Coast to Coast - Cincinnati

Mike Carlson’s Coast to Coast tour of all 32 NFL teams takes its next stop at the Bengals – where he examines a team looking to overcome another tough off-season but facing a difficult task to break into the top of the AFC North.
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Webster's World

As we approach the half-way stage of the off-season former First Down editor Keith Webster suggests a plan that would double the length of the NFL season and keep the boring months without NFL action to a minimum.
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By The Numbers

nfluk.com’s Neil Reynolds checks in with his regular Monday By The Numbers column to address all the latest news from around the NFL. This week Neil chastises the Baltimore Ravens for getting too intense too soon.
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• Coast to Coast - Washington
• Webster's World
• By The Numbers

Coast to Coast - Cincinnati

Mike Carlson’s Coast to Coast tour of all 32 NFL teams takes its next stop at the Bengals – where he examines a team looking to overcome another tough off-season but facing a difficult task to break into the top of the AFC North.

Click here to comment on this feature

In Bob Dylan's song 'George Jackson' there's a line that goes something like 'sometimes I think the world is just a giant prison yard, and most of us are prisoners, the rest of us the guards'.  If you play for Cincinnati and haven't been arrested recently, this is YOUR song!  Visions of Mike Brown watching from a room up in the main block while Marvin Lewis, in mirror shades, carrying a billy club, patrols the yard.  If the Bengals were ever willing to spend money, they could buy the rights to their team song right there.  At very least, they should apply to the NFL to use six-digit numbers on their striped jerseys.

When C2C reaches the Queen City, I always feel like a tabloid journalist camped outside some third-rate night club and all of a sudden Amy Whitehouse arrives, followed by Kate Moss, and then Sadie Frost shows up and they shut the door in her face and she's banging on it screaming, let me in, I'm still a celebrity too!  The problem isn't what to say, but where to start!

So thank you Chris Henry for solving THAT problem.  When Henry got into a fight (or didn't, depending on who you believe) with some students at the U of Cincinnati, the Bengals' seven-strikes -and-you're out policy kicked in, and they cut him.  But before he left town Henry, in a moment of unexpected genius, provided his now-former-team with their motto.  You know, the kind of thing they put over the door of the locker room, like the Montreal Canadiens' famous passing the torch poem, or Darrell Royal's messages to quitters.  Explaining the history of his stay in Cincinnati, Henry said 'I'm really a good guy, I just got caught in a few bad situations.'  Examine carefully the use of the word 'caught' in that context; it's particularly revealing.

But what can you say about a team that feels compelled to cut Henry right after they've welcomed back Odell Thurman, a good guy who's just got caught in a few bad situations, after his substance-abuse suspension.  Minutes later, Chad Johnson is demanding to be traded, but Brown turns down the chance to ship him to Landover, thus denying us the felonious fantasy football dream-match of Ocho Stino and SadDan Snyder.  Finally, when they draft, they grease CJ's skids by taking three wideouts, and stay true to form by grabbing at least four players with what are, in NFL circles, discreetly called 'character issues'? 

Remember, when you're watching the Bengals sidelines, those guys with handicams filming along the bench aren't video assistants from New England.  They come from the Ohio Department of Corrections, the Cincinnati PD, and the TV show 'America's Most Wanted', just seeing who shows up on any given Sunday.  All perfectly within NFL rules, as long as they don't pass the tapes to Bill Belichick. 

Speaking of Spygate, it's funny to see Arlen Specter, most famous for messing up film analysis of the Kennedy Assassination, playing this incident of cheating in a game of football as if it were the second coming of, uh, the Warren Commission.  Maybe he feels he needs to get one film right before he goes.  Although with his funding by Comcast (locked in combat with the NFL Network) and his rooting for the Eagles, you wonder what 'right' means in this context.  You or I might think the US Senate has more important messes to clean up, like the war, the economy, health care, oil prices, the Middle East, natural disasters at home and abroad, mortgage crises, and steroids in baseball.  But we're not Senators, who know what makes the news cameras roll.  Anyway, I have my own conspiracy theory.  We all know that Bill Belichick is the world's best analyser of tape.  He's been doing it since he was six years old, and he helped his father break-down game tapes.  When Specter (no relation to the villainous organisation in the Bond films) was concocting the magic bullet theory for the Warren Commision, Belichick was 14 or 15 years old.  My guess is he broke down the Zapruder film, proved Oswald hadn't acted alone, and had to be hushed up.  Or maybe it was after he finally watched Oliver Stone's JFK (my book on Stone is still available from Pocket Essentials, by the way). 

