Cincinnati Bengals Left Off-Centered

 

At one point, circa 2005, Marvin Lewis was so popular and well-endorsed as an up-and-coming coaching genius, that he could have run for president.  The team was playing well, Carson Palmer looked like the next elite quarterback of the league, and the fans and media plunged themselves head first into the Bengal frenzy. 

 

The saga reached its crescendo when Palmer’s knee ligaments were weed-whacked by the Steelers on the first play of the only playoff game Marvin has reached as a head coach.  Many experts and fans alike point to that moment as the pivot to freefall for the team’s success. However, another serious injury that occurred the next season, to an even more obscure player, could be more responsible for the downward spiral the team has suffered: the tibial plateau fracture that ended Rich Braham’s career in Week 2 of 2006.

 

The offensive line in those golden days of 2005 was one of the best in the NFL.  Both Willie Anderson and Levi Jones were healthy and regularly mauled opponents. Eric Steinbach and Bobby Williams provided a nice contrast of blocking styles. And there was Braham in the middle, pointing out blitz schemes for his line mates before every play and then taking on the huge nose-tackles of the AFC North after snapping the ball.

 

Once Lewis took over in 2003, nearly every offensive player improved with Braham at center, especially Rudi Johnson and Carson Palmer.  After his injury, the running game slowly decayed and Palmer has struggled to adjust without his line captain. 

 

Former team president and football demigod, Paul Brown, selected Tennessee center Bob Johnson, with the first pick of the Bengals’ first draft in 1968.  He knew the pivotal impact that a solid center can have on an offense—it must be an important position with a title like center.  If a good offensive line makes everyone’s job easier, than a good center makes the rest of the line’s job easier, and the result is a finely tuned offense that purrs as it elegantly moves down field. 

 

Since the second quarter of that early-season game against the Browns, the Bengals have still not adequately replaced Braham, and the offense has never been as good as it was then.  Rudi Johnson is now out of the league and Palmer continues his work to return to a plateau that he has fallen from since Braham went down.  Willie Anderson was abandoned by his team and thus forced to play (well) for divisional rival, Baltimore.  Levi physically broke down and was released this off-season.   Eric Steinbach was given a huge contract by the Browns in ’07 and plays well there too.  Bobby Williams reminisces about the old days and wonders where everybody went. 

 

The evidence of Braham’s effect on the team is clear from a combination of history and statistics, but the most obvious measure is wins.  The Bengals shocked the league in 2003 going 8-8 after a two win season the year before.  The next season, they again finished 8-8, but then took the step up to 11 wins in 2005 and won the division.  It’s been down the tubes since, with Cincinnati unable to produce a winning record in the past three seasons. 

 

Whether Kyle Cook or fourth-rounder Johnathan Luigs is the answer at center remains a huge unknown for the Bengals.  Cook is tops on the depth chart for now, but the team should want to make good on their draft pick and hopefully work Luigs into the rotation soon. 

 

With all the depth and talent at the wide receiver position, and such youth and inexperience on the O-line, one can’t help but wonder if a player like former-Ravens center Jason Brown who signed in St. Louis as a free-agent this winter, would not have been a more sensible target than Laveranues Coles within this offense.  Hindsight is always crystal clear when it comes to NFL free agents, but it does seem like the center position has not received its proper dues as a team priority this off-season.  This is awfully surprising considering how important Braham was to Lewis’ previous success.

 

Mojokong—ah, to be rich at center.

 

 

 

 

Chris Henry Looking to Cash In on His Ninth Life

Bengals wide-out Chris Henry may have been foolish a half-dozen or so times, but he’s no dummy.  He’s well aware that his contract runs out after this year, and as it is for every player in that situation, big plays can translate into big bucks. 

“I’m planning on coming in and dominating this season and really show all my fans in the world I’m a ballplayer and I belong in the NFL,” Slim told Sporting News Radio in an interview. 

He should also know that another legal incident would almost definitely be his last while in the NFL. The man whose name is synonymous with adjectives like oft-troubled and tumultuous, has been regularly endorsed by the more-reputable Carson Palmer as working hard and keeping his nose clean all offseason. 

Palmer has always raved about the abilities and talent that Henry has demonstrated in practices.  We’ve certainly all seen flashes of his greatness on Sunday as well.  He’s the only Bengal receiver with some real size that can create match-up issues on smallish corners.  Others rely on their speed and quickness, but Henry can get high (stop snickering) on jump-ball passes in the corner of the endzone or even on bombs. 

It seems to me that in today’s NFL, players who provide unique resources to the team are more valuable than a versatile guy that can do a lot of things pretty well. 

Henry is very tall, also quite talented, but he’s more valuable to the Bengals because he’s very tall.  If they had another tall player like Roy Williams (the receiver) than they would need Henry a lot less. 

