Cincinnati Bengals 2024 Offensive Line Preview Part 3: Assessing Their Additions (2024)

The 2024 offseason has been exciting for me as an offensive line enthusiast. The Bengals are still leaning toward their aggressive mindset relative to building their offensive line room, and it shows.

For the last few seasons, we have all heard the cries for improvement or upgrades up front, and it finally feels as though they are breaking into a new tier of trench play. The improvement occured this offseason after they nade several additions to the room. Whether through free agency or the draft, the Bengals are doing whatever they can to improve their offensive line.

The first big (no pun intended) offensive line addition was veteran Trent Brown, who is coming off a tough season in New England. Brown is an exciting addition, especially with Orlando Brown Jr. on the other side. Many people are excited to have similar players on the bookends of this line. However, the two Browns are vastly different on film. Trent is a much more athletic tackle who knows how to win with leverage and makes blocks look much more effortless. It will be interesting to see how these two tackles play off each other and what that does for the pocket in passing situations. However, I am most excited to see how big of a jump the run game will take with Brown joining this group.

The Bengals were able to “double dip” in a sense after grabbing Amarius Mims (OT, Georgia) in the first round of the draft to complete the newly named “Cincinnati Skyline.” He is another supersized, highly athletic offensive tackle whose development will be fun to watch.

The Bengals' current offensive line situation should be ideal for Mims coming into the league. He struggled to stay on the field consistently at Georgia and has limited experience coming out of college. Having two monsters in Orlando and Trent to mentor Mims through his first season will be huge for the rookie. Not being forced to start as a rookie will be a positive for setting his foundation and allowing him to take his time to develop. It will be exciting to see when Mims can land that starting role for this team, but until then, I expect him to maximize his time in that auxiliary role.

The Bengaks took Miami center Matt Lee in the seventh round of this year's draft. I thought he would have a hard time finding his way into the third round, but ultimately be an early day three pick. Instead, he slipped to the seventh round, which makes him one of the Bengals' best draft picks.

Lee was a productive player throughout college, though a bit undersized, but his background in competitive powerlifting helps make up for the lack of size. He should be able to compete early for Trey Hill’s backup role and potentially step up to be the Bengals’ center of the future at some point. I am excited to follow Lee’s path and career moving forward.

There have been some fun additions to the Bengals’ offensive line room this offseason. Whether it is the massive, experienced veteran that helps raise the group’s floor or one of these rookies looking to break through, there is much to be excited about. My main focus this offseason has been, “Are the Bengals improving for today or tomorrow?” It appears that they are actually addressing both parts of that question. They solidified their starting five and added solid, young players to the room. This room seems to be heading in the right direction.

Check out the first two parts of our Bengals offensive line series below: