{"id":409408,"date":"2026-09-24T16:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/409408\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:40:13","slug":"joe-burrows-backing-of-orlando-brown-jr-will-be-put-to-the-test-with-familiar-foe-preparing-to-test-him-more-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/409408\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Burrow’s backing of Orlando Brown Jr. will be put to the test with familiar foe preparing to test him more than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\tHome<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNFL<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\/<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCincinnati Bengals<\/a><\/p>\n

Cincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. received some encouraging words from quarterback Joe Burrow. Those words need to be backed up with Pittsburgh Steelers EDGE T.J. Watt looking to go up against him more than ever on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Orlando
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. (75) will go up against Pittsburgh Steelers EDGE T.J. Watt (90) in NFL Week 3
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSam Greene\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images \u2013 Barry Reeger-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough job when roughly 10% of what you do completely overshadows the other 90%. That is what an offensive lineman faces after a bad game in the NFL. It\u2019s exactly what Cincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. has been dealing with over the last several days.<\/p>\n

Brown had a rough game last Sunday against the Houston Texans<\/a>. He was charged with allowing three sacks on quarterback Joe Burrow. He protected him for 33 other snaps throughout the day against the same players who beat him just a fraction of the time. <\/p>\n

Those reps don\u2019t linger in the minds of onlookers when Burrow gets taken down ferociously multiple times. But for the QB himself, it\u2019s the rest of the game that matters most to him.<\/p>\n

Joe Burrow defends Orlando Brown Jr. amid backlash<\/p>\n

Burrow knows playing O-line is a thankless job, and Brown\u2019s performance isn\u2019t solely defined by his miscues. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Orlando was pretty good on Sunday,\u201d Burrow told reporters during his Wednesday press conference<\/a>. \u201cThere were a couple sacks that weren\u2019t in his control at the end of the day, there are a lot of different things that go into pass protection that aren\u2019t just on the offensive line, and that\u2019s what you don\u2019t 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\u2019s left up to interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how football works, and that\u2019s the lineman position at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t up for interpretation is Brown and the Bengals have more tough assignments ahead of them. Look no further than this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

This is the first time in 20 years Cincinnati is facing a Pittsburgh team not coached by Mike Tomlin. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, whom the Bengals interviewed for the same position before hiring Al Golden in 2025, has taken over the Steelers defense from Tomlin\u2019s grasp. Among the changes Graham has implemented, one will impact Brown\u2019s day significantly.<\/p>\n

Brown may T.J. Watt see way more than he\u2019s used to<\/p>\n

One thing hasn\u2019t changed in Pittsburgh: four-time All-Pro T.J. Watt is still the engine of the unit. Watt is having a fantastic start to 2026<\/a>, posting seven pressures, 3.5 sacks, and his first career pick-six through two weeks. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s also been moved around more often compared to past years.<\/p>\n

Following his rookie season when he was primarily a right EDGE, Watt has almost exclusively stayed on the left side of the Steelers\u2019 defensive front, going up against the offense\u2019s right tackle. He averaged 12.1 snaps per year on the right side since 2018, essentially fewer than one snap per game against the left tackle.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already up to 12 snaps against LTs this season. A to Z Sports Pittsburgh\u2019s Rob Gregson<\/a> says this is indeed shift that isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the big change with T.J. Watt,\u201d Gregson says of Watt lining up as a right EDGE. \u201cThis year, at least through two weeks, it has been a quantified effort to make sure that not only are his snap counts down overall, but that he\u2019s being used across the defensive line. That can sometimes be personnel matchups, whether they like him over a left tackle, Sometimes it\u2019s based on the formations. If it\u2019s 11 versus 12 personnel, where\u2019s the Y tight end? Sometimes it\u2019s just how is Watt feeling? What does he feel most comfortable doing? That tends to be over the right tackle, but this week, Amarius Mims, I don\u2019t know if that would be the smartest objective for the Steelers and Watt. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that, especially given this new system, given the snap counts, given how good Mims is, I think that we could see the Steelers certainly move him around some.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrow\u2019s confidence will be put to the test Sunday<\/p>\n

Mims does give the Bengals a worthy counter to Watt, but Pittsburgh is being more calculated with its star pass-rusher. It\u2019s clearly working. <\/p>\n

Watt has lined up against Brown a grand total of six times over the last three years according to Pro Football Focus\u2019 charting data. He may hit that number in the first half alone during Sunday\u2019s matchup. <\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s main matchup will still be Alex Highsmith, who has five pressures and three sacks of his thus far, but the expected increase in exposure to Watt will be a monumental test for the Bengals. Burrow\u2019s confidence in Brown needs to be backed up in a big way.<\/p>\n

\"Play<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Joe\t\t<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Bengals News<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew Joe Burrow soundbite reveals he was not joking about his message following Bengals\u2019 win over Texans\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

A new soundbite from Week 2\u2019s win reveals something Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow may\u2019ve wanted to keep quiet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home \/ NFL \/ Cincinnati Bengals Cincinnati Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. received some encouraging words from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13227,139,54597,141,140,42662],"class_list":["post-409408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-brown-jr","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-t-j-watt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}