Orlando Brown Jr. has been fortunate to have the opportunity to play for some of the best organizations in the league since coming into the NFL as a third-round draft pick in 2018. He played his first three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, blocking for quarterback Lamar Jackson, before spending two years protecting Patrick Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now he will work with Joe Burrow after signing a four-year contract as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals. And he believes his time here will allow him to play to a style with which he is most comfortable, based on the results of the early installation process as the new left tackle, something he described as “very different for me”, as he told Dan Graziano on ESPN Live, according to Russ Heltman of Sports Illustrated. He goes on:
A lot of these drops by Patrick right here in the Super Bowl were similar to kind of what I’m going to see in Cincinnati, but so many different concepts that we run in Cincinnati compared to Kansas City from a pass standpoint with the receivers, you know, it’s gonna be a lot more firm. It’s gonna be a lot more quicker. I’ll be able to be a lot more aggressive in certain situations, just given the personnel and the way that they call plays.
That sounds a little more like his time in Baltimore, unsurprisingly, but the Bengals have also begun to focus more on quick-release passing as Burrow matures with his wide receivers. Quick sets do allow linemen to be more aggressive, accordingly since they can reasonably expect the ball to be out without fear of inadvertently pushing a defender into a position to make a play.
Now, Cincinnati is not going to run the ball the way the Ravens did while he was there—the Ravens are purportedly not even going to run that way going forward under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken—but that should also feature a more aggressive blocking approach than that in which he played with the Chiefs.
And that is in his wheelhouse, frankly. He’s not a great athlete, which is the precise reason why he fell to the third round in the first place. If he tested at even an average level, he would have easily gotten drafted in the second round, possibly even been a first-round candidate.
Since arriving in the NFL, Brown has largely demonstrated that his limited athleticism is not a hindrance to his game, or at least not to the extent that it prevents him from being a very good player. Still, it would be wise for any team that employs him to take steps aimed at allowing him to play to his strengths. That sounds like what the Bengals are planning to do after investing $64 million in him.
