Cincinnati Bengals: Winning without Vontaze Burfict
By Kenn Korb
An Offensive Line Which Can Actually Block
On the other side, we have a unit which was easily the weakest for the Bengals in 2017. The 2018 version is actually proving to be somewhat competent — a great sign for the health and impact of the offense going forward.
Only one starter from last season’s grouping is still in place: left guard Clint Boling. Each of the other slots for the 2018 group we’ve arrived at came into their spots through different means.
To fix the left tackle slot, Cincinnati made a surprising trade way back in February with Buffalo to acquire Cordy Glenn. Glenn never lived up to the big contract extension he had signed with the Bills (and probably won’t do so with Cincinnati, either), but he’s a competent player when healthy — a vast improvement over what the Bengals had been rolling out there for the past two seasons.
The other tackle slot was filled through free agency. Bobby Hart was cut from the Giants after an ignominious three-year run with the franchise. He’s still not good (easily the weakest part of the current Cincinnati blocking unit), but he hasn’t yet been exploited to the degree we saw during his New York days.
The center position got a new answer through the draft. In the trade for Glenn, Cincinnati moved down from No. 11 to No. 21 in the first round of the 2018 draft. With that pick, Billy Price was the choice. His offseason work wasn’t inspiring, but as long as he’s on the field, he cannot possibly be worse than the human turnstile named Russell Bodine whom he replaced.
The right guard spot took the longest to find an answer, but all three of the guys competing during the preseason would qualify for the same means: long-term development. Trey Hopkins, Christian Westerman, and Alex Redmond all had been with the team in previous years and brought along slowly for development purposes. Redmond would eventually win that three-way battle and, though he’s flawed, he is doing better than what the team could manage last season.
This group hasn’t been perfect, but they’ve been much better at keeping their quarterback on his feet (just two sacks allowed in two weeks — including zero against a fierce Baltimore defense) and the offense running on time.