Bengals offense could be ‘unbelievable’ - with one key change
Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and Yahoo Sports fantasy analyst Matt Harmon discuss how Cincinnati can reach an elite level on offense with a strategy move that could unlock Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins. Check out the full conversation on "Football 301" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
What do you say about these guys?
If all of their, if their big four are healthy, 'cause I do think Chase Brown has made it a big four at this point- Ooh this offense is gonna be unbelievable.
You know- Yeah I think it's gonna be great.
I think the biggest thing for us to talk about, and look, yeah, Joe Burrow's good.
Ja'Marr Chase is, in my- I would rank as the best receiver in the league.
And Tee Higgins is great.
Obviously, when those guys are healthy, the passing game is gonna be unbelievable.
I think Chase Brown has really turned into, I mean, at worst, like, a good, good starting running back in the NFL.
Mm-hmm.
I kinda wish they had We'll see about Eric Ebron being healthy at tight end, maybe that would, I, I think actually bring them a little something, something- Yeah, I agree 'cause Mike Gesicki is base- Mike Gesicki is the, for all the people that have wanted me to chart tight ends over the years, nobody actually asks for the Mike Gesicki reception perception chart, but of all the tight ends that would actually probably qualify- Yeah as maybe the closest thing to a wide out, Mike Gesicki is that guy.
So getting a real deal in line tight end if Eric Ebron is healthy would be cool, 'cause I do kinda wish they had a third receiving dimension, but that's essentially, like That's, that's first world problems when your top two receivers are Ja'Marr Chase and, and Tee Higgins.
Yeah, this offense, it's like, if healthy, which is always the big thing, if, if, if, if, if, it's, it, it's one of the It's such a good offense.
Like, you know, Burrow's a machine.
They're hyper efficient.
I hope they, you know, I think they, run game-wise and pass game-wise, and that's some of it 'cause they face so much cover too, they get the highest rate of cloud coverage in the NFL, which is their receivers.
It's a receiver stat.
That's a Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins stat.
Defenses are gonna keep doing it because when they face cloud, they're, they're a little worse.
Like, they're, they're not as good, not as explosive.
And I, I mentioned this on Minas Pod and I kinda wanna reiterate it, is that I thought that, you know, they're good in situations, third down, red zone, all that, is that they kinda have put a cap on themselves.
If you remember those early Bengals teams and even LSU Joe Burrow, they ran a lot of 989, which is the two verticals and the middle route, middle read route, and that's just a, "We have better players than you and a better quarterback than you," kinda play.
So I think they need to re-add some of the deep dropbacks, those deep seven-step dropbacks to their offense.
If Joe Burrow doesn't wanna do play action and turn his back to the defense, that's the way he has to do it.
And I think they have the offense line that can do it, and I think they have the receivers that can do it, and I think they have the quarterback to do it, so I think they just have to kinda, like, rebuild that section of the playbook, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
And I think that can put them over the top, because everything else is pretty dang good.
I agree with you, the O line's underrated and I think the run game's actually pretty dang solid.
It's a, it was top 10 run game last year, as far as just efficiency.
So, right there with you being a Bengal.
Sixth in EPA per play, yep.
Sixth in rushing EPA.
Yeah.
A- and EPA.
Yeah, so I, yeah, we had the same logic here- Yeah essentially, which is just, like, if they can ever And I, to me, I, I think some of it is, like, what the quarterback does and doesn't wanna do.
If they can ever push, like, Joe to live in a bit of a different world offensively, some of the things you highlighted there- Yeah you really broke this down, I think they would go from fifth to, like, number one potentially.
So that, that's kinda their- Locked in top three.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Locked in top three.
That's the only thing that was kinda keeping them- Yeah at five for me.
