NFL Analyst Projects Bengals Offensive Line as One of Worst in League Despite Returning All 5 Starters

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said the current offensive line is the best he’s had in his time with the team and called the return of all five starters a big advantage.

But Warren Sharp, of SharpFootballAnalysis.com, projects the Cincinnati offensive line to be one of the worst in the league.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Sharp ranked the offensive lines from 1 to 32 and put the Bengals at No. 28.

ranking the best offensive lines

1. Denver Broncos
2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Buffalo Bills
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
5. Los Angeles Rams
6. Chicago Bears
7. San Francisco 49ers
8. Los Angeles Chargers
9. Seattle Seahawks
10. Atlanta Falcons
11. Indianapolis Colts
12. Carolina…
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 8, 2026

That seemed low, and it was suggested that Sharp must see multiple regression candidates among the Bengals’ starting five of Orlando Brown Jr., Dylan Fairchild, Ted Karras, Dalton Risner and Amarius Mims.

But Sharp, who specializes in inventing custom, predictive NFL analytics and visualized data, said that was not the case.

He had the Bengals as the No. 28 offensive line last year in pass block win rate, so no regression was needed to land there again in 2026.

“Bengals ranked #28 in pass block win rate last year,” he responded. “Allowed #3 most pressure, #2 most non-blitz pressure, #7 shortest time-to-sack. RB runs in primary OL combo (Brown-Fairchild-Karras-Risner-Mims): 3.9 YPC, -0.09 EPA/rush, 12.8% stuff rate, 1.29 YBC/att, which rank (respectively): #26, #25, #4, #14.

“I think they can play better than this in 2026, but just rolling back 2025 would result in another bottom-10 result.”

A big issue with season-long rankings is that they ignore half-season splits, and the Bengals offensive line certainly improved in the second half of the season, as one might expect with a first-year position coach and a rookie start in Fairchild.

There also was the disastrous three-game starting stint by Jake Browning after Joe Burrow went down with the toe injury, and the instant immersion, learning curve of adding Joe Flacco as the starter after the team conceded Browning wasn’t the answer.

Even taking the trajectory out of the equation, ESPN ranked the Bengals 10th in its run block win rate metric.

ESPN had Cincinnati 28th in pass block win rate, but again, that’s a season-long metric and the improvement was noticeable in the second half of the season.

It’s a big reason why the front office was comfortable running it back with the same five starters.

Assuming there are no injuries in training camp, the Bengals will start the same five offensive lineman in a season opener that they did in the previous season finale for the first time since 2010.

Much focus this offseason has been on the defense having a lot to prove after a terrible 2025 season.

But it’s clear Sharp and others view the offensive line in the same light, and that group will be tested right off the bat with two of their first three games against problematic defensive lines in Houston and Pittsburgh.

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