The Cincinnati Bengals are entering Week 3 of the 2025 season with a 2-0 record, but they’re doing so without franchise quarterback Joe Burrow, who was lost to what could be a season-ending turf toe injury. This is, unfortunately, familiar territory for the Bengals, as Burrow has missed large portions of three of his six seasons in the league with various injuries. He is also the most hit quarterback in the league.
Many Bengals fans are understandably upset with the team’s inability to protect the most important player on the team, but former Bengals offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth wants everyone to think about something before they start pointing fingers.
“I think it’s a dicey conversation because some of what makes him elite and special also is what exposes him to that kind of stuff,” he said, per Paul Dehner. “He is truly the old-school pocket NFL quarterback. I think it’s lazy for people to just blame the offensive line for these issues.
“Because yes, what I would say is in the years past, probably a couple years ago, they were probably rolling out there with a group that it was tough to see you protecting a guy who, that’s how he has to live. But I feel like the argument that they haven’t tried to is probably not a good one, because they’ve tried to.”
The Bengals used multiple draft picks in recent years on the guard position, and, as Whitworth pointed out, brought in free agents, including Alex Cappa. Whitworth believes the Bengals are trying, and people are using the excuse that the Bengals aren’t because the moves haven’t been “splashy.”
He also thinks Burrow and the Bengals could help improve the quarterback’s health by changing his style of play somewhat.
“I’d love to see Burrow in his identity start to think—Matthew Stafford,” he said. “In the sense of, man, I need to probably live in a world where the ball is coming out of my hand and maybe it’s sailing out of bounds, maybe it’s in the ground, but I can’t sit here and live in a world where I think I’m gonna run around all the time, just because it’s proven—not that you can’t—but it’s proven you have been a little injury-prone in situations like that.”
Whitworth left Cincinnati as a free agent, where he signed with the Rams and went on to be just as good as he was with the Bengals for 11 years, eventually helping the Rams defeat his former team in Super Bowl LVI. Considering he knows the franchise, the Brown family, and the game of football about as well as anyone, maybe the Bengals and Burrow should listen.
What do you think?
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