This is the kind of philosophy that leads me to believe that Andre Caldwell serves the same function as did T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and both of them were not necessary.  Henry serves the very-tall-guy function for this team, and because of that, the Bengals need him more. 

Two things must fall into place for Chris Henry to solidify a once precarious place in the NFL.

First, as momma say, he must mind his p’s & q’s.  Drive the speed limit, keep illegal things at home, or probably more advisable, away altogether, and surround yourself with unarmed people behaving in a socially acceptable manor. 

Slim doesn’t seem like much of a talker. Those are the kind of guys who are the one’s to look out for during a confrontation. Those guys are doers, not talkers or even thinkers.  It’s vital that Chris think before he does.

The second thing he must do is stay healthy. It isn’t a matter of playing well; when he plays, he does it well. It’s a matter of playing. He’s been suspended 17 games by my count, and one knee injury–the less dramatic knee injury that occurred on the play when Carson also went down in the Playoffs.

Once he did return, after the entire organization lined up to say he wouldn’t, he didn’t exactly wow anyone who was forced to watch that suicide channel of a season last year. 

But in fairness, he did have Ol’ Fitzpatrick flinging the ball at random in self-defense, and it’s probably hard to get up on Sunday mornings if you’re Ol’ Fitzy’s receiver for the day. 

He will still be listed as the third-receiver on the current depth-chart, but Carson looks for him on plenty of designed plays to at least show the world that he’s dangerous (on the field!  On the field!  Look, you really have to take this seriously, if I’m to continue.  Thank you.  Now, where was I?  Ah, yes).

It seems like we can’t have a blog-post these days without talking about the loss of the salary-cap, but it’s a real thing that appears imminent and teams will plan their futures accordingly.  It’s because of this that the Bengals would do well to lock-up Chris Henry for at least three more years, before the rest of the league has the chance to get their grubby paws on him. 

Once Chad’s contract is up in 2011, the team could have the upper-hand in bargaining position if Henry excels in the way that he’s capable.  “We already have a star,” they could tell the man with two numbers in a swanky, movie-producer voice, “and he talks a lot less than you do. Ha!”  Ocho would becomes flummoxed and vanish in a puff of pink smoke, finally with nothing to say.

Even If Chris were to relapse into the shadowy underbelly of drugs, guns and women of the night, than the world could collectively shrug and decide that there’s just no helping some people. 

But those around him are convinced that those days are behind him, and so what if they aren’t?  The man has used up his nine lives and is working on credit at this point.  The Bengals are something of a fallout shelter for Henry.  He’d be wise just to move in for good.

Mojokong—Big ups to the local Nightmare and his precious little future. 

Might as Well Buy a Graham: Cincinnati Bengals Re-Sign Their Kicker

The value of a kicker in Cincinnati is still unknown as the Bengals were unable to strike a long-term deal with franchise-tagged place-kicker Shayne Graham, before the time to negotiate expired on Wednesday. 

Shugah Shayne will earn a cool $2.5 million for the upcoming season, the average of the top-five paid kickers throughout the league.  The Bengals will have the chance to lock him up long-term again when the season ends.  They also have the option to franchise-tag him again next year. 

Many casual spectators are shocked that a team would ever slap the franchise-tag on a kicker, but these little guys are earning some decent contracts these days (in fairness, every NFL kicker is bigger than me).  Titans kicker Rob Bironas just signed a deal that gives him $3 million a year.  Is Golden Graham worth that kinda cheese?

No.

But should the Bengals have signed him to it anyway?

Yes. 

When the collective bargaining agreement expires after 2010 and the salary cap disappears after this season, Mike Brown will have the chance to sign someone cheaper and pass over Graham altogether. 

Under that kind of thinking, it seems unlikely that they would tag him in consecutive years.  That would leave the team with no kicker at all ending the 2009 season and that makes me kind of nervous. 

Graham struggles from outside 40 yards, he’s missed some big ones and he hasn’t shown that he can consistently kick-off.  But he’s money inside 40 yards, he’s made some big ones too and he’s an outstanding community figure.   

Some kickers fall apart fast.  Mike Vanderjagt was an All-Pro with the Colts, but then got mouthy about Peyton Manning on a Canadian talk show and ruined his karma.

Other kickers are reborn with a new team.  The Bengals suffered through some nauseating field-goal attempts shanked off the foot of Neil Rackers, only to watch him join Arizona and make the most field goals in a season ever. 

Then there are those kickers who just can’t stop kicking: Gary Anderson, Morten Andersen, John Carney.  These men are like those who never retire because they just don’t know what they’d do with themselves all day.  In retirement, they go around kicking things they spot on the ground and running around chest-bumping people.  It’s sad, really.       

