WhoDeyRevolution

Odds and Ends

The news around the Bengals has come to a standstill, but ProFootballTalk has floated the possibility of Leon Hall being punished by the league for his run in with the law. Hall isn't going to be suspended for a first offense when a guy with a good motor like Matt Jones gets nothing for his indiscretions. But in the off chance that Goodell wants to stick it to Mikey Boy because the Bengals in the past were such a blight on the landscape of the NFL, we all could be watching David "Physicality" Jones lining up as a starting corner again.

Also, Marvin made some cryptic comments about Chad today. Chad will apparently be at the mandatory minicamp in a couple weeks. Hopefully he participates and you know, plays catch with Carson for a while. When asked by Hob if Chad would be a starting receiver two weeks from now, Marv responded, "I'll see him when I see him." I have no idea what that means but whatever, Chad wants that paycheck and he'll be there.  

James Walker's Conspiracy Theory...Can You Really Argue With It?

WDR is a little confused about the Bengals early announcement of moving Andrew Whitworth to left tackle, putting first round selection Andre Smith at right tackle, plugging in Nate Livings at left guard (and unrelated to this post, putting Kyle Cook at center).  But apparently, with the 6th overall pick, the Bengals selected a right tackle, as announced earlier this week.  This is rare as most of the tackles selected that high in the draft are put on the left to protect the Quarterback's blind side. 

It's not a shock that Andre Smith would begin at right tackle in his first season but it is surprising that Marvin Lewis indicated that he would be a right tackle for years to come, and Whitworth would be the club's left tackle for years to come.  ESPN's James Walker has a conspiracy theory.  Walker explains his thought that the announcing of the move this early is indeed a little odd, correctly mentions that "With a team like Cincinnati, you always follow the money trail," and hypothesizes that it's a move to gain leverage in Andre Smith negotiations and ultimately pay Smith less money. Can anyone argue with this? Should these really be the underlying reasons for who goes where on our offensive line?

It remains to be seen whether Whitworth will be able to effectively transition to left tackle.  It also remains to be seen whether Nate Livings, a former undrafted free agent, can be an effective left guard.  Those are two large question marks on Carson Palmer's blind side.  At the least, what can be said is that the O-line has red flags all over it.  We now have legitimate questions at left tackle, left guard and center at a minimum.  Right guard Bobbie Williams will continue to be Bobbie Williams.  And although WDR is fairly confident Andre Smith can be an effective right tackle, if negotiations go sour and there's a holdout, another question mark may arise if he's significantly late to camp or we have to plug someone else in there because of the amount of time Smith misses.  While it's difficult not to like the team's offseason moves, one cannot reasonably conclude that this line does not have red flags all over it for next season. 

Cincinnati Hasn't Had This Much To Talk About Since The Danny Farmer Era.

Last week the Bengals traded for Brian Leonard. While this addition very well may not matter big scheme wise, it did ignite a discussion in WDR's break room. Who Dey Rev guarantees all of these things will be said about Brian Leonard this year.

1. This guy's got a lot of heart.
2. He just flat out loves to play the game of football.
3. The guy clearly is a competitor.
4. What a great motor.
5. He's a real throwback.
6. He reminds me of Brian Milne.

WDR can't quite figure it out why we know that Brian Leonard tries harder and loves the game of football more than your typical NFL RB. 

If David Eckstein was two feet taller and 100 pounds heavier he would be Brian Leonard. But then there would be two of them. And since two of the exact same person can't occupy the same plane of existence without the world enveloping itself, they would have to fight to the death. Luckily Brian Leonard would win.

Mike Brown Enters His Golden Era

Mike Brown has been waiting for this day his whole life. He has saved and screwed and saved for his shining moment. Tomorrow, with the blessing and financial underpinnings of the Clermont County Bureau of Commerce, Brown will be the proud landlord of a 12 store commercial zone on Route 32.

    "It's been a long journey, but someday somehow I knew I could get here." Brown said between raindrop sized tears of joy. "The Bengals Organization was only a stepping stone towards my ultimate goal of running a strip mall anchored with a Denny's and a Men's Wearhouse."

    As of now, the Bengal's franchise has been put in a storage facility near the Lion's Den Porn Outlet off of 71.

    With his family alongside him, Brown will get to cut a big ribbon in half with a big pair of scissors. Coincidentally, the same pair of oversized scissors he has team doctors use when exploring hurt Bengals for their "owwie spot."

"I will leave no stone unturned to make sure that this cropping of land will be competitive in bringing in commuter traffic." Brown said, "Just this morning I met with a potential company. They technically are insolvent but I see a lot of promise and I think with my help they can turn it around at the Browntown Plaza."

