Orlando Brown Jr. used Thursday’s practice against the Bears to steady the conversation around Cincinnati’s offensive line.
After a rough preseason outing last week against Detroit’s backups, the Bengals’ left tackle got his first extended run against first-string competition and, by the accounts coming out of practice, looked far more like himself. Radio play-by-play voice Dan Hoard said Brown held up well throughout the morning, pointing to a strong showing in pass-rush work and solid protection for Joe Burrow on most throws.
“I thought Orlando Brown Jr. had a good day,” Hoard posted on X. “He won both of his reps in one-on-one pass rush drills, and Burrow had solid protection on most of his passing attempts.”
Brown was coming off a difficult night in the preseason, when he received a 43.1 Pro Football Focus grade against the Lions and allowed one pressure and one quarterback hit. Against Chicago, though, he said the work went the other way.
“So much of training camp is about knocking the rust off," said Brown after the practice. “I feel really confident where I'm at, and I feel like I dominated today in pass protection. One of the reasons why they pay me is for what I do one-on-one.”
That bounce-back mattered because Cincinnati is bringing back all five starting linemen from last season. The spots are set, and right now the focus is on getting the group synced up and sharp.
Burrow still had to deal with some heat in the pocket against the Bears, but he and the offense kept moving the ball. Afterward, Burrow said facing a different defense was useful, even with the usual practice-day limitations.
"Yeah, it's nice to just go up against somebody different," Burrow said after the outing. "It's always tough because you're not game planning, and offense is all about calling the right play into the right look. So that can be frustrating at times in practice when you go up there, and you don't necessarily have all the answers at your disposal, but you go, and you try to make it work and try to get better at all the different things that you're working on.
"Like we said earlier, the under center play action stuff. We know we can drop back and throw it.
That's what we do best. But it's been nice to be able to work on some things that we haven't worked on in the past and invest in it, and it'll pay off in the long run."
Brown, Burrow and the rest of the Bengals are off Friday before the backups take on the Bears at Paycor Stadium in the next preseason game Saturday night.
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