It sounds obvious, you don’t build an actual NFL roster like it’s a fantasy football team. It’s not enough to pack your squad with flashy weapons and hope you dazzle your way to the Super Bowl. You have to focus on more and different dimensions – roster depth, how players fit into coaching schemes, how they work together, and how even the “unsexy” positions are addressed at a high level.
And yet that is generally not how the Cincinnati Bengals have built their teams over the years. And once again, they’re paying for it in the worst possible way – with an injury to their star quarterback, Joe Burrow, that will severely affect their season. In the Bengals’ 31-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Burrow suffered a turf toe injury as he was being sacked by defensive lineman Arik Armstead; it’s estimated that Burrow will be out at least three months. It’s the third time in six seasons that Burrow’s underwhelming offensive line – the line that is supposed to protect him from this sort of stuff – has helped shorten his season.
Most franchises value quarterback protection to an extreme degree, particularly when you have a player like Burrow, one of the best players in the entire NFL. The ones that don’t suffer by way of sub-par quarterback play, and eventual quarterback injury. The 2024 Bengals had one of the worst overall offensive lines in the NFL, and they did very little in the offseason to reverse that curse. Cincinnati’s front office did add interior linemen Lucas Patrick and Dalton Risner in free agency, but Patrick has barely played, and Risner has already allowed a sack and four total pressures in 75 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Georgia guard Dylan Fairchild, selected with the 81st pick of this year’s draft, has allowed four pressures in 81 pass-blocking snaps.
The tackle spots are handled this season as they were in 2024 by Orlando Brown Jr on the left side, and 2024 first-round pick Amarius Mims on the right. Brown, who has the Bengals’ fifth-highest 2025 salary cap hit at $15m, has been more of a sieve than a mainstay throughout his career. Mims, who did represent some serious intent to make the line better with the draft capital given up for his services, is still getting the hang of things. Center Ted Karras is no better than a decent starter.
So, yes, while the Bengals could say with some conviction that they have tried to make their line better, the player evaluation process has been iffy at best.
Why is this specifically important for Burrow? While he is the NFL’s best in-the-pocket mover today, and certainly the best since Tom Brady’s retirement, the 28-year-old is not exceptionally mobile outside the pocket. He needs some sort of structure provided and defined by protection to do what he does at a high level. It’s rather amazing that Burrow has played to the level he has when healthy without that protection.
Head coach and offensive shot-caller Zac Taylor has mitigated the potential damage with more quick-game throws than you’ll see from any other NFL team. In 2024, Burrow had by far the most attempts on passes that took fewer than 2.5 seconds after the snap with 397 – Patrick Mahomes ranked second with 352. 2023 brought fewer overall Burrow dropbacks due to the wrist injury that ended his season – that lack of protection again – but he still led the NFL in percentage of quick-throw dropbacks at 62.9%.
So, this has been the Bengals’ primary adaptive strategy – get the ball out before the quarterback gets crunched. The problems with that approach? Building your entire passing game out of quick stuff obviously takes a lot of routes off the table, and if he doesn’t get the ball out quickly? Well, he’s crunched. The margin for error is wafer-thin as a result.
And as three of the Bengals’ four biggest salary cap hits right now go to Burrow and receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, it raises the question – how much do your elite weapons matter if they’re only running half a playbook because the ball has to come out of the quarterback’s hand almost as soon as it’s snapped?
“It’s unfortunate this happened, but that’s a part of football,” Taylor said on Monday of Burrow’s latest injury. “He could have been clean for 99% of the game, but one play is where it happened.”
That’s a disingenuous statement at best. Burrow was not clean for 99% of the game, and he’s never been anywhere near that at any time in his NFL career. He certainly wasn’t 99% clean against the Jaguars – in fact, the Bengals’ offensive line deficiencies meant he was harassed over and over before the injury eventually – inevitably? – happened.
Burrow’s worrisome lack of protection does have a recent precedent. Andrew Luck was a generational prospect selected by the Indianapolis Colts with the first overall pick in 2012, and he was truly great until injuries, caused in large part by a lack of investment in the offensive line, took their toll. Luck retired unexpectedly in August 2019, because he was tired of the physical toll of being battered in and out of the pocket.
As ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky and Mina Kimes pointed out on Monday, the similarities between Luck and Burrow after six seasons are worrying, at best.
This is not to say that Joe Burrow is one more big hit away from hanging up his cleats for good. But this latest injury should remind the Bengals of a lesson they should have already learned from Burrow’s past injuries: if the linemen protecting your quarterback aren’t good enough, then the talent among your receivers and backs won’t matter.
As to how (or if) the Bengals can transcend this disaster this season, backup Jake Browning (who filled in for Burrow pretty well as a rookie in 2023) threw three interceptions against the Jaguars before he collected his wits. And it’s not as if Browning is going to be better when pressured than Burrow. It’s also worth mentioning that in 2024, with Burrow fully healthy and at his best, the Bengals scored 30 or more points in eight of their 17 games, and lost four of those eight games, because their defense was problematic at best.
Another lost season should serve as the Bengals’ ultimate wake-up call. But given their history, there’s little reason to be optimistic it actually will.
