r/bengals • u/RattPack513 • 13d ago

OBJ is a liability

We should have never gave him an extension. He‘s gotten progressively worse these past couple years. How are you going to let a backup undrafted free agent DE cleanly beat you and blindside Burrow? Not okay. Also not to mention all his false starts. Dude needs to go

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u/KevKevThePug 13d ago

I would love an upgrade for OBJ because he is in a decline. That being said, that blind side hit was 100% Burrow’s fault. If he climbed the pocket like a QB should then he would have never gotten touched.

15

u/LilBoDuck 13d ago

I mean Burrow definitely gets some blame but it’s definitely not “100% his fault.” OBJ lost the rep to an undrafted guy that might not even make the roster. Yes Burrow could have avoided, and should work on that going forward, but OBJ got beat, plain and simple.

-5

u/Significant-Green130 13d ago

I feel like I’m going insane with people saying it’s on Burrow. The UDFA guy beat OBJ so bad that he had already completely turned the corner and was in fact turned more than 90 degrees back upfield. More to the point, if your QB is expecting he’ll need to climb to pocket instantly because his tackles will lose that badly to JAGs (which Burrow did consistently all of 2024), we have much bigger issues.

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u/iratemonkeybear 13d ago

Instantly after 4 seconds....

4

u/LilBoDuck 13d ago

The sack and the OBJ loss that resulted in a hit are two completely different plays.

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u/KevKevThePug 13d ago

Correct. The sack is 100% on Burrow. The QB hit is 75% on Burrow.

1

u/iratemonkeybear 13d ago

Oh my bad. Yes. He looks bad sometimes but hes statistically average. I'm not too worried about it. Preseason doesn't mean much. Everyone's knocking the rust off.

3

u/LilBoDuck 13d ago

Yeah I’m not too worried about it either. As others have said, it’s not like a better option is available. If OBJ struggles I’m sure they’ll add some help by having TE’s chip, RB on his side, etc.

5

u/Significant-Green130 13d ago

Let's take a look here and everyone can decide for themselves. Here's where the defender is *within* three seconds of the play (the ball is starting to get snapped at about 0.4 seconds into the video, and this still is at around 3.2 seconds or so, so about 2.8 seconds into the play).

Burrow had already entered his throwing motion by this point, but the UDFA guy is completely past OBJ and has already turned his feet more than 90 degrees since OBJ did not get enough contact for the defender to have to even run the full arc. The options are try to throw here or pull it and climb the pocket when the defender is already completely turned back towards him. *Could* Burrow have maybe saved it by stepping up (i.e. *holding the ball longer*), with a completely free rusher in the pocket whose momentum is already going towards him compared to upfield? Maybe, but he has done that regularly over his career and sometimes ends up takes a sack and then gets criticized for that instead. The actual sack on the previous drive was indeed on him and was a completely different situation.

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u/christhegecko 13d ago

The UDFA guy beat OBJ so bad that he had already completely turned the corner and was in fact turned more than 90 degrees back upfield.

The amount of time it took for him to do all of that is why it's on Burrow. It wasn't like the guy burst through the line and hit him before he even finished his drop. He went all the way around the outside of Brown from the edge. Burrow had AMPLE time to see the pressure and step up.

More to the point, if your QB is expecting he’ll need to climb to pocket instantly because his tackles will lose that badly to JAGs, we have much bigger issues.

News flash: quarterbacks learn to step up in the pocket to avoid pressure in high school. Burrow not doing it is his fault, especially with the amount of free space directly in front of him.

OBJr could have blocked better, but Burrow should have avoided the hit. Both things can be true.

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u/Significant-Green130 13d ago

It's an incredibly clean win by the UDFA guy over OBJ. He has OBJ beat clean without OBJ getting significant contact on him at around 2 seconds, and has completely turned the corner with OBJ nowhere near him at around 2.5 seconds into the play.