Mr. Graham has all the symptoms of falling into this last category, so he might as well fade into his NFL dementia with the Bengals.

When another quality kicker comes down the pike for the team, they can afford to cut Graham if they have to, but until then, a long-term deal would insure that at least a manageable player holds down such a crucial position.

A Letter to Steeler Nation

Steeler Nation,

First off, congratulations on winning your sixth Super Bowl Championship. I trust it still rests comfortably atop your collective mind.

Secondly, I must say, I admire your obsession with your team. A Steeler fan seems always willing to display his or her loyalty anywhere in the world, at times creating awkward, even socially-damaging effects, yet one carries on undeterred.  

And, thirdly, it is impossible to call you a group made up largely of “bandwagoneers” because you’re rarely absent from the playoffs, and it’s hard to lose fan support when the team always wins. So, there you have it.

Now, with all pleasantries aside, it’s time to speak of your team’s identity. What the universe should agree upon is that the Steelers are made up of defense and a running game—any dumbbell knows that. 

However, let’s not pretend that a central characteristic to your team’s success is not deception. Within the past six years, the Steelers have been the experts at the “ol’ trickeration”, often times at the Bengals’ expense—most notably in the dreaded playoff game of the 2005 season—a play that sealed the fate of the Bengals’ season and still causes the venom to rise in the mouths of bitter Who-Deyers today.

And your defense is run by a man who predicates his whole philosophy on the sleight-of-hand. One could produce an entire college thesis on the deceptive strategies of Dick LeBeau’s defenses. He’s always one step ahead of the league because he continues to trick everyone. 

My beef, Steeler Nation, is that you assume that what you see unfold every year is due to sheer strength and determination, when there is something more cunning there, more conniving. I’m not at all saying that you’re dirty, I’m saying you’re sneaky. You want a sheer muscle team who socks you in your mouth? Try Baltimore. Pittsburgh will outsmart the Ravens, yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re tougher.

A feeble Bengals’ fan like myself has no defense to your many, many championships and your apparent sheer awesomeness. You need not even look in our direction when we simpletons from Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky exercise our underdeveloped vocal chords about how maybe you’re the evil genius who wins in the end rather than the muscle-bounded hero everyone else was rooting for. 

That’s why we don’t like you, Steeler Nation; you’re Iago, you’re Gargamel, you’re Skeletor. I’d rather not face it, either; I don’t blame you, but you suck. You must at least acknowledge, someday, and hopefully soon, that you suck. 

Best of luck this season. Go jump off a cliff, just as soon as you can. I truly despise you. Hugs & Kisses.

Sincerely,

B. Clifton Burke

Cincinnati Bengals: Some Semblance of Logic

The best off-season of the Marvin Lewis’ Era continued when the team signed hard-hitting safety, Roy Williams, to a one-year deal.  This is, yet another, smart move and one of little risk considering that within his eight years as a pro, Roy has clearly shown the world what he can and can’t do. 

Roy can tackle; he’s more of a mini-linebacker than he is a safety.  This is the man who forced the league to outlaw horse-collar tackles, the man who has over 500 tackles in the NFL. 

A coordinator could use a player like Roy in a very specialized manner.  He should come in for run support and safety blitzes, and come out on passing downs.  Use him in nickel formations in the linebacker slot, cut him loose on punt blocks, be creative with the guy.

He went to four Pro-Bowls when coached by Bengals’ defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, in Dallas, who said this about Roy: “I think I know how to use him a little bit.”

While not turning too many heads in the process, Zimmer has significantly upgraded this defense since the opener of last season.  Those upgrades include: Tank Johnson for John Thornton, Chris Crocker for Marvin White, Roy Williams for Dexter Jackson, Rey Maualuga for Dhani Jones, and possibly coming soon, Roderick Hood for David Jones. Bengals.com reported that Hood–cornerback with Arizona last year–was scheduled to visit Paul Brown Stadium today.  He would add even more depth to a suddenly veteran secondary.

It seems Zimmer seeks out players who are particularly talented in one facet of the game.  Tank Johnson is primarily a pass-rusher, Rey & Roy are run-stuffers who enjoy hitting people, rookie defensive end, Michael Johnson, is very tall and athletically freakish  Zimmer must play the part of Maestro, accentuating every specialized talent these newcomers posses and seamlessly blend them in with the existing sound of his emerging defense. 

Marvin Lewis’ vision is finally beginning to take form.  It was derailed then obscured, but now he has the living roots in his grasp and he can grow something, really grow something this time. We’ve all learned many lessons along his way, but the hardest learned for Marvin has been what not to do when next time rolls around.  This, my friends, is the beginning of that next time. 

To the end and beyond.

Mojokong–Levi Jones, your time with us tasted of bitter fruit.  You join the ranks of the once loved, but too thoroughly defeated.  So it goes.  

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