The Cincinnati Bengals, at least lately, haven’t popped up on many “overrated” lists.
But that has changed this offseason.
It is left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. as the culprit, with Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay identifying him as the most overrated outright lineman in the league:
However, Brown went on to have arguably his worst campaign as a pro last season. He earned a middling 66.1 PFF grade by allowing seven sacks and drawing three flags across 1,058 offensive snaps.
The reasoning — Brown’s huge salary combined with some numbers — makes sense.
But there are a variety of factors that go into Brown’s struggles last season, such as learning a new playbook and team, then not having reps with his starting quarterback over the summer, only to then lose that starting quarterback for a backup partway through the season.
And on the salary front, as always, those numbers will look better as the cap keeps climbing and other guys get paid.
Either way, the Bengals aren’t going to fret too much over any of the numbers — Brown is entrenched as the long-term left tackle, with rookie Amarius Mims the future-minded option on the right edge.
