WhoDeyRevolution

Odds & Ends

Recent disappointing injury news and cuts aside, the Bengals still have plenty to be optimistic about going into this season (though I still want my 3 number 1 WR juggernaut dammit). 

For a dose of optimism, head to Bill Simmons land - roughly all of ESPN.com - and check out his recent podcasts on the upcoming NFL season to hear him do a complete 180 on the Bengals.  In part 1 of his podcast with Cousin Sal, where they go through the Vegas lines, he shits all over their prospects.  Then a week later talking with Mike Lombardi of nfl.com they both seem to think the Bengals can contend for the Superbowl.  Anyway, I recommend listening to all his NFL podcasts if for no other reason than to get your crack fix of NFL info for the day.  It's only 1130 and I'm already twitching like a junkie.

A friend of mine was walking around NYC and popped this photo of a small business store front:

Bryant Saga Reveals Bengals' Ongoing Problems

Sleeping with Bienemy and Sly have already given you their takes today on the Bengals wasting almost $9M on Antonio Bryant. But as Mo Egger points out this morning, this highlights an ongoing problem with the Bengals medical and training staff that goes back at least till 2007.

Still though, this organization needs to seriously examine its medical staff. Someone put this dude through a physical. Someone decided his knee was going to fine. Someone thought Antonio Bryant was healthy enough to give a ton of money to. Someone decided he could go through OTAs and minicamps. Someone decided to have him practice on the first day of training camp.

And remember, this is the same staff that misdiagnosed Chris Perry's knee, more or less blew off the pain Levi Jones had in his knee, and let Willie Anderson's bad foot go untreated in 2007. They also claimed Andre Smith didn't need surgery on his foot a year ago.

Those are some pretty important players.

We rip on the Bengals for having substandard scouting and personnel departments, but and NFL team cannot have sustained success with a medical staff that couldn't diagnose my face as having a nose.

These are the sorts of upgrades that we at WDR have been calling for since our founding in 2008. Yes, it is great that we won the AFC North last year.  But until we have the personnel and facilities that are considered top in the league, we will continue to have to deal with these easily avoidable issues.  Our third manifesto demand has always been:  "THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams" for this reason.

As Doc writes: "How does a frugal, family-owned NFL corner store such as the Bengals blow millions on a defective receiver? How will this effect the PBS electric bill? I mean, will they shut down the AC until next July? Will MB charge M. Lewis now, for a place to park? Will players have to brown-bag lunch? Get a membership to the weight room?"

If you are a Bengals fan who wants the team to improve, having the team invest in better medical and training facilities will do much more in the long run than signing receivers like TO to make up for mistakes like Bryant.

THEY SEE ME BANKIN'. THEY HATIN'.

 

Let's All Give Antonio Bryant a Big Welcome to WDR!

Sure, with the release of Antonio Bryant we learned the following:

• the Bengals clearly misdiagnosed the condition of their centerpiece offseason acquisition
• the Bengals didn't really go all out to win for the fans this year and surround Carson Palmer with the weapons he needs by getting TO - they just tried to cover their ass
• the Bengals can still be criminally inept with their decision making, allowing Antonio Bryant to practice the first day of training camp and preventing them from using the PUP exemption for his roster spot
• Bryant's knee is still so bad and the Bengals are so cheap, they won't even hang onto him to see if he can be a long term solution at WR

But nevermind all that, you can read about the whole progression of this epic boondoggle here, instead let's just focus on the upside.  Via Joe Reedy we discover:

Antonio Bryant’s signing ended up being one of the most expensive decisions in the team’s 43 seasons of existence. Without playing a down, Bryant made $6.95 million via a $3.6 million roster bonus, $3.1 million roster bonus which was paid on March 21 and $250,000 for taking part in the team’s offseason workout program.

He could be making even more. Bryant’s agent, Lamont Smith, said that the team did not approach him about an injury settlement and that they would file a grievance to get the $1.55 million in base salary he was slated to make.

That. Is. Fucking. Awesome.

