Nice Guys Get Cut Too

By the end of each and every training camp there is always at least one player who is cut that causes something of a stir. Typically this isn’t one of the team’s marquee players, but does sometimes come in the form of a starter or key backup. There are a few prime candidates on the Bengals this season who could become the next victim of the proverbial chopping block.

One such man whose hopes of having a great season may be dashed before it even begins, is the world’s traveler, Dhani Jones. There are many solid reasons as to why Jones should remain with the team—a veteran presence among a youthful linebacker corps, a cerebral and analytical player who reads before he reacts, and the simple fact that he adds depth to a near-suicidally dangerous job—to name a few.

Yet if a cold, indifferent computer program were to analyze the roster, it might zero in on Dhani and without hesitation—only an old, crappy computer like mine ever hesitates— label him as expendable. He’s old for a position that has the life span of a goldfish (my fish tank is positioned so that my goldfish can read this and they’re now glaring at me with contempt). With the new wave of Keith Rivers, Rey Maualuga and Brandon Johnson settled in as the future of Bengal linebacking, Dhani is simply keeping a seat warm, and how much does one pay for a person to do that? If players like Darryl Blackstock or Rashad Jeanty impress the coaching staff enough during training camp, team management may feel more comfortable letting Jones go, especially if an attractive free agent were to be let go elsewhere and the team needed to free up some cap-space to procure him.

I like the guy. I enjoy his eccentricities, like riding his bike to the stadium with his hipster jeans rolled to his calf, brandishing his army-green wool socks, listening to his ipod and carrying a smallish backpack with probably philosophical reading material inside. And, of course, his television show where he travels the world and competes in zany sports that Americans think they’ve only recalled seeing in a movie somewhere before has done wonders for his public image and fan base. Another certain eccentric character on the Bengals roster could do well to notice how one can intrigue the public in a refined and dignified manner such as Dhani’s.

Nonetheless, football is serious business where friendships are cast off to the side with the sweaty towels, and even teammates must compete against each other—particularly in the summer months. Jones could be seen as something like the grizzle on the edges of a succulent steak; good for seasoning and flavor during its preparation and broiling, but not something you necessarily want to eat. His main priority in the short-term is to season the youngsters who are thought to be the main course of the future. If training camp comes to a close and Dhani is not counted among the surviving 53 players, we as fans can take solace in knowing that he has passed on sage wisdom to his successors. Such a scenario sounds very similar to the fate of Willie Anderson.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

Mojokong—killing off my characters.

Coping With Collateral Damage

Now that the media windstorm of nonsense and ballyhoo has briefly calmed—with all the fuss centered around the expected return of the brash and attention-starved pariah, No. 85—the Bengals, and those who follow them, can focus on the actual playing field. As we speak, football is being played—well, practices are taking place— but the point is, the team is actively preparing itself for its 2009 campaign, and I for one, would rather think and write about what takes place on the field as opposed to what may or may not be on another person’s face.

Last year the Bengals felt the sharp stinger of the injury bug which resulted in a ragtag roster of random players; the duct-tape and scrap-metal guys of the NFL. Out of this bunch, some made a name for themselves, most notably Cedric Benson, and in the process, legitimized some of these drifters from strictly back-up status to serviceable-player status.

By giving the coaches the chance to evaluate young players in real-game scenarios (and realize what veterans had become obsolete), the team’s lack of depth last season has conversely strengthened that very thing for ‘09. Now that the youngsters have some games under their belts and are ready to run with the big dogs, the Bengals cannot afford another season of injury devastation. That dreadful scenario would result with starters becoming even younger and less experienced and eventually would resemble a minor-league football team. Sounds like the NFL’s version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, doesn’t it?

Cincinnati has learned the value of certain positions the hard way. When Carson goes down, the black veils come out and mothers weep at the season’s untimely or premature death, or both. The team upgraded the backup QB spot with J.T. O’Sullivan, but no one–perhaps not even himself–wants to see O’Sullivan play a single down. While Palmer may be at times misconstrued as the Golden Boy and the single variable that hinges on the team’s success, he’s damn sure the best quarterback on the roster and the Bengals badly need him to win.

Mr. Benson is another crucial cog in this new and strange vessel, apparently called an offense, which Marvin Lewis and Bob Bratkowski continue to scurry about desperately trying to make it seaworthy in time for Week 1. Last year Benson showed his stuff (cut-back runner, square head, has a knack for screen passes and draw-plays) and is easily the No. 1 running back on the depth chart, or, as the cliched world of sports terminology insists on calling it, the team’s bell-cow. It’s true that the Bengals have collected some new running backs—Brian Leonard, Bernard Scott and Gary Russell—and still have my main-man, DeDe Dorsey, all who should find some kind of role on the team (perhaps not Russell, he may not make it out of training camp). Still, an injury to Benson, coupled with an unproven offensive line, could sink this team back into the running-game doldrums.

As for that offensive line, rookie tackle Andre Smith would be difficult to replace should he fall to injury or mentally crumble under the duress of the media microscope and public scorn. The versatility of Andrew Whitworth would help soften that kind of a blow as he can move from guard to tackle in a pinch, and Anthony Collins can play either right or left tackle too, but Smith comes to town with expectations as large as his tummy and if the running game is going to mature out of its adolescence, they need Big Andre out there leading the charge.

