For those closely following along with the Cincinnati Bengals‘ training camp, you’ll know that so far, the offense has not looked good at all. That honestly might be an understatement and this isn’t a new trend with this team so far.
The defense has been dominating throughout the early portions of camp to the point that the offense hasn’t been able to get anything done. Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic tweeted after Tuesday’s practice that “Absolutely nothing happened in the passing game.” and he wasn’t overexaggerating with that statement.
As he notes in the tweet below, Joe Burrow threw just one pass 10+ yards on Tuesday. This obviously isn’t setting well with Bengals fans who are slowly turning into panic mode.
#Bengals in pads today. That’s different. Not much else has changed from what we’ve seen. Another dominant day by the defense.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) August 3, 2021
Absolutely nothing happening in the passing game. Trey Hendrickson with a pick of Burrow and only one completion of any note beyond 10 yards from him.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ offense had another rough day at the office.
The offensive line has struggled and that’s definitely been a big reason for the problems on offense. The Bengals are putting different guys in along the offensive line to see what unit gels the best and so far, it’s not working out too well.
Tuesday’s starters consisted of (from left to right) Jonah Williams, Michael Jordan, Billy Price, Jackson Carman, and D’Ante Smith. We know this won’t be the starting group when the season begins, as Trey Hopkins will be at center and Riley Reiff will start at right tackle. Reiff didn’t practice after limping off the field on Monday so that put rookie Smith in the starting five instead.
It didn’t go well. Smith was destroyed by Sam Hubbard over and over again and it showed that he’s nowhere near ready to be a starter, which is okay. He’s a fourth-round rookie and the Bengals didn’t plan to start him this year.
Sam Hubbard continues to win the matchup with Smith, blowing up a play in a second.
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) August 3, 2021
Since Burrow obviously wasn’t sacked, he stayed up to make a throw.
Trey Hendrickson picked it off.
Tweets like the one above from Charlie Goldsmith sum up how the past few camps have gone for the offense. Burrow might not have been sacked on this particular play, but he threw an easy interception for newcomer Trey Hendrickson, who was waiting in the wings.
Obviously, it’s just practice but at what point do the offensive woes become more of a talking point? The offensive line isn’t looking any better than it did last year and considering this season’s success hinges on Joe Burrow remaining healthy, this isn’t exactly a good look as we inch closer to the start of the season.
As of now, the Bengals have been trying out different offensive lines and it hasn’t been working. The poor performance from the offense is getting hard to ignore but there’s still time for this group to figure things out and turn it around before the season begins next month.