CINCINNATI — When will Joe Burrow get some help? That's been the question on Bengals fans' minds since their star quarterback first tore his ACL and MCL during his rookie season.
Since coming to Cincinnati, Burrow has dealt with a knee injury that required surgery, a torn wrist ligament that required surgery and now turf toe that requires surgery.
Offensive line struggles
While there is a certain amount of luck connected to injuries, all three of Burrow's happened while getting hit by a defensive lineman crashing into the pocket.
That information might not shock fans who have watched the Bengals' offensive line since Burrow's arrival. According to ESPN research, this is where the Bengals' pass protection has ranked since drafting their franchise QB:
- 29th in 2020
- 30th in 2021
- 30th in 2022
- 27th in 2023
- 32nd in 2024
- 28th in 2025
As NFL analyst Warren Sharp said in his Bengals season preview, "no other team comes close to that level of sustained failure."
In the years since drafting Burrow, the Bengals have attempted to address their offensive line — nabbing former Super Bowl champs Ted Karras and Orlando Brown Jr. and drafting first-round pick Amarius Mims. However, a look at Pro Football Focus shows the Bengals' 2025 offensive line has only one player (Brown Jr.) with an above-average overall grade.
That means Burrow once again entered a season with a line that struggles to protect him.
Scheme issues
On top of Cincinnati's offensive line problem, the team's scheme under head coach Zac Taylor could also have something to do with why Burrow is hit so often.
Despite knowing that the line struggles with pass protection, Taylor's offenses almost always feature Burrow in shotgun, where the quarterback stands a few yards behind center.
The team also rarely puts a wide receiver in motion before the snap, and hardly ever fakes the ball to the running back.
Sharp Football Analysis shows that among all 38 NFL quarterbacks with at least 750 dropbacks since 2021, Burrow ranks third in shotgun rate, 30th in motion rate and 35th in play action rate.
By leaving Burrow in shotgun with barely any pre-snap motion or play action, the Bengals aren't disguising anything. Defenses don't have to respect the run and (because of how bad the line is) they're able to get straight to the quarterback before he's even able to complete his dropback.
You can find an easy explainer on why play-action passes are important here.
Of course, you might respond to this information by saying who cares? The team went to the Super Bowl in 2021, Chase achieved the receiving triple crown and Burrow led the league in passing yards and touchdowns last season. All of that happened with a bad offensive line and Burrow in almost exclusively shotgun.
In fact, that's basically what Taylor said when asked if the team was going to start to "rethink" how to protect Burrow after another big injury.
"I understand where people are gonna come from," Taylor said. "It's gonna be very attacking of us and our style of play that's got us to a Super Bowl, an AFC championship, two division titles and won a lot of games for us."
And he's right. They have won a lot. But Sharp Football Analysis shows they're also actively hurting Burrow.
Sharp said in his Bengals preview that only one team in the league has allowed more quick pressures to its quarterback since 2021, and no other team has allowed more hits within 2.5 seconds than the Bengals.
"No quarterback has been hit quicker or more violently than Joe Burrow," Sharp said.
So, with a poor offensive line and a quarterback who has already dealt with two season-ending injuries in his short NFL career, Cincinnati should be doing everything it can to protect Burrow and force defenses to respect a run game that should be better than in previous seasons.
What could help?
Taylor might be able to take some inspiration from the man he worked under right before coming to Cincinnati.
Sean McVay, considered one of the best offensive minds in the game, loves utilizing play action and pre-snap motion.
When quarterback Matthew Stafford first arrived in Los Angeles in 2021, McVay kept him mostly in shotgun with little play-action. That has a lot to do with Stafford's talent as a passer, the Rams' great offensive line and their struggling running game.
Since then, the Rams offense has continued to evolve. In 2024, Los Angeles had a great running back and an offensive line that struggled at the start of the season due to injuries and suspensions. But that didn't stop them from succeeding.
The Rams ranked second in the league in motion rate and play-action rate in 2024 per NFL Analytics, making defenders' lives more difficult and allowing Matthew Stafford to continue to succeed.
And while Jake Browning is a completely different quarterback that NFL defenses don't respect as much as Burrow, the Bengals appear to have him both under center and using play action more than Burrow — something that helped them in Sunday's game.
