Most improved position groups from the 2022 NFL offseason:

New Bengals offensive tackle La'el Collins

Offensive line – Cincinnati Bengals

Additions: La’el Collins, Ted Karras, Alex Cappa & Cordell Volson

Departures: Quinton Spain, Trey Hopkins & Fred Johnson

The Bengals were able to put together an unlikely run all the way to the Super Bowl thanks to the clutch play of quarterback Joe Burrow. Along with a dangerous group of skill-position defense that put together effective gameplans in every single round of the postseason. They had an understanding of how to get the opposing team out of their comfort zone. The unit that often held them back in spots and ended up being the reason, they weren’t able to finish the job was the offensive line failing to keep their QB upright. If you remember last year's Super Bowl, Burrow didn’t have enough time to hit Ja’Marr Chase streaking up the sideline on the final play.

You can point to a lot of different statistics to illustrate Cincinnati’s issues in protection. Not only was Burrow sacked more than any other signal-caller in the NFL during the regular season (51 times). They also had two games in the playoffs where they surrendered nine and seven sacks against the Titans and Rams. My favorite way to look at it is this – Joe Burrow was sacked the eighth-most times among passers, despite being 24th in pocket time, meaning he routinely got the ball out quickly. Yet he still took several big hits pretty much every game. The front-office finally decided to protect their most important asset after he already tore a couple of ligaments as a rookie when he had one of his linemen thrown at his legs.

Free agency for the Bengals started with fortifying the interior with veteran player Alex Cappa – a rugged guard who helped create vertical movement for the Buccaneers’ inside zone/duo-based approach. Another veteran, Ted Karras, who after being a backup in New England for the first three years of his career, started all but four games played over the latter three, with a one-year stint in Miami mixed in. He returned to Foxborough, having put together quality play at center and then left guard last season. Subsequently once La’el Collins was released by the Cowboys after missing all of 2020 with a hip injury. He was suspended for five games last season due to claiming he wouldn’t play in Dallas anymore. The Bengals jumped on the opportunity to get this major upgrade at right tackle with a Pro Bowl-level performer, since this has been a sore spot for them for several years now. Finally, they took one of my favorite prospects in this draft with North Dakota State’s Cordell Volson, who helped the Bison win a national championship and rush for 272+ yards per game in all but one of his seasons there, as a stalwart on the right edge.

Not only was Cincinnati’s O-line bad last season, even when they had their best five. They were also shuffling people in and out, and of the 11 players the team has used for 50 or more snaps, seven of them received sub-58.0 grades from Pro Football Focus. Despite getting beaten by Aaron Donald for a hit on Burrow on that final offensive play in the Super Bowl, Quinton Spain is a loss on the left side next to Jonah Williams. The other two guys they didn’t bring back should be more so default options than designated starters. No matter how they end up deploying their new additions, they should have three significant upgrades along the front. While they may want to give last year’s second-round pick Jackson Carman another chance, he did show the ability to uproot defenders out of gaps in the run game, but allowed rushers to get around him at too high a rate. That way Volson would be an ideal sixth man, with the ability to jump in at every spot other than center. Volson could most likely and eventually take over one of those guard spots. I would expect Zac Taylor to leave wide zone runs to some degree, however, with more gap-scheme maulers being brought in.

Also considered: New York Giants & Carolina Panthers