Back to the Bengals.  I didn't mention that Henry's last straw came right after they'd cut fellow bad-boy receiver Tab Perry, a good guy who got caught in some bad situations, and that CJ's 'trade me or cut me' ultimatum was soon followed by TJ Housmandzadeh's saying he wanted his new deal now or he'd walk after the last year of his contract.  A position that had been a strength all of a sudden became a weakness.  The Skins offered their first rounder this year and a third (which possibly could have become a first) next year for CJ, but that raised financial issues for Cincy, landing them with an $8 million cap hit, without getting a season of CJ for his relative-bargain $3 million salary.  The Bengals, run by Brown family as their primary business, have always been the most cost-conscious of NFL teams.  You'd think after Marge Schott, Cincinnati fans deserve a Snyderesque free spender for at least one of their teams!

To their credit, the Bengals addressed the problem, starting to build some cover if and when CJ and TJ depart.  They took three wideouts in what was an odd year for receivers in the draft.  None went in the first round, for the first time ever, and when they started to come off the board, the order didn't reflect any consensus on their rankings.  In fact, the class was a deep one, with talent and potential, but no real 'sure things' (like, say, Mike Williams or Carlos Rogers, who's just signed in Montreal), but a lot of guys at the same level whom different teams liked for their own reasons. For the Bengals that was Jerome Simpson from Coastal Carolina, and there is a lot to like because he's a hard worker who has long arms and can catch in traffic, but who probably faces a learning curve with the jump in competition.  He went in round two, and with their compensation pick at the end of round three they got Andre Caldwell, brother of Reche, who's almost as big as Simpson, but ran a 4.39 40.  He's Florida's all-time leading receiver, but Florida receivers haven't always torn up the NFL.  Having played well in two different systems, though, Caldwell may have a jump on the learning curve.  They also took Mario Urrutia, from Louisville, in round seven.  He's a big guy who's been maddeningly inconsistent on the other end of Brian Brohm's passes - Louisville's offense demands quick cuts, which isn't his strong point.  Most folks thought he should've stayed in school another year.

The Bengals seem to have better contacts in law enforcement than scouting, since they also signed Maurice Purify on bail from Nebraska, where he might have won the Lawrence Phillips Award for services to law enforcement, if they actually gave such a thing.  Purify is a big (6-4 210) receiver whose quickness off the line is questionable, and who was arrested for assault and then a few weeks later for drunken driving. He's really a good guy who's just found himself caught in some bad situations.  Yet again, you wonder what the team thinks its doing.  How many times can you grab talent under-valued because of character and then complain when those character issues resurface?  In Purify's case, he probably wouldn't have been drafted anyway, and I hope he can succeed, but you see the point, and when we get to the rest of the Bengals' draft, you'll see it even clearer.

The current bench is thin.  Glenn Holt still has some potential.  Holt played at Kentucky, and like Antonio Chapman (U of Cinn) was an undrafted free agent spotted by the free-spending Bengals' web of scouts which extends to both sides of the Ohio River.  Former NFL Europe star Marcus Maxwell has talent, but not measurables, but is the kind of guy who could be the fifth receiver for a west-coast style team.

The problem is, the Bengals, as I wrote last year, keep trying to keep up with the Colts on offense.  One problem with having two receivers like CJ and TJ is that they make any system better, but Bob Bratkowski has always seemed to hedge his bets, rather than go with the simple running game and wide-open passing Indy use.  He's played a sort of hybrid, mixing the horizontal and vertical passing games, and going to the power running set up.  Occasionally, the Bengals raid the Colts for fringe players (Ben Utecht, DeDe Dorsey) and the Colts even respond in kind (Clifton Dawson).

