NFL
Cordell Volson (67) & Jackson Carman (79)
Sports Illustrated – Mike Santagata
By: Jalen Willingham
The Cincinnati Bengals’ week 1 preseason game versus the Arizona Cardinals showed that the starting left guard spot may not be as secure as we think. The battle between 2021 2nd round pick Jackson Carman and 2022 4th round pick Cordell Volson is going to be important to watch now. Carman entered training camp as the starting left guard. In the 36-23 loss to the Cardinals, Carmans performance was abysmal. He had a PFF pass blocking grade of 19.3. Carman was getting shown up by second and third string players.While the starters were pulled from the game early, Carman was still playing deep into the second quarter. He is also now dealing with an elbow injury as well. Given the fact that the Bengals spent a second round pick on him while Chiefs Creed Humphrey was still on the board, this is very concerning. His lack of progress so far reminds me of other offensive lineman drafted by the Bengals in the past such as Cedric Ogbuehi (2015) and Billy Price (2018).
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Volson on the other hand has shown signs of growth. He was a lead blocker for a touchdown as well. After a strong outing in the Cardinals game, Volson has now gotten reps with the 1’s in training camp. He spent time working 1 on 1 directly with newly acquired offensive tackle La’el Collins in camp as well. While I like what I’ve seen out of him so far, you can really only expect so much from him. He is a rookie and will make plenty of mistakes early on. Expectations should be kept to a minimum. Carman has now been running with the 2’s and 3’s.
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Even though I like the overall additions that the Bengals have made to the offensive line, the position group still needs more depth badly. All it takes is one weak link for everything to come crashing down, and we saw how that turned out for Cincinnati last season. Right now, that weak link is the uncertainty around the left guard spot. Outside of that, other offensive lineman such as Hakeem Adeniji, Trey Hill and Isaiah Prince have shown time and time again that they can’t be depended on I actually think the Bengals should make a push to re-sign former starter Quinton Spain who started all last season for them. Bringing him back could at least give the Bengals some stability at the guard position to open the season.
