The Bengals left Saturday night with a preseason win and, apparently, another reason to keep staring at the backup offensive line.
Cincinnati beat Chicago 27-9 to move to 2-0 in the preseason, and the defense did its part in a big way. The Bears never reached the end zone, even with Chicago’s starters on the field while the Bengals sat theirs. Josh Johnson and Sean Clifford each found the end zone for Cincinnati, too.
But the bigger takeaway may have come up front.
The Bengals’ starting five is set - Orlando Brown Jr, Dylan Fairchild, Ted Karras, Dalton Risner, and Amarius Mims all sat out Week 2 of the preseason - so the concern isn’t with the first group. The issue is the depth behind them, especially at swing tackle.
Cody Ford has filled that role for the past three years, and he’s even played every spot on the line except center. On Saturday night, he started at right guard and had a rough showing, particularly in pass protection, where PFF gave him a 0.0.
That performance wasn’t an outlier, either. Multiple reports have described Ford’s camp as inconsistent at best, and he still hasn’t looked like a reliable answer behind Brown and Mims, both of whom are massive tackles who have missed games for Cincinnati in the past.
Asked about the situation by the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway, Zac Taylor said the Bengals aren’t locked into anything yet.
“I think that’s still pretty open,” he said, per Conway. “I think there’s guys we’re still looking at, and I wouldn’t say there’s any decision we’ve made there.”
Cincinnati has done plenty of heavy lifting on defense this offseason, bringing in Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook, and others, while also adding talent in the draft. What they have not really done is fix the offensive line depth.
They still have time, and the roster churn that comes with final cuts should give them options. There will be tackles available soon, and the Bengals should be able to find someone who can handle the job.
If they want to get ahead of it, though, a trade for a backup offensive tackle would also make sense.
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