Seven weeks into the NFL season, Cincinnati Bengals left guard Quinton Spain is one of the longest-tenured and most consistent offensive linemen on the Bengals. A year ago this week, head coach Zac Taylor didn’t even know him.
The Bengals needed an offensive guard in the last week of October in 2020, so the Bengals signed the best one available on the free agent market. With the Bengals offensive line struggling to protect quarterback Joe Burrow, Taylor gave Spain an opportunity after the Buffalo Bills benched Spain and then cut him.
The Bengals signed Spain on October 30, and he played most of the game in his first week with the team. Over the next 12 months, Spain earned another contract, solidified a starting spot at left guard and became the most consistent offensive guard that Taylor has had during his tenure with the Bengals.
“The world recognizes me now,” Spain said. “(Everybody) looked at me like I wasn’t a draft pick. I’m getting a lot of attention now, and I’m happy about that. But it can’t stop me from working and staying consistent.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Spain has allowed a pressure on just 1.7% of his snaps. That mark is the third-best among guards in the NFL with at least 100 pass-blocking snaps, and Spain is playing as well as anyone on the Bengals offensive line.
How Quinton Spain got to Cincinnati:Guard's unlikely path to the Bengals offensive line
Last year, when the Bills cut him, Spain was far away from this level of production. He took a chance with a Bengals team he hardly knew anything about. He introduced himself to a few teammates in the huddle on gameday in his team debut against the Tennessee Titans, and he played well enough to stay in the starting lineup for the rest of the season.
“I was grateful that he had played a lot of ball,” Taylor said. “We met with him the morning of the Tennessee game, and I’ve never in my life gone through film and a modified walkthrough in a hallway before on gameday. He picked it up, it made sense to him. I was grateful that he had a good football IQ.”
Spain signed a one-year deal with the Bengals for the 2021 season, but he still had to compete for a starting spot. He had the most consistent training camp of any of the Bengals interior offensive linemen and quickly became the starter at left guard.
Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollack has called Spain the team’s “nastiest” lineman because of the power Spain creates with his hands at the line of scrimmage. This year, those tools have clicked for Spain.
“It seems like (the game is moving) really slow for him, he can process it,” Taylor said. “He’s a really good communicator, he’s strong, he can anchor and he’s physical and strong with his punch.”
As Spain’s role on the offensive line grew, he helped change the dynamic of the Bengals offensive line room. When he joined the Bengals in the middle of the 2020 season, he remembers a conversation with center Trey Hopkins.
Spain was asking about the camaraderie of the offensive line room, and he didn’t like what he learned.
“I was like, y’all don’t even hang out?” Spain said. “How am I supposed to trust you if we can’t even hang outside of football? I know it’s work, but the more we do outside of work, then it’s fun.”
This season, Spain and Hopkins have started a regular Thursday night dinner with the entire offensive line group. A different offensive lineman picks a different restaurant every week. As one of the longest-tenured offensive linemen on the team, Spain got one of the first picks.
“There is a culture within the culture there in that O-Line room,” Taylor said. “It’s something I have been around my whole life, and Frank (Pollack) has done a great job with that. I hear it first hand because I share a wall with that room, so I hear it over the course of the week whether I like it or not.”
“I have been really proud of how that room has evolved over the course of the season, and it does show with some of the synergy they have in that room.”
ANOTHER AWARD: Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase won the first AFC Offensive Player of the Week award of his career.
In Sunday’s win against the Baltimore Ravens, Chase caught eight passes for 201 yards with a touchdown. His 201 yards were the most by a rookie in Bengals history, and his receiving yardage was the highest in the AFC so far this season.
TRADE TALK: With the NFL Trade Deadline approaching on November 2, Taylor explained his communication process with the front office. The Bengals have never been buyers at the deadline, but Taylor said the organization always communicates about ways to improve the team.
"There is consistent communication whether it's in person, through texts, through email,” Taylor said. “We meet several times a week just in general to make sure that we're always on the same page with everything. Just because it's a couple of days before the trade deadline doesn't change how we communicate. We always talk through this stuff."
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