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Like all things, the NFL is constantly evolving. At its core remains the conventional philosophy that it is a league dominated by accurate pocket-passing, but over the last decade or so, strange variations of the running game, variations the collective football community initially associated closer to the college game, have seeped into the professional ranks and have officially become trendy.It only makes sense that the read-option would find its way into the NFL. Thanks to the pervasive coaching of the spread offense in high-school and college, the emphasis has rightly been on speed. At first, it seemed designed to get quick receivers into open space, but naturally speedy quarterbacks began to see the field open up and allow for easy rushing totals. Once defenses keyed on quarterbacks leaving the pocket in spread formations, the running back was freed up on the delay hand-off, utilizing the overzealous pursuit of frustrated linemen.

Now RGIII has bloomed into the perfected model of the quarterback mutation, able to run and pass on a seemingly elite level. He capitalized on that moment's hesitation by defenders as he shoved the ball into Alfred Morris' gut, leaving the opposition to guess which one would end up with it in the end. It made for a terrific rookie season for Robert Griffin III, made Morris into a surprising Pro-Bowl player, and got the Skins into the Playoffs.

Others, of course, have cropped up along with Griffin as read-option threats. Colin Kaepernick rolled the Niners to the Super Bowl last year, Russel Wilson led his team to great success, and while Cam Newton had a trying year, he remains one of the most gifted athletes in the league. Even the Bears have expressed an interest to see Jay Cutler run it next season.

The Cincinnati Bengals are typically ones to take a more struthious approach and do their best to ignore all trends. Yet this season, they allowed their backup quarterback to return to his native Pittsburgh and found a replacement full of wonder and intrigue. Josh Johnson in many ways, is a rather prototypical read-option QB. He has excellent maneuverability, is shifty in the open field,has good size and a rocket arm. He adds an unusual dynamic for defenses and seems unlike almost any other Bengals quarterback I can think of.

On the other hand, he is a backup for a reason.

Johnson has only started five games and has never won any. After his old college coach, Jim Harbaugh, cut him last preseason in San Francisco, he went football-less until the Browns signed him Week 17 once Weeden and McCoy were both hurt. Even then, Cleveland opted to start someone named Thaddeus Lewis instead, and Johnson recorded no stats in the 2012 season.

He is generally inefficient in the passing game. Most of his drawbacks are standard problems for inexperienced signal-callers and are correctable errors: he telegraphs his passes, does not direct traffic well before the snap, lets the play clock run down too often, has trouble going through his progression in the pocket, throws sloppy off of his back foot in the face of pressure, tries to make too much out of a play when there is nothing there, lacks touch on the ball, his receivers drop a lot of his passes, and there are often a lot of tipped balls at the line of scrimmage.

Jay Gruden knows Johnson from the year they shared in Tampa in 2008 and probably has a good handle of what the guy can and can't do. Gruden has already talked about using him in the read-option too.

"We ran it maybe one or two times last year," Gruden told Geoff Hobson from Bengals.com. "We'll see how it goes and where everyone is, but you could definitely see Josh doing some of that. The zone read certainly gets the numbers in favor of the offense. It's good to be able to show something a little different if he was your No. 2 and he had to go into the game. The big thing he has to do is get the basics of what we do first, and then it may be kind of fun to look at."

Gruden is not one to shy away from gadgetry in regards to his playcalling and having a "fun" package for Johnson sounds cutting edge, damn exciting, and atypically Bengal. If this actually ever happens is perhaps another story (or no story at all, I guess), because we all know Marvin Lewis ultimately controls the reigns on all of his horses, but if it's working other places, there's no reason to think it won't work here. Or is there?

