Joe Burrow hasn’t thrown an offensive lineman under the bus in his career, and that shielding continued on Wednesday.
The Bengals passer had an extended defense ready for Orlando Brown Jr., who’s appeared to have struggled across the first two games of the Bengals’ season.
Brown has a 50 overall Pro Football Focus grade this season, which ranks 20th out of 21 players to see snaps so far. He earned a 44 overall grade on Sunday en route to the Bengals 20-6 win, with four pressures and three sacks credited to him.
“I think Orlando was pretty good on Sunday,” Burrow told the media at his press conference. “There were a couple sacks that weren’t in his control at the end of the day. There are a lot of different things that go into pass protection that aren’t just on the offensive line, and that’s what you don’t see in the media. There are very intricate details of pass protection, and a guy expecting help here, a guy expecting help from a different spot, and a lot of different things that go into it that we would never explain to you guys, and then it’s left up to interpretation, and that’s how football works, and that’s the lineman position at the end of the day.
“That is a thankless job from the exterior. So you try to pump those guys up as much as you can in the building. But I really think they were pretty good. They were pretty good on Sunday. I could have been better in a couple spots. They certainly could have been better in a couple of spots, and the guys helping them could have been better in a couple.”
Brown’s play has declined in recent seasons steadily, but he could bounce back in Week 3 and beyond. The veteran allowed just nine sacks total in 2025, racking up a third of that tally on Sunday alone, and he hasn’t eclipsed a 61 overall season grade since hitting 66.1 in his first Bengals season back in 2023.
The 30-year-old is a consistent leader on the offensive line and has done a lot to bring the whole group together after a full offseason. Time will tell if he can turn around a poor start for his standards.
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