Denver Broncos - Committed to Win the Super Bowl

PFT brings our attention to a letter sent by Pat Bowlen, the owner of the Denver Broncos, to the team's season ticket holders in response to the Jay Cutler debacle, which some would argue rivaled last year's Chad Johnson debacle.  Leaving aside what you think about the Jay Cutler situation, let's consider two points:

(1) The Broncos had a young, promising quarterback that showed an ability to succeed early in his career (which as we know, is hard to come by).  Cutler was about 1/20th as loud as Chad Johnson was last year in asking for a trade.  Nonetheless, the situation became a distraction for the Broncos as the Quarterback was non-responsive to his team and his agent insisted that Cutler be traded.  Rather than bringing that distraction and media frenzy into the 2009 season, they dealt him (for Kyle Orton, 2 first round draft picks and a third round pick).  Only time will tell if this deal is a good one but given the spiraling out of control of the situation, it's tough to argue with the Broncos pulling the trigger.  Perhaps Denver coach Josh McDaniels' decision to go after Matt Cassell and try to trade Cutler was a mistake in the first place but that's besides the point.  The team had a player who didn't want to be a part of the team and a potential distraction (and one not nearly as big as the Chad circus last year) and they dealt with it.  Meanwhile, despite Chad's antics last year, Chad remains on the Bengals this year and after a horrid 2008 season, is once AGAIN skipping voluntary workouts.  And this despite the fact that Carson, Chad and TJ couldn't get on the same page during voluntary workouts last season after the latter two skipped last year's voluntary workouts. 

(2) More importantly, Denver's owner wrote the season ticketholders a letter to address the Cutler media frenzy and assure Bronco fans that Denver is committed to being a championship team.  Bowlen writes to his fans:

Understand this:   it remains about team.  Our franchise has gone to the Super Bowl six times, with three different coaches and with many different players.  It has never been about one player, and it never will be.   Coach McDaniels shares this vision, and everyone in the organization — players, coaches and staff — must understand and accept this unconditionally.   If anyone does not, that person will not be a part of this franchise.

Dhani Continues To Be Quite The Renaissance Man

So I watched the surprisingly entertaining Dhani Tackles The Globe last night. I missed the first insallment so this was my first foray into the mind of our most intriguing Bengal. Anyway, the episode had him in Switzerland training for some sort of swiss sumo wrestling competition as well as wandering around ingratiating himself with the reclusive country.

Am I the only one that doesn't understand how if he is under contract with the Bengals he can also be doing dangerous things with his body like wrestling and kickboxing and playing rugby? Is he just taking the chance that Mikey Boy hasn't bought into the whole cable TV fad and won't be able to watch the show? To be clear, I am not bitching about Dhani doing some extracurriculars in the offseason. I think it's pretty badass actually. But with all of these reports of athletes getting hurt playing hoops in the offseason, or in the case of hoopster Monta Ellis getting hurt riding a motorscooter, how is Dhani allowed to do this? There has to be a clause in his contract about it being voidable if he gets his collarbone broken on the show. Also, with how much of a joke certain other Bengals treat the offseason, i.e. Levi living underneath a Blizzard machine at a local DQ and Shayne Graham wearing sequined jeans and displaying his once-in-a-generation leadership skills in Mt. Adams, it's nice to know that at least Dhani is doing something active.

With all that aside, Dhani is definitely the coolest Michigan alum I know (He's also the only one I will acknowledge knowing). He has his own tie collection, can carry a cable show, may still ride his bike to work every day, and most awesomely, was arrested in Miami for serving some cop. Basically he's everything Chad could be if he had a working brain. Okay, that's a little harsh. But you get my point.

Bengals Petition NFL

Mike Brown's Bengals know their 44-game sellout streak is in trouble.  Big trouble. 

WDR has learned that the Bengals have petitioned the NFL to tailor their schedule to protect their sellout streak, which would prevent a local blackout here in Cincinnati.  As we understand it, the Bengals have presented the following scenarios:

1)  Sunday or Monday night, prime-time game for their first home game (against any opponent)

2)  Their first home game is against the Browns or the Steelers (traditional sellouts)

3)  Start the first two weeks of the season on the road, where they are 'confident' they can start 2-0 and build momentum going into Week 3 (preferably not the Chiefs, Lions or Texans).

In any of the three options, the thought is that if the Bengals can get some help early with the schedule, they will have a strong enough performance on the field that the rest of the season will sell itself (Again, this is the Bengals philosophy, definitely not mine). 

Typically, the NFL does accommodate some special requests when it comes to scheduling, specifically when teams are opening and closing stadiums, and like to hand-pick opponents (Didn't work out so well for the Cowboys last year, now did it?)

Look, clearly it is in the Bengals best interest to keep that streak alive.  The NFL schedule will be released in April, so we will see how much slack Roger Goodell will cut Mike Brown.