Defensively, an injury to a starting cornerback it seems would have dire consequences, particularly against three-receiver sets. Third cornerback David Jones, showed consistent improvement last season and the team could survive with him as a starter if need be, but the worry then would become who would play the nickel. Simeon Castille and David Pope are cannon fodder, good for special teams and practice reps for our starting receivers. The Bengals would prefer to not have to push these kind of players into significant action if they can help it. Cornerback Morgan Trent, was drafted in the sixth round, possibly with this kind of a concern in mind. Jonathan Joseph has yet to complete a full season thanks to injuries, and if that continues into ‘09, look for opposing passing attacks to feature a lot of down-field passes to the slot receiver, based on the inadequacies of the available nickel backs in such a scenario.

Every team this season will be hit by injuries; it’s the inevitable collateral damage brought on by the carnage of professional football. Through strategy and preparation, the best teams handle their injury woes the most effectively. A team can only carry 53 players on its roster as it trots onto the field on Sundays, and if the Bengals are to taste even a morsel of success this year, their 53 players activated for Week 1 should look reasonably similar to the 53 on Week 17. A large discrepancy between these rosters, and it could become a season of auditions for younger players and free-agent workouts, while the team’s collective eye gazes ahead to the future...once again.

Mojokong — eat your Wheaties boys; it’s a long season.

Salary-Capped Mountains

The gilded age of the salary-cap era that the NFL has enjoyed for the past 14 years, is expected to come to a close after this season. Reading about the death of the cap fills me with the same sense of doom as do ecological statistics about water shortages and endless heat waves we’re primed to suffer through someday.

When the owner of your favorite team is a notorious miser and a generally frowned-upon guy, the idea of allowing him to pay less on players is a scary one. The worry with Mike Brown in an uncapped environment is the absence of a salary floor. Under the current labor agreement, teams cannot pay players more the than the cap; conversely, owners cannot go below a certain amount of player payroll.

This year’s salary cap is near $128 million per team, but its floor is about $112 million. Without a floor, Mr. Brown can spend as little as he chooses. With that in mind, the Bengals’ fan turns its worrisome gaze to Marvin Lewis, and, feeling as if it has no other choice, hands him its faith and its hope for the future.

I remember standing on the top row of Paul Brown Stadium on a grey November Sunday in 2003, feeling mesmerized by how slowly individual seconds actually pass when you watch it on a clock. This clock was on a giant scoreboard and was ticking backwards but now it was stopped. There were three minutes left to tick away. Rudi Johnson was handed the ball. He broke free and ran 54 yards, the clock started again and everyone there clapped one another on the back and agreed that Marvin Lewis was a genius indeed. He could have run for president back then and won; the myth had swallowed the man.

As fans filed out after witnessing that legendary conquest over unbeaten Kansas City, they gaped at the scoreboard that showed the Bengals atop the division at a modest 4-4. Is it true? can it be? First place. Even the scoreboard seemed confused and embarrassed to display such a ludicrous scenario. Hadn’t this franchise been mired in the cellar of the AFC North, and before it, the AFC Central, for seemingly eons? Even the scoreboard had to agree that Marvin seemed to be some kind of a miracle worker. And so it began: Marvin’s Miracle – 2003.

We know the rest. Success continued, crescendoed in ‘05, and has ebbed back into disaster last year. Fans have hardened on Marvin, and the more impatient of those have hastily called for his head. Some optimism has been restored with a favorable off-season, but the long-term picture, with the absence of a salary cap and a salary floor, remains worrisome.

The new rules that will come into effect with the removal of the current labor agreement, will be that teams can now franchise-tag up to two players and that players won’t be eligible for unrestricted free agency until their sixth year instead of the four years of the current agreement. Neither of these rules are player-friendly and could become the sticking point that leads to a work-stoppage after the 2010 season. If the players union agrees to these terms – which they won’t do without a serious fight – the emphasis on the draft will become even more magnified.

Assuming Mr. Brown decides to run his team in the most economic way and scrimp on every purchasable facet of the franchise, than he will not pay much on free-agents and would likely rather replace these older, more expensive veterans with players who are still collecting from their rookie contracts.

That puts the onus back on Miraculous Marvin and his genius to constantly draft and cultivate talent that will serve the team in the short-term only. In that event, the roster will experience more turnover and will be perpetually young. There will be no more quick-fixes through free-agency like that of a Laveranues Coles or Antoine Odom. The starters will be marginally better than the back-ups, and players will always be “brought along” by mixing them into the rotation, perhaps sooner than the team is entirely comfortable in doing.

This glum outlook of the future business-plan the Bengals may employ once the salary cap vanishes, is based solely from Mike Brown’s shrewd business maneuvering of the past. Perhaps Marvin’s sharp reasoning and thorough organizational skills, will get through to Mr. Brown the idea that one cannot always build an enterprise to merely stay in existence. That sometimes, opportunities must be seized upon to climb upward and win! Do it, Marvin. Show him how to win!

Mojokong – We’ve made it this far,...