Does The Orlando Brown Signing Edge The Bengals Past The Chiefs In 2023?

By Andy Davies

In the NFL, it often comes down to fine details.

Most teams in the league have had a Super Bowl window at some point in their history. The Cincinnati Bengals are in theirs at the moment, and they may have just made a signing that takes them the next step.

The Impact Of Brown

Credit: Sam Kraft (Associated Press)

On March 17th 2023, the Bengals officially confirmed the signing of former Chiefs offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr on a four-year deal.

They signed the four-time Pro Bowler after a successful spell in Kansas City, where he won a Super Bowl in February. With a new team, could he be about to reach another Super Bowl?

When the Chiefs lost Super Bowl 55 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the main takeaway from that defeat was the team’s need to upgrade their offensive line to protect quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Brown signed just a couple of months later, and made an instant impact.

In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Mahomes was one of the least sacked quarterbacks in the league; out of quarterbacks who started ten games or more, only six were sacked less in 2021, and eight in 2022.

Mahomes was only sacked in one of the Chiefs’ three games this postseason as they went on to lift the Lombardi

Bengals One-Up The Chiefs?

Despite the Super Bowl ring, Brown was allowed to test the market this Summer as a free agent. Ultimately, he found a new home, and was replaced with former Jacksonville Jaguars OT Jawaan Taylor.

If Brown was considered too expensive to keep around, then the signing of Taylor makes little sense. Brown Jr. signed a 4 year, $64m contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, including $31m guaranteed. Less than three days later, Taylor signed a 4 year, $80m deal with the Chiefs, with $60m guaranteed. Every way you look at it, Jawaan Taylor’s contract is bigger.

Taylor, whilst a good player, has not once been recognised by his peers with a Pro Bowl vote. This is a stark contrast to the aforementioned four that Brown has received.

Just a year after the lack of protection of Mahomes was highlighted in Super Bowl 55, the lack of protection for Burrow was the main takeaway of their defeat to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 56.

There was improvement, with Burrow sacked ten times less in 2022 than in 2021, going from the most sacked quarterback to the sixth most. However, there was still improvement needed. The Bengals lost to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship, but this move could see the result flipped.   

The Chiefs will most likely be absolutely fine, but they could see a short term detrimental effect in 2023. Meanwhile, this move could help the Bengals finally achieve what they have always wanted, their first ever Super Bowl.

ANDY DAVIES

NFL ANALYST

A current Sports Journalism masters student, Andy has been writing NFL articles since January 2020. Originally from Wales, Andy also writes for pro football mania and dolphins talk, as well as appearing on podcasts and videos for euro tripz. find him on twitter @andydaviessport.

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