Antonio Bryant took Mike Brown's ass to the bank.  For that alone, Antonio Bryant earns himself a spot in the pantheon of Great Revolutionaries.  For showing up at a one-day workout and fooling the Bengals Bryant cost Mike Brown and his heirs the equivalent of:

• half a year of Club Seat season ticket sales
• about 868,750 beers (assuming $8/beer) concession sales
• about 1,390,000 hot dogs concession sales
• over 4,156 years of Indian Hill Swim club memberships
• and last (but not least) 1,737,500 Denny's Friend Cheese Melt sandwiches (the horror!)

Say what you want about Bryant, but his ability to conceal the extent of his knee injury did more damage to Bengals pocketbook than we could ever dream to do ourselves.

So congrats Antonio, you'll always be a hero to Bengals fans even though you didn't play a down.

Hi Everybody!

Bengals Head Doctor Nick Riviera's take on Antonio Bryant back when free agency started, "Fit as a fiddle. Sign that man!"

Silver lining - Mike Brown had to eat the signing bonus. I can only imagine the wrath his Denny's waitress felt last night.

When Bad Agents Plot Revenge, No One Wins.

I finally got around to watching the game from last Sunday and there really wasn't that much that stood out to me. Here's what did though, along with some other odds and ends.

• Geno Atkins, to me at least, is a terror on the D-Line. Obviously, he's going up against backups but still, guy gets into the backfield a lot. He seems a step or steps quicker than whoever only momentarily can stay in front of him. 
• Dennis Roland is going to get Carson killed at some point this season. And when that happens, the Bengals be fucked. 
• WHERE THE FUCK IS ANDRE SMITH?  Ok, he's back.  Sort of.  But was Alvin Keels exacting revenge on Katie B and MikeyBoy by trying to have Andre Smith never actually play? I mean, with the de-escalator clause and everything, Keels is hurting his and Andre's own bottom line as well. But Smith is still making plenty of money by being fat and hurt. So maybe Keels is cutting off his nose to spite his face. Which when the Bengals are involved doesn't seem that insane. And in reality, who's fault is it that Andre Smith stayed hurt so long? Could it be the same team doctors and trainers that are playing a part in the Antonio Bryant debacle?
• Speaking of Antonio Bryant. Sleeping W/ Bieniemy isn't the only one simmering with anger over how in the hell the situation has gone from AB being the number 2, to AB lining up in the slot now that TO is in the fold, to AB is still injured, to AB may possibly never play a single down for the Bengals. And it isn't just the the Bengals organization that is causing this to be some such a shitstorm. Where are the journalists who have access to the Bengals? Where is the Enquirer on this? Does the Enquirer even exist anymore? I haven't lived in Cincy for a couple years so if it had folded and no one told me I wouldn't be surprised. 
• If I had to guess which media member asked for Tim Tebow's autograph after the game it would have to be Chick Ludwig. Who if I'm not mistaken is the same guy that was openly calling for the Bengals to take him in the first round, and then sitting back, popping the champagne, and letting the championships roll in.*

*Peter King may have actually said that last part about the champagne and the winning but you know Chick was thinking it.

Antonio Bryant: WTF?!

Even though I reside outside Cincinnati, I still like to think I am able to maintain a good handle on the general Zeitgeist of the team and its fans.  And as best I can tell, no one seems to give a shit about this whole Bryant situation.

Well.  I give a shit.  I give lots of giant, Andre Smith man-tittie sized (and shaped?) shits.

Do you know that, as of this moment, you can go to Joe Reedy's blog or NFL.com and see casual mentions of the fact that the Bengals might consider reaching an injury settlement with their centerpiece offseason acquisition?  This means (ahem) HE WOULD NEVER EVEN PLAY A DOWN FOR THE TEAM DESPITE SIGNING A LONG TERM DEAL.

Are fucking kidding me?  Please find me examples of a team bringing in a guy for a workout, giving him a physical, taking that guy over someone else that they ended up bringing in later, and then having that acquisition fall apart before the start of the season for an injury that happened the previous season.

Unbelievable.

You may think I am too hard or biased against the Bengals.  But go back and look at my writing on Bryant...I thought the whole bringing in TO thing was just the Bengals positioning themselves for a Superbowl run this year due to a looming lockout next year.  I specifically thought the injury to Bryant angle was revisionist history and seemed incorrect.  Why?  Because no one talked about Bryant's lingering injury until we signed TO!