The Bengals also picked up Doug Gabriel in free agency.  He's a bigger tease than some of the girls I dated in high school; at one point he looked like a Pro Bowler in Oakland, then a trade steal for the Pats, but he's always managed to produce crucial drops and outlive his welcome.  Certainly he's got the size and speed numbers to make you drool.  So did some of my high school girlfriends.  I should mention that natural-born Bengal Koren Robinson is a free agent again.  Robinson's a good guy who's been caught in some bad situations. Too bad David Boston, like Rogers, signed with the CFL, in Toronto. 

Meanwhile, the signing of Utecht to play behind (or alongside) TE Reggie Kelly wasn’t a bad move, but remember the Colts got Utecht as an undrafted free agent.  He's a better shot to fit than other Colt tight ends would be; for example I doubt there are many other NFL teams that could fit Bryan Fletcher into their attacks.  Kelly is an under-appreciated talent who does most of the things you want a TE to do, without much fuss.  Daniel Coats, who was the Bengals' own undrafted guy last year, might feel under-appreciated himself with Utecht's arrival, but he looked promising.  Perennial practice squadder Nate Lawrie, well-named and from Yale, will compete with Matt Sherry, undrafted out of Villanova where he was sort of Dallas Clark for the Subdivision, for the fourth spot. I was amazed they missed Kansas TE Derek Fine, whose name seems ready-made for Bengal headlines (in a similar vein, I thought Steve Justice and Wisconsin punter Ken Debauche might have attracted them too).

Of course, with Carson Palmer throwing, receivers get a chance to look good.  They could use a solid backup, and signed Carson's brother Jordan to compete for the job with ex-Harvard guy Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jeff Rowe, drafted last year out of Nevada.   The Palmers could wear masks under their helmets and go under the bench, like the Killer Bees used to do in WWF, and switch masks if one got penalized.  I wonder if Seattle wants Tim Hasselbeck?  At any rate, neither pair look as funny as the Mannings, who made a brilliant commerical for ESPN playing like six-year olds while on a tour of the Bristol studios with their parents.  But I digress.  I liked Fitzpatrick when Mike Martz drafted him for the Rams, and if west coast was the way you were going, I'd like him more.  I note that Ryan Perriloux has been booted from LSU, and could declare for the supplemental draft: the casinos in Kentucky would welcome him with open arms.

The big problem is protecting Palmer, and when Eric Steinbach left last year, they felt the pressure, especially as injuries bothered both tackles, Levi Jones and Willie Anderson.  The team franchised backup lineman Stacy Andrews, but that wasn't a bad move, as Anderson is nearing retirement and Jones is an injury worry: Andrew Whitworth, who is nominally the starting left guard, is also the future left tackle, and Andrews could fill his spot if he slides out, or move in as a right tackle.  There isn't much depth behind center Eric Ghiaciuc and RG Bobbie Williams, though Scott Kooistra has come versatility.  They drafted Kansas tackle Anthony Collins, who'll probably have to play guard.  Undrafted James Blair was a tackle at Western Michigan and goes 6-3 330; he has a shot at being the backup Andrews.  They signed Alabama's Justin Britt, brother of the Pats' Wesley, but I can't figure out why.  He's got ability, but though he's listed at 6-4 300 he's really not natural at anything more than about 285, and extra weight is not likely to be translated into power.  I could see a team like Denver taking a chance on him, or he may be flexible enough to play center, but most likely he'd be headed to NFL Europe, if such a thing still existed.

If they can keep the starting line healthy, they can run the ball, but I wonder if Rudi Johnson hasn't hit the running back wall.  Jeremi Johnson is a powerful FB who lets me call them Johnson&Johnson when they're together.  With Kenny Irons not expected back until mid-season, and Chris Perry not expected to play two weeks in a row without being hurt, Kenny Watson is the primary backup.  He's a gamer, plays hard, runs tough, and can receive, but ideally he's a change-of-pace back, and he lacks home-run potential. Dorsey probably isn't going to hang around, though with Dominic Rhodes back with the Colts, Dawson might be available again.  But as I write this the Bengals have also been chasing Shaun Alexander. Alexander also seemed to hit the wall in Seattle, he won't come cheaply, and I'm not sure if he hits the holes fast enough to fit in their run game.  Undrafted free agent James Johnson from Kansas State is a Watson-type back who has the advantage of being able to use one of the existing 'Johnson' name tags on his jersey.  Meanwhile, the vast international Bengal scouting network turned up two undrafted fullbacks to challenge or backup Jeremi: Bradley 'Hammer Of'' Glatthaar (5-11 245) from Cincinnati (doesn't he sound like a Harry Potter character?) and Tyler Whaley (5-11 252) from far away Columbus (Ohio State).

