WhoDeyRevolution

Chad Johnson Begins the Delicate Process of Winning Back My Heart

I've been off of the Chad Johnson bandwagon for a while now.  Probably since the Christmas Eve debacle in Denver when he would have done less damage by taking a dump on the 50 yard line (everyone blames Brad St. Louis now, but he had 3 catches for 32 yards with a fumble lost and an illegal motion penalty that negated a long Chris Henry touchdown).  He's probably the best route runner I've ever seen, but he seems to disappear when it counts.  I believe him when he says he wants to win more than anything, but he fails to realize that so often he's much more of a problem than a solution.

All that being said, he'll be playing for the Cincinnati Bengals this season.  It's more than likely he'll score a touchdown this season.  When he does, I'll be cheering like the sucker that I am.  This being the case, I know that I'll have to at least tolerate him for one more year.  This quote will help:

"Ghiaciuc's play was a distraction. Of all people to call me that."

I couldn't have said it any better myself.  This is the first time I've seen anyone with the organization call out the abortion that was Eric Ghiaciuc.  Kudos, Chad.

WDR's Stance on Chad Johnson's Latest Antics: WHO CARES?!? - UPDATED

Chad Johnson has had quite a week.  He is now using Twitter like a 14 year old girl texts and now has face tattoos of the State of Florida and one of 2 crosses.  After his year-long temper tantrum last year and poor performance on the field, these kind of antics have become quite a tired act.  I can't believe anyone is still entertained by Chad's craziness. 

That being said, if the Bengals start winning a lot of football games and maybe, I don't know, make the playoffs and perhaps win a playoff game or two (goals for most NFL teams), and Chad is back to his old self on the FIELD, I will be loving any crazy thing Chad does/says.   Until then, tattoos, twitter, blah blah blah...start winning and performing on the field and then I will pay attention to your act again.

I was more encouraged by the fact that he actually showed up to the OTAs this week so he and Carson can actually practice throwing and catching footballs together.   This is a good thing and hopefully shows he will be a different receiver this year.

Quick side note: I will continue to refer to 85 as "Chad Johnson" until he actually starts doing well on the football field.  Remember the scene in "Coming to America" where the guys in the barber shop are debating what to call Muhammed Ali/Cassius Clay?  Well, in this case, I am siding with Clarance:

Saul: Goddammit. If a man wants to call himself Muhammed Ali, I say Muhammed Ali.
Clarence: Mama call him Clay - I call him Clay. Cassius Clay.

UPDATE: Apparently the whole "facial tattoo" thing was a joke.  From @OGOchoCinco: "The entire twitt world and media outlets got punked, that was my twitt joke from yesterday, they follow I'll have fun with it." 

As I stated earlier: who cares, let's play some football.

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. 

Bengals Offseason Thoughts...

A recurring theme that I am hearing around town and reading on various websites is how well the Bengals off-season is going.  I must say there is a lot of room for optimism given the talent that has come on board in recent months. With big marquee names such as Laveranues Coles, Roy Williams, Tank Johnson, Andre Smith, Rey Maualuga, third rounder DE Michael Johnson, and the retention of the virtual Swiss Army Knife lineman Scott Kooistra, there is no doubt that the talent on this squad has been upgraded... I really hope that the addition of these players can create some synergies on both sides of the ball that will give us something to get excited about on Sundays. And it could happen, as it did when we caught lightning in a bottle in 2005.  However, I cannot find myself getting TOO excited just yet.  

