Plenty of people were questioning the Bengals on Wednesday afternoon.
Hayden Hurst had signed with the Panthers and three of their top four free agents had joined other teams.
The Bengals were one of five teams that hadn't signed an external free agent.
That quickly changed on Wednesday night when they signed the best left tackle on the market.
Signing Orlando Brown Jr. to a four-year, $64 million contract is big for a bunch of reasons.
Anytime you can add a four-time Pro Bowl left tackle in his prime, you do it—especially at a reasonable cost. Paying Brown $16 million per season won't keep them from extending their own stars, including Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
The signing gives the Bengals the best offensive line of the Burrow era and that's without knowing the starting right tackle.
A quartet of Brown, Cordell Volson, Ted Karras and Alex Cappa is rock solid.
We can save the Jonah Williams conversations for another day, but he's still on the roster and so is La'el Collins.
The Bengals' offensive line is better, which means Burrow's chances of leading them to their first Super Bowl Championship has increased.
This move doesn't just benefit the team in the short term. It should also put the silly "same old Bungles" narratives to bed.
The Bengals have been one of the best teams in free agency over the past three offseasons. They've added guys like DJ Reader, Trey Hendrickson, Chidobe Awuzie and Alex Cappa.
Brown joins that list, but a different Brown should receive praise for this addition.
Bengals owner Mike Brown said the team wanted to help protect Burrow after their 23-20 loss to the Rams in Super Bowl LVI.
Since that comment, the Bengals signed Cappa, Karras and Collins in free agency. They drafted Volson and exercised Williams' fifth-year option.
That clearly wasn't good enough, so they signed Brown on Wednesday night.
The Bengals are willing to do what it takes to win. The entire front office deserves credit. They're willing to spend big money on the right players. They're willing to shell out top dollars in free agency to protect their franchise quarterback.
It's fair to question the franchise for plenty of things, but they clearly want to win and have invested significant assets into protecting Burrow.
No one knows if the Brown signing will pay off. Of course it should and time will give us the answer, but this is just the latest example of the Bengals willing to push the envelope in their pursuit of a World Championship.
These aren't the Bengals of the 90s. They aren't penny pinching in hopes of keeping Burrow around. Instead, they essentially guaranteed the first three years of Brown's deal. He'll make $50 million over that span. It's good value for the Bengals, but they never guarantee that type of money to a player.
Instead of losing Brown to the Steelers or Jets, they stepped up and got the deal done.
The Bengals want to give Burrow a Super Bowl contending supporting cast. That became clearer than ever on Wednesday night.
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