It’s not hard to figure out where the Bengals will be focusing a good deal of their attention this offseason.
Quarterback Joe Burrow was pressured into an incompletion by Aaron Donald on Cincinnati’s final offensive snap of the Super Bowl, which made for a fitting end to a year that saw him take 70 sacks between the regular season and playoffs. Add in other pressures, hits, and hurries and you had a quarterback who was under duress far too often.
Tight end C.J. Uzomah is one of many who believes that the team is going to spend a lot of time working to clean that up as they head into next season.
“You don’t want your quarterback to get hit one time, let alone how many times it was, not even counting the things that weren’t sacks but just hits in general,” Uzomah said. “It has been tough. You don’t want to see your franchise quarterback get hit as many times as he did. That is probably going to be a point of emphasis coming up.”
It’s hard to argue with Uzomah’s read and the team’s offseason emphasis will also affect him as he’s headed for free agency after showing he can be a reliable option in the passing game throughout the season. The Bengals have a lot of cap space at their disposal, so we’ll see if they earmark some for holding onto Uzomah while addressing the offensive line.