Take the first three players taken in the draft for example. Andre Smith is a great talent, however he blew up in weight (although he is back down around 330), suspiciously fired his agent, and went AWOL at the NFL draft without telling anyone.  We don't know what will happen in his current predicament, but we do have an indication that he might not be the most disciplined person on earth. Consider 2nd round pick Rey Maualuga, the fierce tackler from USC.  He's got a great motor, but many football analysts say that he is commonly found out of position.  Don't forget that players being out of position, or "not getting in their fits", are two of Marvin's greatest excuses for losing football games.I am looking forward to the Odell-like energy he will bring to the defense, but let's hope he doesn't make too many mistakes.  Lastly take Michael Johnson, the highly talented, freak specimen of a football player from GT.  His measurable are off the charts, but his unmeasurables leave a lot to be desired.  The scoop on him is that he rarely gave 100% effort, and took many plays off. Not a good sign.  And that was in the ACC... Imagine how it will be for him in the NFL...

Now lets take a look at the veteran acquisitions... Roy Williams... He's a hard hitter, but is not very good at pass coverage...  Sounds like he would fall into the "out of position" category of Marvin's favorite excuse for losing. What about Tank Johnson?  Talk about the epitome of bad character.  THis guy was busted in 2005 for carrying a gun in a Chicago nightclub, and then while still on probation was busted for verbally threatening an officer outside of another sweet Chicago nightclub.  Later on in 2006, police searched his home in one of the most notorious NFL busts of recent history, finding an arsenal of assault weapons that would make Bin Laden blush...  I think an organization like the Patriots could make a guy like Tank fit into their philosophy. But the Bengals, not even having a philosophy, might have a hard time bringing him down to earth.  

Again, you can call me negative, but I want the Bengals to dominate as much as any other Bengals fan. I just don't have the confidence in current Bengals leadership to get these guys into the right "fits" as Marvin would say.  

Remember Comrades... My harping is not aimed at these players themselves.  It is aimed at the coaches and the owners ability to put their talent to proper use... And they have proven over the last 18 years that they cannot do it.

 

Clark Judge, Telling It Like It Is.

Check out the following excerpt from an article posted by Clark Judge of CBS Sportsline...  In my opinion, his assessment is spot on.. Chad completely checked out last year, and it couldn't be more obvious with these stat lines.  I am eager to see how he reacts to the addition of the comparable talent of Laveranues Coles.  Will he pout and not give 100% effort? Will he try even harder to show off his skill set in order to position himself for a somewhat lucrative career after the Bengals?  I would love nothing more than to see Carson tossing bombs to him on a weekly basis, but we will have to wait and see.

Cincinnati keeping Chad Johnson/Ocho Cinco

The Bengals lost T.J. Houshmandzadeh, so it figures that they keep Chad, right? You must be joking. Once this guy got a pass because he produced big catches and lots of touchdowns. Not anymore. He didn't have a 100-yard game a year ago. In fact, his best performance was 79 yards, and in all but three of his performances he couldn't reach 50. Plus, he scored four times. So it tied for the team lead. Big deal. This guy won't go over the middle and is a locker-room nightmare, a sulking prima donna who can't cut it anymore. I don't care that he once was a deep threat. He's more a threat now to the future of Marvin Lewis and the Bengals. Get rid of him.

The Effect of Silent Evidence

By recommendation of Comrade Bienemy, I have been reading an incredibly interesting (and way above my head) book called The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In it he talks about something called silent evidence, which is the result of the human tendency to consider only the facts presented, while ignoring other relevant facts that are less apparent, or that take more energy to uncover.

This concept made me think of the NFL college talent scouting process, and how scouts are charged with not only analyzing the apparent facts of potential draft picks, but by going several layers deeper into the player's history and personality traits in order to determine their compatibility with the team's philosophy. The silent evidence in this case would not just be a quick search of a player's criminal history, which would only include the times they got caught. Besides, this information is gathered by the league office, making it widely available to every NFL team. The silent evidence would be the kind of things players have done in the past WITHOUT getting caught, or simply the character flaws that the college coach of a player isn't going to give away to a scout that he does not know.

