Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the Cincinnati Bengals need to improve their offensive line. Stop the presses.
We all know the story of Joe Burrow being sacked 19 times in the postseason, including seven in the Super Bowl against the Rams. That led to literally every human being on earth realizing the Bengals need to address the unit in free agency and the draft. Not just for Burrow’s protection, but to also unlock even more potential in this offense.
Kevin Cole of Pro Football Focus dug into Burrow and other quarterbacks in regards to how well they perform when not taking sacks. As it turns out, the sacks Burrow took negatively affected the Bengals’ offense more than that of other quarterbacks, namely Buffalo’s Josh Allen, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert of the Chargers.
In terms of overall Expected Points Added per play in 2021, Burrow had the lowest EPA among these four quarterbacks, almost 0.1 less than Mahomes.
However, if we exclude interceptions, Burrow shoots up to the top of this list. And if we talk just about taking sacks, Burrow’s EPA is well behind those of the other three in this discussion, again by about 0.1.
From Cole: “Burrow is subject to pressure at one of the highest rates due to poor offensive line play, and in those circumstances, he has the highest sack rate in the NFL.”
So what does this all mean? Fewer sacks and interceptions more than likely will mean more points for Burrow and the Bengals offense and Burrow can continue to close the perceived gap between himself and the other three quarterbacks on this list.
This seems all so obvious. Protect the football and score more points. For Burrow and the Bengals, it means sustaining their newfound success and staying in contention in the AFC among the likes of the Bills, Chiefs and Chargers. As a reminder, the Bengals, according to Tipico, have the third-best odds in the AFC to win Super Bowl LVII, behind the Chiefs and Bills (and fifth overall, also behind the Rams and 49ers).
