The Cincinnati Bengals’ Cordell Volson beat out Jackson Carman, a 2021 second-round draft pick, for the starting left guard position a year ago during his rookie season. Granted, he did not play particularly well—nor did Carman when he had the opportunity—but players always have an opportunity to make a big jump in year two.
And Volson’s new left tackle believes in him, as least when he’s talking to reporters. Via the team’s website, Orlando Brown Jr. said his teammate has “Pro Bowl potential with his size and mental makeup”, a statement that ignores his actual performance.
Of course, Brown was in the AFC West last year with the Kansas City Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl ring while blocking for Patrick Mahomes. Now he gets to block for Joe Burrow, not exactly a huge step down, but Volson clearly has a lot of work to do before he can be considered for a Pro Bowl.
“I think he really uses his height to his advantage. His mindset and his length are two things that are really going to separate him in the long run”, Brown insists. “I think he has the natural talent and ability to become one of the best in the league at what he does”.
A fourth-round pick out of North Dakota St. last year, Volson played in and started 16 games as a rookie last season. Mind you, the Bengals only officially played 16 games, so he ended up logging every single snap for the offense last year.
One hopes for his sake that Brown will prove to be more beneficial as a partner on the left side than was Jonah Williams, whom the Bengals thought of highly enough to go out and sign Brown to a $16 million per year contract to replace him.
One thing Brown can offer is insights over his years of playing, including his time spent with one of the great guards of the past couple of decades, Marshal Yanda of the Baltimore Ravens. And Volson said he has been hearing those stories, “tips on how those guys would do some things. He’ll say, ‘Marshal did this’, or ‘Joe [Thuney] did that’. It adds tools to the toolbox and maybe it works for me and maybe it doesn’t”.
Of course, not everything that a Marshal Yanda or a Joe Thuney is or was able to do is going to be easily replicated by a relatively unremarkable replacement-level second-year starting left guard. But time is on Volson’s side. David DeCastro didn’t look too remarkable in his first couple of seasons.