The addition of TO and the confidence in Shipley and Gresham to produce right away likely explains everyone's seeming willingness to just kinda sorta glance over this issue but I say FUCK THAT.  I thought the Bengals went out and got us a goddamn 3 number 1 WR juggernaut.  But no, it seems more and more like the Bengals just screwed up massively on this one.  Let's recap what happened with Bryant just so it's clear:

• Coles does not work out, we part ways with him after the season
• Bengals express interest in Marshall, Bryant & TO
• Bryant and TO come in for back to back workouts
• Bengals decide they like Bryant best
• Bengals offer Bryant 4 year $28 million contract with $10 million guaranteed
• Somewhere along the line, Bengals learn that Bryants knees suck
• Team brings in TO on very favorable terms
• Story line publicly emerges that Bryant's knee still sucks
• Bryant practices in first day of training preventing Bengals from putting him on "reserve" PUP
• Chad & TO become the overwhelming focus of attention and analysis
• Bryant slips into the background, and everyone forgets he was supposed to be the future number 1 on our team for the rest of Carson's prime
• The Bengals are now discussing cutting Bryant and eating some of the guaranteed money

Holy shit what a fucking debacle.  This, friends, smacks of the way the Bengals historically fucked us.  It's a giant stain on an otherwise decent off season.

The PUP thing in particular, now that is impossible to deny that Bryant remains injured, stands out as a truely idiotic.  Okay - the Bengals botched their physical of Bryant, clearly that's worse overall.  But it's still a 4 year deal and Bryant has true #1 talent.  If he doesn't play to begin the year (or even play at all) we can survive, we now have options with the addition of TO and the draft picks.  Bryant can still be a good long term signing for future years.  So why are we considering cutting him?  Are the knees that bad?  And if they are why did they sign him?  Aren't we running in circles now?  AAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH.

Anyway, in the meantime, I still can't let go of the WR juggernaut that I feel I am owed, dammit!  Fans have Superbowl expectations, not wholly unreasonable I might add.  But without The Juggernaut, the Bengals as Superbowl contenders thesis takes a large hit.

My hope is that Bryant gets better and can play even if he needs some time beyond the preseason.  And I hope perhaps there is more to this story that will explain to me exactly how the Bengals got themselves in this position.  Regardless, I remain convinced that the Bengals need loud critics to keep their asses in line.  This whole incident should remind all fans that MGMT still has a long way to go.

More On TO Being Bryant Insurance

In my mind, only TO two narratives explain the signing and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  The first, and most popular as far as I can tell, is this:

Turns out Bryant's knee still remains a disaster and the Bengals signed TO out of desperation since they do not think they have the guy they need.

Just google "Antonio Bryant Bengals" and you'll see what I mean.  The second, which I really don't hear at all is:

The Bengals have (or at least, believe they do) all the pieces in place except for the passing game, which last excelled with a three headed monster (Chad, TJ & Henry).  They liked TO enough to bring him in for a workout earlier but thought Bryant was a better fit.  TO's price dropped enough that they realized they might be able to create the three headed monster again.  With the one year nature of TO and the potential lockout looming after this year, they made the move to win now.

According to virtually everyone whose job relates to football (journalists and agent Drew Rosenhaus even), and who know much more than me, the first narrative is the truth.  I actually never even considered the first narrative until yesterday when I kept reading things like this from Ross Tucker of CNNSI:

Antonio Bryant's knee is a serious concern for the Bengals. There is simply no other explanation for why they would even want T.O. in the first place. Not only do they already have Chad Ochocinco entrenched as the No. 1 receiving option, but they have invested three draft picks on receiver (3rd-round or higher) in the last three years.

This really bothers me and not just because I can easily think of another explanation (it's fucking TO - for 2 million bucks).  It bothers me because a side effect of this signing has been a kind of public questioning of Bryant as a viable WR.  We need some actual clarification because this is a very big deal if true.  Some possible explanations for why this whole Bryant thing seems like it's totally out of nowhere to me:

1. The Bengals really botched their evaluation of Bryant when they worked him out this off season before signing him and tried to hide it til now
2. Journalists are just trying to come up with an explanation/angle for the signing and this seems like the most obvious
3. I am dangerously out of touch with what's going on (it's probably this)

As I recall during free agency mania, the Bengal worked out both Bryant and TO on back to back days (the same day?).  They then chose Bryant.  Presumably because, in part, he had a better workout even when his knee was worse off.   So what changed since then?  Bryant should only have gotten healthier, right?