If the offense isn't quite Indy's, it has been effective through the air, at least until last year when the line was weakened.  The defense however hasn't functioned as well.  In Indy, Tony Dungy can draft and sign fringe personnel who fit his system, and let the system function.  Marvin Lewis has been plagued with injuries to his linebacking corps, but he has never seemed to decide on what kind of defense to play: does he want two space eating tackles to leave his MLB free to make plays or will they pair a one-gap and a two-gap tackle?  Are his ends stone pass rushers or filling both functions?  Lewis is a defensive coach, but it's been the defense that has let the Bengals down (and yes, I know about the injuries).  Indy's offense means they can get by with a defense that performs at league average.  The Bengals probably have needed something a bit better, and got something a bit worse.  The bottom line for Lewis is that he's only made the playoffs once in the past five seasons, and his teams have tended to look sloppy, on field as well as off.  As usual, the axe fell on the assistants.

Coordinator Chuck Bresnahan and linebackers coach Ricky Hunley were both fired, and Mike Zimmer brought in as coordinator, while linebackers' coach Jeff FitzGerald comes from the Ravens.  Zimmer favors an attacking 4-3 (even though he coached 3-4 when Parcells took over in Dallas) and has always gotten a lot from his personnel, both in the Dave Campo Dallas years and last year in Atlanta.   It will be interesting to see what he can craft with the Bengals now, since a few of their better players are gone.  The fact that they tried to trade draft picks for the Jets' Dwayne Robertson indicates that Lewis felt an upgrade was necessary for the one-gap tackle: Robertson was badly suited for the Jets' 3-4.  He is really a good guy but just got caught in a few bad situations.  Injuries cancelled the trade, but Robertson eventually wound up on Denver's D-line roundabout, which means, like Mike Myers and Antwan Burton, he could eventually wind up in Cincy anyway.

They need to replace a few starters.  Justin Smith wasn't the force at defensive end his contract said he should be, but he was solid.  Landon 'President' Johnson was a good player, and his injury was a crucial one last year, while Madieu Williams could be the one they miss most, though he always seemed to be just missing the big play.  David Pollack has finally surrendered to spinal injuries that could threaten his life, as well as his career, and retired, but they weren't counting on his coming back. 

They will welcome Odell Thurman back from NFL suspension.  He's a good guy who just got caught in a few bad situations.  In fact, with Ahmad Brooks (suspended from his college team, where he was a good guy who just got caught in a few bad situations, and thus was a steal in the supplementary draft) and first-round pick Keith Rivers, the Bengals all of a sudden have a very solid starting group of backers.  Or they did before Brooks punched a neighbour lady who was trying to mediate a dispute between him and another neighbour.  Sorry, that's allegedly punched.  I wonder if Roger Goodell has a special red hotline direct to Mike Brown's desk?

Getting Rivers in the draft was a typically Bengallian exercise in inertia: they wanted Sedrick Ellis, but the Saints scooped them to getting the Pats' seventh pick; then they had their sights set on Derrick Harvey, a pass-rushing DE, but the Jags jumped ahead of them for him.  But Rivers is a damn good consolation prize, probably the best all-around linebacker in the draft, able to play inside or out, and a solid character.   Moving up would have likely cost them their third-round pick, and while Ellis is much better than Patrick Sims, who they drafted in round two, they'd be looking for a lesser linebacker later in the round.  Rashad Jeanty, signed from the CFL, was a real surprise, and has some pass-rush skills, but is better suited as a backup, which is also true of Dhani Jones.  Interestingly, they signed the Crads' Darryl Blackstock as a free agent: he played with Brooks at Virginia in a 3-4, and ex-Pat Corey Mays also has familiarity with that system.  In fact, practice squad guy Eric Henderson is probably also better suited to playing 3-4 ILB, ditto undrafted Dan Howell of Washington.

