Joe Burrow isn’t just comfortable with the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive line - he’s flat-out impressed.
After a first half of the season that has him sitting at the top of the quarterback leaderboard in EPA, completion percentage and passing touchdowns, while also ranking second in passing yards and passer rating, Burrow pointed directly to the men in front of him as a big reason the offense has taken off. He said the group up front is giving Cincinnati the kind of protection that opens everything else.
“The guys that we have, I mean, they’re lights out,” Burrow said on Wednesday. “They’re playing some of the best football in the league, and got to continue to get better and continue to improve. But we’re in a really good spot.”
That confidence shows up in the way the Bengals are attacking defenses. Burrow said the extra beat he’s getting in protection - even on second-and-a-half - is making it possible to push the ball downfield in a way that’s much tougher when pressure arrives early.
“You can find ways to do it, but it’s a lot harder,” Burrow said.
The Bengals come into Sunday night’s matchup with Pittsburgh riding a 34-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Madrid, and their offensive line has been graded by Pro Football Focus as the third-best pass-blocking unit in the league, trailing only the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.
Burrow also tied that protection to Cincinnati’s success on third down, where the plan has to be clean and the timing has to hold. For him, it starts with the line handling the chaos before the ball even comes out.
“We’ve got a really good scheme. Our guys are protecting at a really high level. That’s what third down is,” Burrow said.
“You’ve got to be able to pick up all the different pressures, and you got to be able to pass twists off, and you got to develop a protection plan that is going to pick up all those pressures and not make you throw hot.”
Yes, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins can win their matchups and turn 50-50 balls into 75-25. But Burrow made it clear that the whole thing still starts with the front five doing its job.
Now the Bengals turn to a huge divisional test at Paycor Stadium, where first place in the AFC North will be on the line against the Steelers. Pittsburgh won the first meeting 30-27 in Week 3, and Burrow expects a different challenge this time around, with disguised coverage and pressure packages likely part of the mix.
Even with that coming, Burrow’s message was simple: he trusts his offensive line to handle it and give Cincinnati a chance to change the result on Sunday night.
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Joe Burrows Home Life Now Comes With One Serious Downside
Joe Burrows off-field profile has grown right alongside his status as the Bengals franchise quarterback, and so has his property footprint in Cincinnati. After buying a home in the city in 2020, he added a $7.5 million estate overlooking the Ohio River in 2023, a place that reflected both his success and his decision to plant deeper roots in the area.
But the upside of that kind of home life comes with a clear downside. In December 2024, while Burrow was away, the estate was burglarized and roughly $300,000 worth of belongings were taken, an unsettling intrusion that prompted him to speak publicly about privacy concerns. For a player whose life is already lived under a microscope, the incident served as a reminder that even home can come with a price. [Read more 🡒]
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Orlando Brown Jr. Knows This Bengals-Steelers Game Feels Different
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Brown framed it as more than just another date on the schedule, pointing to how much the game means to the players and the fans who follow them. For Cincinnati, the focus starts up front, where the offensive line has to give Joe Burrow the kind of protection and rhythm that can hold up in a game with this much weight behind it. [Read more 🡒]