Bengals praised as 'finally serious about protecting Joe Burrow'

After the Cincinnati Bengals‘ final roster cuts were made as the season approached, Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report wrote about what he thought was the biggest takeaway for each team based on their rosters going into the year.

The big thing he took away from the Bengals cuts is something that Cincinnati football fans have likely been waiting to see since the first pick of the 2020 NFL draft was announced.

Here’s some of what Knox wrote:

The Cincinnati Bengals are finally serious about protecting Joe Burrow.

This is the biggest takeaway to be made from their wave of cuts, which included 2021 second-round pick Jackson Carman. Teams don’t like to give up on high draft picks after only a few seasons, but the Bengals did exactly that after the 24-year-old repeatedly struggled to get on the field.

The former Clemson tackle made six starts as a rookie and started two playoff games in 2022, but he only appeared in five regular-season games over the last two seasons.

Cincinnati has taken a lot of swings at the offensive line over the past few offseasons, most recently signing Trent Brown and using a first-round pick on Amarius Mims. It’s also become increasingly clear that the Bengals aren’t going to hang onto linemen who can’t contribute, regardless of the investment.

Knox went on to talk about how the Bengals also released La’el Collins just over a year into his three-year contract with the team since he was still recovering from his knee injury, and how they let Jonah Williams walk in free agency after replacing him at left tackle with Orlando Brown Jr. during the 2023 offseason.

It’s an important shift in the philosophy of the Cincinnati front office that has been very deliberate over the past couple of years. Protecting its franchise quarterback has become priority No. 1, especially after he has dealt with season-ending injuries in half of the seasons he has played in the NFL.

Those injuries have been direct results of taking too many sacks due to the amount of pressure he faces in the backfield, and now it’s obvious that they are trying to fix that.