The Bengals Could Start Their Third Offensive Line Combination in First 4 Games - How Often Has That Happened?

CINCINNATI – Cincinnati Bengals right guard Dalton Risner was a full participant in practice Thursday with the calf injury he sustained in Sunday’s 48-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

But it’s not certain he will be back in the starting lineup Monday night in his return to Denver, where he entered league as a second-round pick.

After the calf injury, and perhaps partially his performance, forced Risner from the game Sunday, rookie Jalen Rivers took over and played well enough to at least merit consideration to make the start against the Broncos.

"We'll see,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said when asked if Risner will start. “We've got some options there, and so we'll go through the week and see what ends up happening."

If Rivers takes over, the Bengals will have fielded three different starting offensive lines in their last four games.

How many times has that happened?

This would be the third time in at least the last 15 seasons.

The most recent instance of it happening was 2020 in Taylor’s second season, with Fred Johnson replacing Xavier Su’a-Filo at right guard in Week 2 and Alex Redmond replacing Johnson in Week 4.

The only other time it happened since at least 2010 was in 2017, when T.J. Johnson replaced Trey Hopkins at right guard in Week 2, and Andre Smith took over for Cedric Ogbuehi in Week 4.

Here is a look at the Week 1 starting offensive lines dating back to 2010, and what changes were made in the first four weeks of the season.

Apologies in advance of any nightmares this list might produce.

2024 (2)

Orlando Brown Jr., Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Alex Cappa, Trent Brown

(Amarius Mims for Brown, Week 4)

2023 (1)

Orlando Brown Jr., Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Alex Cappa, Jonah Williams

2022 (1)

Jonah Williams, Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Alex Cappa, La’el Collins

2021(2)

Jonah Williams, Quinton Spain, Trey Hopkins, Xavier Su’a-Filo, Riley Reiff

(Jackson Carman for Su’a-Filo, Week 3)

2020 (3)

Jonah Williams, Michael Jordan, Trey Hopkins, Xavier Su’a-Filo, Bobby Hart

(Fred Johnson for Su’aFilo, Week 2; Alex Redmond for Johnson, Week 4)

2019 (2)

Andre Smith, Michael Jordan, Trey Hopkins, John Miller, Bobby Hart

(Billy Price for Jordan, Week 3)

2018 (2)

Cordy Glenn, Clint Boling, Billy Price, Alex Redmond, Bobby Hart

(Trey Hopkisn for Price, Week 3)

2017 (3)

Cedric Ogbuehi, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Trey Hopkins, Jake Fisher

(T.J. Johnson for Hopkins, Week 2; Andre Smith for Ogbuehi, Week 4)

2016 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Kevin Zeitler, Cedric Ogbuehi

2015 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith

2014 (2)

Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith

(Mike Pollak for Zeitler, Week 3)

2013 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling, Russell Bodine, Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith

2012 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling, Jeff Faine, Kevin Zeitler, Andre Smith

2011 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Nate Livings, Kyle Cook, Clint Boling, Andre Smith

(Mike McGlynn replaced Boling, Week4)

2010 (1)

Andrew Whitworth, Nate Livings, Kyle Cook, Bobbie Williams, Dennis Roland