Boling improved massively from his rookie year to be at the positive level he’s held onto to this day. Kyle Cook was a decent-quality starter in the middle and would go on to give the team another year of competent play before Russell Bodine eventually replaced him.

There’s little from 2016 that points to much positive movement ahead in that same vein.

Zeitler’s departure leaves an unanswered hole at his vacated right guard spot, and Whitworth’s leaves another at left tackle. The right tackle spot is just as bad off, with nobody stepping up there last year and little being done to help it this offseason. Boling and Bodine are capable guys at left guard and center, respectively, but having them stand as the best of a unit isn’t a good sign for an upcoming season.

This is where the inherent penny-pinching ways of Cincinnati owner Mike Brown really hurt his franchise. He’s loosened the purse strings a bit more than he used to (this guy once flamed out on signing Warren Sapp because of allegedly messing with the incentive/guarantee structure of a contract), but even with plenty of money on the cap in recent years he’s still been reluctant to sign even his best players before they go elsewhere, even when there isn’t a replacement plan in place.

Zeitler and Whitworth are perfect examples.

Zeitler definitely got expensive (five years, $60 million, $31.5 million guaranteed), but this is a top-level player at his position (only six guards outperformed his 87.1 PFF grade, and he was top-10 in both pass blocking and run blocking grades). Those are the guys you pay a premium for!

If cost was really that big of a problem (and with the salary cap leaving them plenty of millions to work with for them coming into the offseason, it’s a weak argument), the team should’ve made a better effort to sign him prior to or even during the season.

Whitworth was a bit more defensible, but barely so. He’s 35, with 11 years of games on his body. The deal he signed with the Rams gives him $33.75 million ($15 million guaranteed) over three seasons. That is a major investment for an aging player. Even the best fall off at some point, and the older someone is the more likely that reality sets in.

Without him, however, this team has no capable options in place. Ogbuehi and Fisher were brought in a couple seasons ago to prepare for this exact scenario, but neither has been even slightly passable in their opportunities. With how long Whitworth was with the team (and seemingly on good terms with them as well), it wouldn’t be stretching the imagination to see him come back if offered something halfway decent.

Cincinnati seemed to have no interest in him returning, though, and their stalwart tackle (who PFF graded as high-quality or excellent in nine of his 11 seasons so far, including a 91.3 rating last season) moved on. With the high-end veterans gone, Cincinnati is left with a couple decent starters and a cavalcade of awfulness to dig through in hopes of fielding a workable five-man unit.

Bodine should be fine as the starter in the middle for at least one more season, and Boling is a decent player one his left side. Those other spots have so much left to be determined unfortunately, and none of these options should plausibly be expected to do well based on what we’ve seen to this point.

Start with the tackles. Looking at what they have, the likely path would have Ogbuehi on the left and Fisher on the right. Both have been dramatically bad in their two season so far, so expecting even one of them to take over and succeed in such an important role would be a bad gamble. Relying on both to do so at the same time is a laughable farce.

Aug 29, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andre Smith (71) against the Chicago Bears in a preseason NFL football game at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals won 21-10. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

What other choice do they have at this point, though? Their only other options are even worse. Andre Smith was given the boot after his production fell off a cliff in 2014 and 2015; he’s only become more of a liability since, and injuries are a major worry too. Winston was an okay run blocker last season, but his pass blocking was awful (though it must be said, it still graded better than the other three options…somehow). He’s also 33 and hasn’t had a good season in four years.

Move on to the right guard spot, and it isn’t really a better outlook. T.J. Johnson did okay as a run blocker in 2016, but atrocious pass blocking limits his potential effectiveness in a starting role. Trey Hopkins has only 10 snaps to his name (and they weren’t good). Past that are a ton of names who either haven’t ever lined up for the team (Redmond, Westerman) or were just added as UDFAs (Perkins, Stanton).

Smith actually stands to be their choice so far at guard apparently, but while positional switches have prolonged the usefulness of careers before there is no reason to expect it will be some cure-all in fixing his (or Cincinnati’s) problems.

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This is like trying to build a house out of twigs and debris. Unfortunately, it’s all the Bengals have left themselves with, so they have to make some determination with what they’ve got available.

I think when it comes down to it, they’ll stick with Ogbuehi at left tackle, Boling at left guard, Bodine at center, Smith at right guard, and Fisher at right tackle. That’d be the easiest path, but I think it wouldn’t be their best one. There are a couple possibilities I’d prefer to see them attempt instead.

The first would be trying one of either Redmond or Westerman at guard in the place of Smith. Neither has shown anything yet, but that could be a good thing in this case. While we don’t know if they’re good, we aren’t assured as of yet that they are bad. Smith is an aging, ineffective, injury-prone individual switching to a new position. It’s grasping at straws to hope he can magically return to effectiveness at this point in his career.

Westerman is a guy who elicited comparisons to Alex Mack coming out of college, and was said to be able to potentially play at any interior spot. Redmond was said to be a fluid mover with good field intelligence. Late-round guards have found places in starting lineups often in this league, and those profiles point to a much higher ceiling than what Smith would do. Plus, if either works out they could be a long-term solution rather than a last-ditch stopgap.

The other possibility would be moving Bodine from the middle to that right guard spot. He played some guard in college so it wouldn’t be completely new to him, and it would immediately raise the prospects for that position. The center spot would be vacated to do this, but the Bengals may be better suited to handle a change there. Cincinnati did just add a center in the draft in Dielman. Westerman and Redmond both were discussed as being able to possibly slide to center in the leadup to their draft too.

Comparing this with the other possibility, we end up with either a choice between Redmond, Westerman, or Dielman at center or Smith, Redmond, or Westerman at right guard. Of those, the former has a clearly better collection of potential for growth and longevity.

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At the end of the day, none of these are all that exciting though, and the Bengals have nobody to blame but themselves for this outcome. When they look back on another season where they allowed 40+ sacks and got their quarterback and runners clobbered, they’ll certainly regret leaving their blocking cupboard so bare.