How nice it was to have the players locked out over the offseason. But now they had to go and settle a new collective bargaining agreement (too bad the commissioner wasn't a member of the Tea Party!) and now it's back. Which means I find myself thinking more about my beloved Bungals that I should be.
They are going to be lousy this year. A rookie quarterback tends to do that to a team.
Sure the Falcons, Ravens, St. Louis and Steelers all excelled and made the playoffs (well, except for St. Louis, but they were close) with rookie quarterbacks, but those are stable franchises (well, except for Seattle). The Bungals are not.
Here's the good news on the upcoming season - Ocho is gone. In typical Mike Brown fashion he decided to sit on the Ocho until his market value was gone (they just netted a couple late round picks from NE). Had Brown been able to run a team effectively, he would have traded Ocho prior to the 2008 draft when the Washington Redskins were offering TWO first round picks for him. But old Brown holds on to him and gets two late rounders instead. Brilliant idea.
Carson is also gone. For a brief period in time it looked like he was the Savior. But then his knee was crushed on his first pass attempt in the first Bengals playoff game in 13 years and he has never really been the same. Plus, for all of his talent, he was never the leader this team needed.
There will be a new era in Cincy - Andy Dalton will start the season at QB. He was awesome for TCU as they routinely crashed the BCS party in college football. We'll see if that translates to the pros. AJ Green is a superior receiver that they draft #4 overall to replace Ocho. So far he has been the best player on the field at training camp. We'll see if that lasts.
The rookies have to survive their first pre-season game up in Detroit. This is no gimme. That place has ruined the careers of two high draft picks in the past. Ka Jana Carter (drafted #1 overall in 1995) tore up his knee on his first series for the Bengals in the old Superdome. His career was never the same. Several years later, our second round pick, another running back, Kenny Irons, had his career ended when he caught a pass on his first series and tore his knee up so badly he never played in the NFL again.
If they survive the game, they might be okay. We'll see.
The good news is that thanks to the new CBA, it's almost impossible for draft picks to hold out for more money (when was the last time a Bungals draft pick didn't hold out?). This year the Bungals actually signed all of their draft picks prior to training camp.
But then the bad news for the Bungals set in pretty quickly.
Their best defensive player, cornerback, Jonathan Joseph, signed with Houston. The Bengals always preach about not signing high priced free agents (something that the best teams in the NFL (the Steelers and Packers, for example) shy away from. Often the worst teams (the Redskins and 49ers and Raiders to name a few) often spend lavishly in FA, but it never works) and drafting good young players (which the Steelers and Packers always seem to do (I mean how often can the Steelers go to the mill on tough offensive linemen and killer linebackers and always come through? The same is true for the Packers and their defensive linemen and wide receivers).
Well, this time it actually worked for the Bungals. They didn't sign any high priced corners over the years and instead in back to back years took corners in the first round (Joseph and Leon Hall, respectively). Joseph has been awesome. Yet, do they happen to extend his contract? Nope. The Bengals actually extending a contract is like Tea Party actually voting for a tax increase. So they went into FA this year needing to sign Joseph. I mean they drafted him and developed him, so why not reward him with a great contract for a great player who can play the rest of his career with the team who drafted him. Nope. They let the Houston Texans come in and pay him instead.
So it's back to the drawing board. Yes, they did sign aging veteran Nate Clements, who is a fine starter, but he is NOT Jonathan Joseph. Will they extend Hall's contract now? Will the Tea Party support public education? Ha. Don't hold your breath.
The Bungals added some decent linebackers to help out the defense, so that's a good sing.
They also landed a great strong safety in Donte Whitner . . . for about three hours. He had agreed to terms with the Bengals (and even tweeted that he was Cincy bound) but 'agreed to terms' is not the same as 'signed a contract." In typical Bungal fashion they let the 49ers swoop in and sing Whitner to a more lucrative offer. Now they have one of the weakest safety tandems in the league! This happened when we thought we had Warren Sapp signed and when we thought we had a deal in place for Shaun Rogers.
Despite the NFLs mandated spending up to the 130 million dollar salary cap (and with the Bengals having tons of money to spend), they still went on the cheap and didn't sign any real stars or even extend the contracts of their own quality players (Leon Hall, Andre Whitworth, Jerome Simpson). I guess the money doesn't have to spent prior to the start of the season, which means Brown has to spend it on contract extensions, but we'll see about that. For some reason, instead of paying his better players very well (such as TJ Houschmandzedah or Joseph or Eric Steinbach or Justin Smith or Takeo Spikes), Brown would rather waste millions and millions on cheap replacements. TJ left for a better contract in Seattle. So Brown went out and signed Laverneous Coles to a huge contract to replace him. Coles does okay, but he doesn't hold a candle to TJ's productivity. After one season he is cut and the money is wasted. The next year they spend big bucks to land Antonio Bryant, who was injured. They banked on him being recovered in time to play (or the Bengals training staff is so bad that they can't check for a basic knee injury). He never panned out and they cut him (and really wasted about ten million right there). They paid a couple million to land Terrel Owens, who had a good year on the field, but - as usual - was cancerous in the locker room. All that money could have been wisely invested in resigning TJ (and they'd have probably saved money in the long run). But that makes too much sense for Brown to follow.
So, all in all, if the Bengals have a couple of miracles they might finish 6-10.
Ho hum just another year for the Bungals. But as things stand, I might jump ship for the Eagles or Jets. We'll see around week four who my new favorite team will be!
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