One insight to where the Bengals will play (home or road) is usually found in the Reds schedule, as they rarely schedule a home Reds game and a home Bengals game on the same day (Reds-Cubs and Bengals-Dolphins during Oktoberfest weekend in 2004 was an exception). 

Going on that logic, the Reds are at home on 9/20 and 10/4...so one would think the Bengals will be playing at home at least once on 9/6 or 9/13.

The Offensive Line - What is the Plan?

So apparently, the Bengals might be trying to trade Levi Jones and if they can't trade him, they might release him (h/t Stripe Hype who gave a h/t to Go-Bengals...blogging at its finest).  WDR has no problem with this.  Levi Jones is not a good football player.  At some point in time, he was a good football player.  But then he signed a big fat contract and then started playing like a big fat guy who signed a big fat contract.  He's also expressed multiple times that he doesn't want to be on this football team even though the Bengals have given him a big fat contract and he may not be able to get a big fat contract from anyone else.  As we've seen the last two years, you don't want a guy with a big fat contract who doesn't want to be on the football team protecting your Quarterback's blind side. 

But what WDR has a problem with is where that puts the Offensive Line.  As of now, the Offensive Line is the same minus two starters (Eric Ghiaciuc, Stacy Andrews) and if Levi Jones is traded or released, that's three.  Currently, the following Offensive Tackles, other than Jones, are on the roster: Anthony Collins and Dennis Roland (I don't know who he is either).  Currently, the following Centers are on the roster: Kyle Cook, Andrew Crummey and Dan Santucci (combined starts: 0, combined offensive series: close to 0).  Just exactly what is the plan at Offensive Line?  If Jones is taken out of the equation, the starting O-Line looks like this:

The Extraordinary Circumstances It Took To Get Mike Brown On Twitter

This story comes from an unnamed source in the Mike Brown camp.

Apparently, Mike Brown took up twittering on the advice of his grandkid. It wasn't easy though considering Mike Brown still doesn't know that there is an FM side to radio frequencies.

He was playing the always fun game "master your abacus" with the child when the kid got out his cell phone and started typing away on it. Mike Brown was quizzical as to what this newfangled handheld piece of wizardry thing was and asked if it was a futuristic calculator. The child chided him, "No Grandpapa, this is my phone."

Mike was very confused considering the device didn't have a rotary to dial with nor a large horn shaped receiver to listen and talk through. The kid showed him the phone and how it worked. Mikey, obviously not really grasping the fundamentals of the cell phone, needed a nap before his world started to swirl around him too fast.

If It's Christmas Eve, You've Been Bad - Free Agency Begins Feb. 27

Free Agency is right around the corner and as usual around this time of year, speculation is abound regarding what teams will land what free agents.  This should be an exciting time for every NFL team....emphasis on the word should.  Below is a list of interesting free agents that will potentially be available come Friday.  Many of these names would undoubtedly help our team, some more than others.  Whether you think we should sign them is irrelevant.  You see, the Bengals are cheap have been building through the draft for 18 years and philosophically feel that teams don't win by signing big name free agents even though (a) plenty do, including, but not limited to, the Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys, and (b) our philosophy of building through the draft has been wonderfully ineffective.  The Bengals are $29 million dollars under the salary cap, which is among the largest cap space in the league so perhaps, we will be proven wrong.  But the combination of our frugality and the hesitance of quality free agents to sign with the team with the largest losing culture in the NFL can only lead a reasonable person to predict that once again, we're not landing any quality free agents.  Also, it's not very encouraging that the start of free agency coincides with the date that first payments from season ticket holders are due: "Hey! Let's make them pay BEFORE we don't sign anybody!" 

Anyway, here's the list of some free agents of interest.  Maybe the Bengals will prove us wrong.  Please prove us wrong.  Please?  Just one surprise...just one?

Running Back: Derrick Ward (NYG)

Fullback: Lorenzo Neal (BAL), Heath Evans (NE)

Centers: Matt Birk (MIN), Jeff Saturday (IND), Jason Brown (BAL)

Guard: Jahri Evans (NO)

Offensive Tackle: Khalif Barnes (JAX), John Stinchcomb (NO)

Tight End: Owen Daniels (HOU)

Defensive Tackle: Albert Haynesworth (TEN)

Defensive End: Chris Canty (DAL), Igor Olshansky (SD)

Linebacker: Ray Lewis (BAL), Bart Scott (BAL), Jonathan Vilma (NO), Michael Boley (ATL), Channing Crowder (MIA), Mike Peterson (JAX)

Safety: Brian Dawkins (PHI), Yeremiah Bell (MIA)

Cornerback: Leigh Bodden (DET), Chris McAllister (BAL), Bryant McFadden (PIT)