I dug through archives since minicamp of Joe Reedy's blog.  Not really any huge red flags that his knee would be a problem, just a general "can he come back to full strength from knee problems last year" type thing.  Okay fine.  But that is not new information.  It is mentioned that Bryant sat out the last day of minicamps but the reason was described as "mainly veteran's rest."  Otherwise, all I saw was a casual mention that "Antonio Bryant and Adam Jones continued to look good."

Again, what specifically changed since minicamp to Bryant's heath that made a TO signing so much more urgent?

Anyway, I don't get it.  The first report I can dig up on the media audit trail comes from Chris Mortensen on twitter here.  It's from the 23rd of July.  A whopping 5 days ago.  Where has all this talk of Bengals concern and the coaches being "lukewarm" been until now?

The second narrative always made more sense to me.  It even did that oh so rare thing:  put the Bengals in a positive light - they went out and spent money to win now.  The Bryant speculation changes that.

Still, it seems to me the Bengals may have had interest in TO all along but just took a gamble that his price would drop.  An interview with Brad Johansen did indeed confirm this signing appeared to be indepedent of Bryant's health.  Perhaps concerns of Bryant's knee did indeed make the pursuit of TO all the more urgent (it wouldn't surprise me to find out the Bengals cut corners on their research on Bryant's health).  But I still think trying to win now, despite the Bengals history of ineptitude, actually makes more sense and doesn't require revisionist history of concerns about Bryant's health that apparently were known all along.

Anyway, I gotta think Bryant feels pretty shitty about all this speculation (really?  talk of cutting Bryant?  really?)  Particularly if it is just speculation.  I guess we'll find out at training camp soon enough.  And even if TO does provide insurance, it's just for this year and is not a long term answer.

Update:  the Bengals, rightly so, are trying to counteract the injury story line, which needs to be killed if it is false

Another Interpretation

When you find yourself refreshing Joe Reedy's tweets and ProFootballTalk every 15 minutes for a few days, it's safe to say you might be losing the forest for the trees.  I never before so much as waded into the pool of manic free agency update obsession, but I dove in head first this year.

I am wondering if that made my judgment worse.

We signed Antonio Bryant.  At first a supporter of making a big run at Marshall, I talked myself into Bryant being a better football and business decision over the course of my posts.

But as with all large purchases, sometimes you can't tell how you really feel until you finally buy it and bring it home.  And the more I reflect, the less good I feel about it. 

But my issue is not necessarily with Bryant, who will hopefully be a fine player and solid complement to Chad, it is more with what it says about the Brown Family.  I credited them yesterday with landing the top UFA out there.  But really, why did they deserve much credit when:

1. They put themselves in the position of needing to take expensive chances on free agent receivers in the first place by letting TJ go and squandering many draft picks on WRs who so far have not produced
2. They merely replaced the Coles contract they planned on having with a slightly more expensive contract for Bryant (front-loaded payments for Coles 4 year, $7 mil/year deal do mean the Bengals did cost themselves more than just keeping Coles without replacing him)
3. They chose to forgo the bold opportunity (albeit not without risk) to majorly upgrade the offense and secure a top wide receiving talent for a long time - probably balking at cost.  But with non-guaranteed contracts and the Bengals track record of drafting, neither the cost of the contract or the loss of a draft pick would be able to derail the franchise for any extended period of time

The Bryant deal was nice.  But unlike my initial thoughts, I don't think it signals any change in the way Mikey does things.  A run at Marshall would have.  I once wrote the Bengals basic strategy in the draft was to "dream small and give fans the middle finger", and I feel like perhaps this move represents a less egregious version of that.

In the end, Antonio Bryant plus our first round draft pick may end up exceeding in value what we might have gotten out of Marshall.  However, instead of making the boldest move possible, our management just made a decently savvy swap of Coles for Bryant.  I guess it's nice to see they do make some savvy moves these days, instead of approximately zero savvy moves from 1991-2002, but this signing does not represent a meaningful departure from the past.