WhoDeyRevolution

The RB Situation

This morning Baghdad Hob unleashed a dizzyingly spun article about Ced Benson looking like the next Walter Payton. First off, we all know Ced Benson played well at the end of last year. He's a big strong runner that can pound DB's and the occasional out of position LB, but I'm not sold on him as the guy who can carry the load for a whole year. Remember, he did only average 3.49 yards/carry in his 214 carries last year. Albeit those yards were coming from behind a very very bad line for most of his games. The good games he did have were against very bad teams/defenses. His season average before he got to play the hapless Browns and Chiefs the last two games of the year was 3.08 yards/carry. I admit that what I just did is called cherry picking but ask yourself this, if he had finsihed the year at 3.08 and you didn't have the residual effects of seeing him pound on the Browns would you be nearly as sold on him?

Also, I said it before in a post and I'll say it right now, I would feel much more comfortable giving him a week by week contract, similar to how the NBA does 10 day deals for fringe players, so that he would never be able to revert back into Bears Cedric that didn't always seem to have his head right. Behind Benson are the usual suspects of Watson, DeDe, then the new guys, Bernard Scott, Leonard, and whoever else. The Bengals were complacent in the offseason to say the least. They took a flyer on Scott and added a guy with a great motor. Pop out the Champagne, cause the Bengals have a Triple Crown winning stable right there.

To help Benson at the end of the year the Bengals seemed to find the right combination of Collins, Whitworth, Bad Center Guy, Bobbie and S Andrews. This year to start it looks like it's going to be Whitworth at LT and then some assortment of Bobbie, Livings, Collins and a player TBD. (Despite all of Hobson's Mad Eye Moody nonsense saying Whitworth is a good Tackle because he frustrated Henderson so much and then Henderson gouged him, wasn't Whitworth playing LG that day?) Does that sound like a line that is going to create holes for Ced? Not to me atleast. And who would I be if I didn't give a shout out to Hob and his mad prose stylings. Take it away Geoff...

Certainly Palmer thinks it's his time, period. That baggage Benson arrived with back on Sept. 30? Aloof? Bad guy? It's been checked into the black hole of time and space.

Bengals to Bring Back Another Player Nobody Else Wanted

Pro Football Talk brings to our attention that Mike Brown's Bengals are reportedly bringing back former fullback Jeremi Johnson.  What the PFT post correctly tells us is that Johnson appeared in 50 games for us, was injured and then released in November.  What the PFT post doesn't tell us is that Johnson was unable to suit up for the Bengals last year after someone ate him and showed up to training camp claiming to play fullback for the Bengals. 

On one hand, the Bengals have a huge need at fullback and might as well bring him back and see if he can return to be what many thought was a productive fullback.  The Bengals certainly had at least one season of an effective running game when he was lead blocking.  Maybe he actually got back in shape.  On the other hand, it is always alarming to see the Bengals bring in another player that no other team picked up.  Think over the years how many players we've had (with significant playing time) that were released or not re-signed that no other team was interested in.  Listed below are such players.  Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Caleb Miller, Chris Henry, Tab Perry, Eric Ghiaciuc, Ron Dugans, Dede Dorsey, Anthony Schlegel, Kim Herring, Dexter Jackson, Ifeanyi Ohalete....There must be more...

An even more alarming thought: How many more of these guys are on our team?

Baghdad Hob Continues To Unequivocally Dominate The Spin Zone

Ol' Baghdad Hob is up to his old tricks, hiding Mikey's incompetence and trying to convince us that he is a "real" journalist and not a paid employee of the Bengals.  In today's issue, he discusses how the Bengals can reinvent themselves like the Dolphins did this year, but failing to mention the Dolphins hired BILL PARCELLS to head up the player personnel department.

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=7338

Q: This season is clearly over, however I still am a strong believer that this team has talent. Look at how close we played the Giants and Cowboys, two of the better teams in the league. How comparable do you think this team is to the Dolphins of last year? They went 1-15 and now are in the playoff hunt. Do you think the Bengals could do something similar in 2009?
--Peter, Pittsburgh, PA

I have a feeling that this "Peter from Pitt" character is being very sarcastic.

PETER: With a healthy Carson Palmer and favorable schedule rotation (AFC West, NFC North) like the Dolphins have, anything is possible.

Looks like B Hob is warming up with a quick anything is possible line. He must have to close his eyes and imagine some other team when he types these leaps of faith in the Bengals.

But they will also have to do some things like the Dolphins did this past offseason by making some gains in mid-level free agency and getting better play out of some veterans.

If by free agency he means HIRING BILL PARCELLS and letting him run the show, then I'll let this line slide. Nope. Well maybe he's getting ready to give Parcells his own paragraph.

Cedric Benson: A Brief History

For those of you who think this is a good signing (I admit, I liked it for about 1 minute, until Comrade Brosef Stalin talked some sense into me), lets look back at Mr. Benson's career in the NFL.

In Mr. Benson's first training camp, his teammates hated him so much they tried to injure him.  Fox Sports Jay Glazer (who gets every scoop in the NFL) said that 10 Bears Defensive players told him they were trying to injure Cedric.