For a Cincinnati Bengals team that must ensure they protect Joe Burrow moving forward, Joe Thuney is a must sign free agent.
Patriots offensive guard Joe Thuney, like Joe Burrow, is an Ohio native. The soon-to-be free-agent has spent his entire five-year career with New England, four of which he was blocking for one of the greatest players to ever touch the turf, Tom Brady.
Thuney has already won two Super Bowls in his young career and was the starting left guard in both of those Super Bowl appearances.
Joe Thuney is both reliable and a winner
Not only is Thuney an established winner in the league, but he also has the best ability a player can have: availability. Since his rookie year, he has started in every potential game. To make it even more impressive, He played 100 percent of New England’s offensive snaps in his first three seasons, 99 percent in 2019, and he has played in 96 percent of the Patriots’ offensive snaps this year.
For a Bengals team that has been shredded with injuries at every position this year, that type of durability alone should ensure they get a gameplan together to pursue Thuney. Cincinnati is a team in dire need of a player that can go and compete every week, and Thuney is just that player.
Joe Thuney is one of the leagues best offensive guards
In 2019, Thuney was Pro Football Focus’s third highest-rated guard in the AFC, only behind Quinton Nelson and Marshal Yanda.
In Thuney’s entire five year career, he has only had a total of 21 penalties against him. This becomes an even more impressive feat when you keep in mind that he has never missed a start in his career. He had his most penalized season his rookie year, as expected, and he has improved every year since. Last season Thuney had zero penalties against him.
This year, the rock-solid guard has started in all ten games and has only allowed one sack. On the flip side, Cincinnati is allowing 3.6 sacks per game , which is the second-most in the NFL. The Bengals need a guy who can cause that number to plummet.
Joe Burrow is hoping to have a better line.
Burrow has been hit more than anyone could have wanted. The Bengals were hoping that he would be able to survive one season under this horrific offensive line.
Unfortunately for the fans, the franchise, and especially Burrow, Cincinnati’s young gunslinger suffered a season-ending injury in week 11 against Washington. The offensive line collapsed once again, this time it was from both sides, causing him to take a nasty hit. The LSU product would end up tearing his ACL, MCL, and suffering additional damage to his knee.
MRI revealed more damage than anticipated: Bengals’ QB Joe Burrow tore his ACL, MCL, and suffered other structural issues in his knee as well, per @Ben_Baby and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 23, 2020
The offensive line was already a glaring issue to the fans and hopefully, Zac Taylor sees it the same way now. If Taylor didn’t think the line needed a lot of upgrades, I’m sure he’s been hit in the face with the fact that the fans were right and he will need to make big moves this upcoming offseason to protect Burrow.
Joe Thuney is the perfect player to replace the struggling Michael Jordan, who hasn’t show any signs of improvement since his rookie year. Cincinnati needs to show their face of the franchise, Burrow, that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure he won’t be hit like he was in his rookie year.