No matter how long you have been following the Cincinnati Bengals, you have seen some really bad offensive lines. In fact, their terrible offensive lines have been a good way to illustrate why quarterback Joe Burrow is so good. He is able to thrive offensively despite having some of the worst protection in the NFL.
Now that the Bengals have signed offensive guard Dalton Risner at right guard, they have arguably completed the best offensive line since Burrow arrived in 2020.
Risner, combined with rookie left guard Dylan Fairchild, who is coming off an incredible training camp and preseason, is replacing the worst guard combination from last season. They join center Ted Karras and offensive tackles Orlando Brown Jr. and Amarius Mims.
It is the first time the offensive line hasn’t had an obvious weakness since…. Well since… Okay, it has been a LONG time since that was the case.
That brings the question: What was the best offensive line prior to this? Despite having some of the best offensive linemen of the decade, Cincinnati has always offset them with at least one glaring weak spot.
We can easily coast over the offensive lines that featured Alex Cappa and Cordell Volson (the aforementioned worst guard combo in the NFL), right tackle Bobby Hart (personally used to play a game called “drink if Hart didn’t block anyone” and I’d drink an okay amount on gameday) or Cedric Ogbuehi (why didn’t you just pay Whitworth).
But enough about the bad. Let’s look at some of the possible best real quick in chronological order:
2021
This offensive line started out as (from left to right) Jonah Williams, Quinton Spain, Trey Hopkins, Hakeem Adeniji, and Riley Reiff.
Many will scoff at this, as, despite this being their Super Bowl appearance season, it featured the worst offensive line in the Super Bowl, probably ever. However, that was mostly due to injury and lack of depth. None of these guys were particularly great, but they were all solid for the most part, aside from Adeniji, who eventually was replaced during the season.
2015
This is a serious contender. From left to right, we had Whitworth, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Kevin Zeitler, and Andre Smith.
Despite having Bodine, this has three of the best linemen the Bengals have had this millennium. Easily the best guard combination they’ve had in a long, long time. It made up for Bodine. Whitworth is a future Hall of Famer, and Andre Smith never reached his first round potential, but he was okay. Hard to believe we ever complained about him, considering the Hart era started after this.
This line made Jeremy Hill look like a star in his rookie season and had Andy Dalton looking like a possible MVP candidate prior to getting injured late in the season.
This would be my personal pick.
2005
It is kind of troubling to see the stars only seem to align every 10 years…
From left to right, we had Levi Jones, Eric Steinbach, Rich Braham, Bobbie Williams, and future Hall of Famer Willie Anderson
Anderson and Jones highlight this group. Braham is also the best center this team has had prior to Ted Karras. This group was the one that helped lead one of the most memorable offenses in recent Bengals’ history. Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson, T. J. Houshmandzadeh, and Rudi Johnson all went off this year. It unfortunately ended with Palmer’s injury in the Wild Card, but the subsequent years of struggles after this group fell apart certainly illustrate how underrated it was to the success of that 2005 team.
Who do you think the last good offensive line was?
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