It was a badly kept secret going into the regular season that the Cincinnati Bengals would struggle in the offensive trenches.
The line suffered a pair of retirements and lost first-round pick Jonah Williams to injury early on, all atop a new coaching staff coming in and mixing things up.
How bad have things been? Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus graded out the line as 31st in the NFL ahead of only Miami through three weeks:
It sounded like bad news for Bengals fans when Trey Hopkins beat out last year’s first-rounder Billy Price for the center job in training camp, but as it turns out, Hopkins is far and away the best player on their line. He’s earned a 75.5 overall grade so far, good enough for fourth among all centers in the NFL.
The good news? Hopkins looks good at center and Price just stepped in and played well at left guard with the rookie Michael Jordan out. Jordan isn’t going to be out much longer and they’re still hoping Williams can come back this year, too.
There isn’t much immediate relief coming to help the line, barring an acquisition. But with more time together and the coaches properly adjusting to the play up front, the Bengals might be able to scratch and claw out of this hole they’ve dug up front.