What I have been told by an anonymous Comrade who has an in depth knowledge of the NFL scouting process is that aside from analyzing film and practices all year long, a lot of the real data is learned (just like working in the corporate world and being in sales) in that you have to develop relationships. The real trade secret is getting to know the assistant coaches. It takes time, many years to build a relationship with an assistant coach, as they are the ones who will tell you the real character of the college player. All criminal information is supposed to be sent to the NFL league office now, so technically, all teams should have access to that high level type of information. But just as we all know from our college experiences, there are many star players or kids of multi-millionaires, where certain known incidents just never seem to make it to campus security or to the local police recordings. 

James Walker Reads WDR

Okay, not really.  But he highlights one of the bigger strategic blunders made concerning our offensive line:

Jim from Zanesville writes: "The recent release offensive tackle Levi Jones was the final link to another example of poor management by the Cincinnati Bengals." They seem to provide a lot of examples. You and I disagree on whether this year will be another one.

James Walker: No, Jim. You misread the blog. The mistake Cincinnati made was three years ago after giving Jones and former teammate Willie Anderson huge contracts at the expense of a young, up-and-coming guard in Eric Steinbach. Steinbach left for Cleveland two years ago and became a Pro Bowler. The Bengals cut Anderson last year, and Jones' release this week was the final link to those poor management decisions the team made in 2006. I hope that clears it up.

Levi Jones Cut

In a largely expected move, Levi Jones has been cut, as reported by Pro Football Talk.  Jones was reportedly informed that the team would try to trade him and otherwise release him after Offensive Tackle, Andre Smith was drafted with the 6th overall pick.  The move saves a lot of money (namely, a $3 million base salary due to Jones this year), which will most certainly be used to sign Smith and the other draft picks.  Two WDR thoughts on the matter:

(1) WDR does like the move (mostly because of #2 below) but it sure puts a lot of pressure on rookie tackle, Andre Smith and second year tackle, Anthony Collins.  Without Levi there, our line is very young and when you combine it with the fact that our center will have 0 NFL starts going into next season and will possibly be a rookie, it is no surprise what will determine the Bengals' 2009-10 success: Offensive Tackle, Offensive Tackle, Center. 

(2) And the amount of Bengals who don't want to be on the Bengals and are vocal about it is down to one.  As mentioned, the move is fine but WDR sure wishes we would have excommunicated the last remaining one.  While there was potential excitement to see the OchoCinco/Coles combination, this has been diluted by Chad's refusal to show up to any voluntary workouts and reportedly crying on the phone to TJ Houshmandzadeh because he can't get himself traded.

While We're Talking About Jason Peters...

...check out some of the stuff about the Eagles motivations for this deal and what Andy Reid has to say about his offensive line in the articles about the trade:

"I have always believed that success in the NFL is derived from the strong play of the offensive and defensive lines. This offseason we have added two young, top-flight offensive linemen in Jason and Stacy Andrews."

Agreed, Andy Reid, couldn't have said it better ourselves...oh wait, we already did in the Manifesto.

Also, the articles note that the Eagles acquired two tackles even though they only needed one to replace departed free agent Tra Thomas.  Why did they spend megabucks and draft picks on two tackles then?  Because aging star Jon Runyan will need to be replaced and they wanted to plan ahead.

Correction:  Runyan is a free agent, however, it's less that he is a free agent than he has some injury issues that may affect him going forward that prevents the Eagles from resigning him.  Regardless, they needed a plan to replace him.

Decisions Mike Brown Would Never Make: Chad Johnson & Jason Peters Edition

Other than what would happen with the draft, which is now settled, the biggest question mark for me was what the Bengals might do with Chad Ochocinco.  So let's talk about Chad by way of Jason Peters...

Jason Peters got his chance with Buffalo as an undrafted tight end.  Buffalo developed Peters, eventually moving him to left tackle where he made a couple pro bowls.  Realizing they had a good one on their hands, the Bills signed the young, talented Peters to a contract.  Not long into this contract Peters up and decided he wanted to be the highest paid tackle in the game (sure, why not?).  And he backed up his threat with consecutive off seaons of discontent (didn't report until the day before the opener in 2008 and made noise this off season).