Cincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. gutted through a broken fibula down the stretch of the 2024 season as the team fought for a playoff berth. That was a gutsy effort, but it may have set the stage for a swifter decline than anticipated.
Brown wasn't quite right last year, either, or at least he didn't play to the Pro Bowl level that he showed during his time in Baltimore and Kansas City.
Granted, the Joe Burrow-led passing attack in Cincinnati has put the Bengals' offensive line in a lot of true pass sets. Week 1 should see more of an under-center running game type of plan against Tampa Bay, but Bucs pass rusher Yaya Diaby still figures to give Brown all he can handle.
Orlando's downward stock is a quiet red flag for Bengals offensive line
I'm not big on having PFF grades encapsulate the totality of a football player. That said, it's a decent barometer. Orlando Brown Jr. did rank 61st our of 84 qualifying offensive tackles by their metrics in 2025. That's no bueno, yo.
Here's what ESPN's Ben Baby reported about Brown in a recent preview piece regarding his aforementioned broken leg, and the lack of viable tackle options behind OBJ:
"Last year, Orlando Brown Jr. was still feeling the effects of a broken leg he suffered in 2024. He is looking for a return to pre-injury form at LT. And if he or starter Amarius Mims goes down, the depth will be tested. The preseason didn't yield a true winner for the swing tackle job. The Bengals claimed Myles Hinton on waivers to potentially fill that role."
When Lions undrafted rookie Eric O'Neill beat Brown like a drum on one rep in the preseason opener that got Burrow absolutely smoked, my lingering suspicions about Joe Shiesty's blind-side protection were confirmed.
Brown is a great locker room guy. He's a serviceable starter. I just wonder how good he still is. His PFF annual rankings among offensive tackles in recent years are as follows:
- 2022: 19th/81
- 2023 (first season in Cincinnati): 45th/81
- 2024: 66th/81
- 2025: 61st/84
Diaby is better than the raw sack numbers suggest
Bengals fans might consider Orlando Brown Jr.'s four-time Pro Bowl pedigree, look at Yaya Diaby's box score sack numbers (19 in three seasons), and think, "Meh, not that worried!"
Welp, last season, Diaby's pass rush win rate by PFF's count was 17.4%. Wanna see what the top eight of that list looks like among edge defenders who played at least 50% of pass rush snaps? Lemme show ya:
- Will Anderson Jr. — 26.2%
- Myles Garrett — 24.6%
- Aidan Hutchinson — 22.9%
- Micah Parsons — 22.6%
- Danielle Hunter — 20.6%
- Josh Hines-Allen — 19.2%
- Jaelan Phillips — 18.8%
- Yaya Diaby — 17.4%
I mean...can't say I saw "Yaya Diaby" coming when I first tried to sort this list of advanced pass rushing metrics.
While I'm not as worried about the short-armed Rueben Bain Jr. aligning opposite ascending Bengals right tackle Amarius Mims, this Diaby-Brown duel could be very problematic.
Plus, the Bucs have Al-Quadin Muhammad (11 sacks for the Lions last year) in the rotation, along with a couple other solid players in Anthony Nelson and David Walker. The latter missed all of his 2025 rookie campaign but is very explosive.
Will Brown deliver as Joe Burrow's blind side protector?
I wish the answer to this question wasn't so complicated, or leaning toward, "No."
Orlando Brown Jr. should be OK for the 2026 season. However, he negotiated his own three-year contract extension this offseason. I don't know that he makes it through the end of the deal, never mind to next season before the Bengals seek an upgrade.
The one saving grace is that Diaby's hard-charging nature can cause him to overpursue. He's a very disruptive force, yet his sack numbers are lower than they should be. He had a 20.4% missed tackle rate in 2025.
If Brown can get after Diaby a bit in the run game, and the Bengals aren't put in so many obvious pass sets, that's a winning formula. Should this become a Burrow-Baker Mayfield shootout, though, Diaby could have his way with Brown more than a few times — and once again put Joe Brrr in harm's way.
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