It could be that the Bengals are going to experiment with some defensive hybrid fronts as well.  Certainly Robert Geathers is a versatile defensive end who played some emergency LB for them, and is a solid player and good pass-rusher.  They signed Antwan Odom, a more one-dimensional rusher, from Tennessee; he's reunited with former Titan John Thornton, who plays tackle.  Frostee 'Sno-Cone' Rucker and Jonathan Fanene (who'd make a 3-4 end if he could stay healthy) are the depth. Thornton, run-plugger Domata Peko, and ex-Bronco and Brown Myers are the returning tackles; they've Sims and Jason 'Don't Call Me' Shirley (round four).  Both are, it goes without saying, good guys who've just got caught in a few bad situations.  Shirley's been caught in a few more than most.  He was twice dropped from the team at Fresno State for violating team rules, then upped the ante by drunk-driving his car into an apartment house.  Saves time locking up, I suppose.  While awaiting trial on those charges, he was arrested for driving with his suspended license, at which point Pat Hill pulled the plug.  He's a huge (6-5 340) nose tackle whose 40 time was nearly as high as his blood alcohol level.  When he's on he can be a force, but he takes plays off and isn't in great condition.  What was Fresno's run D like in 2006 with Louis Leonard (335lbs) and Shirley inside?  Sims is an active, one-gap tackle, whose quickness got him drafted, but who has never put it together on the field.  In fact, if you were looking for the rookie prospect most like Dwayne Robertson, you'd draft Sims.  They signed Burton, another space-eater (6-2 325), and it's tempting to see Thornton and Peko, Burton and Meyers, Sims and Shirley as combinations, but you can't keep six tackles.  Odom's not a good fit for an odd front, and bottom line is I think they stay with the mish-mash they've got.

Plus, as if fascinated by playing Indy-lite, in round seven they drafted Angelo Craig from the University of Cincinnati, then signed his teammate Anthony Hoke as an undrafted free agent.  Both played defensive end but project to outside backer unless you're the Colts and can play a Robert Mathis type; Craig has better size and actually played some backer, but the smaller Hoke (6-0 238) is more of a down end and has more speed. Presumably neither was one of the Cincy students Henry punched out.

Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall are a potentially good pair of corners, both need to be more consistent, and of course more pass rush helps with that.  Deltha O'Neal remains a ball-hawk as a third corner, but Blue Adams is the only reserve.  At safety, Dexter Jackson is top of the depth chart alongside Marvin White, a rookie surprise last year.  White and Nedu Ndukwe were solid draft pick ups last year, Ethan Kilmer is coming back from injury, and big John 'Forced' Busing is a fourth linebacker, but overall all these guys are better in the box than in space;  what they lack is someone with the instincts and range to play centerfield.  I think sixth round draft pick Corey Lynch might be the steal of the draft, and certainly their best pick: he sometimes bites on fakes, and he's not super-fast, but his instincts seem great, and his make-up speed looked fine against 'Subdivision' opponents (and Michigan, where he blocked the field goal to seal Appalachian State's upset win).  He reminds of a smaller, slower John Lynch.  They also signed Simeon Castille, star of legendary Denver fumble-forcer Jeremiah.  He's a decent but slow corner who projects to NFL safety and, if he improves his tackling, could be a free safety option sometime down the road.

Shayne Graham and Kyle Larson provide solid kicking; Holt had a decent year returning kickoffs, and Caldwell might help there. O'Neal's best days as a punt returner are behind him, and it's been three seasons since they had a good one.  I don't see another on the horizon.  But that's the story of the Bengals, treading water in a division where you have to keep moving forward, or you die.  Just ask the Ravens.  I like the idea that the team is preparing for losing its two star receivers; I'd like it better if they could leverage something for at least one of them.

I like some of their draft picks, especially Rivers, Simpson, Caldwell, and Lynch.  But I look at the character risks, at the rag tag additions to the defensive line, and I wonder. Maybe it's time for Lewis to grab that taser and kick some butt.  Then again, you have to remember, they're really good guys, they just got caught in a few bad situations.  Of which the NFL season may be one.

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