Having the appropriate quarterback for the read-option is great, but like Rob Base once said, it takes two to make a thing go right, and the other member involved in the play is the running back. BenJarvus Green-Ellis is a serviceable back whose greatest strength is reliability. He surprised myself and others by busting some longer runs in the middle of the season, but by and large, explosive is rarely listed on his scouted report. There was lots of assumption that the Bengals would bring in another veteran tailback to at least compliment the Law Firm if not challenge for a starting spot outright, but the team clearly has other plans and merely sniffed at a few candidates in free agency. As it is, Green-Ellis hardly seems like the right fit for a read-option scheme as it requires field vision and patience when running to the outside; skills not found in his own set. If a back with these qualities is added in the draft, the playbook could really spread out and include a variety of looks. Oh, the possibilities!

Another key component to the success of the play is the quarterback's ability to recognize when to keep it and when to handoff-the word "read" is not included by accident. Any hesitation or mental breakdown could easily lead to a disastrous turnover. There are definitely concerns in regards to Johnson's comfort with the pro game and while he has flashed his upside on many occasions when he's had the chance, he also shows how tenuous the position can be as he is prone to irreparable catastrophe-plays.

For just a backup quarterback, Johnson has a ton of interesting qualities and the idea of mixing him into game plans each week sounds exciting, but if Andy Dalton where to go down and force Johnson in as the starter for any meaningful stretch, that same excitement would become nervousness and anxiety. The football world watched Joe Webb quietly implode in the Wild-Card game in Green Bay as he was unable to get any true passing attack in order. So while Johnson seems like an upgrade to Bruce Gradkowski and can be a sleek new toy for Gruden to play with, Andy Dalton remains the smart money and as long as Marvin is in charge, he will always favor the smart money. Look for Johnson to make his appearances, but expect them to be rare.


Mojokong-transitioning.

One To Rule Them All

Athletes have outgrown the rules to their sports. The guidelines put in place by the founders of our modern sports were designed to keep an orderly contest between mostly men who were generally below six feet tall and under two-hundred pounds. Now any man who enters a football stadium of that size is either blazing fast or can kick a ball a great distance. Otherwise, they're dead meat.

Because of the modern athlete's size and speed, the antiquated rules have been pushed to its limits. Larger, faster players incur too much damage upon one another and new applications of rules have been put into place in the name of player health and safety. NFL commissioner, Roger Goddell, admitted how terrified he is that someday soon a player will be killed in action.

 

Some of the new rules are impossible to accurately judge, and silly to even have in place if one is to call themselves a tackle-football league. Leading with the helmet makes at least some sense. For defensive players, it's been called spearing for ages and has been illegal for just as long. I also think that a defense has too many potential violations compared to the offense and deserves a bit more fairness in the balance of the rules. The defenseless receiver rule, though, is far too subjective, has no clear language in regards to the interpretation of the rule, and is rarely called correctly.

 

I do think that football is going generally soft and that someday tag or flag football is not out of the realm of possibility, but I also think we will still watch and pay millions to prop up the sport even without the hitting. Or, if we don't, another league will start up with less safety regulations and take over as the more intriguing spectacle.

 

I do not like rule changes based solely on safety, though I understand them. I also don't like rule changes in regards to season format, whether it be added playoff contestants, added games, or in some sports, more interleague play.

 

I do like rule changes that make the sport more exciting though. I for one love the idea of doing away with the kickoff. Like almost everyone, when I first heard Greg Schiano propose the fourth-and-15 idea, I balked. I have some strong traditionalist streaks. Then, I started thinking about how much I value the act of a kick-off and quickly realized just how boring they've become.

 

Even a kickoff returned for a touchdown is basically a very fast man running in a straight line through a lane which his blockers have cleared. And now since the kickoff takes place five yards further up the field, hardly any result in a return of any kind.

 

A punt return, however, is rife with drama. A punt is harder to catch, for one thing. I believe the verb "muff" is used 90 percent of the time to describe a dropped punt. Bill Parcells used to value a punt-returner's ability to catch a punt more than many other facets of his football team. Phil McConkey became one of his favorite all-time players for that attribute alone.

 

A punt returned for a score usually necessitates some shifty elusiveness to allow the returner to break it in the first place. Unlike the straight-line run that a kickoff promotes, punts require jukes and broken tackles and are much more impressive feats once the endzone has been reached.

 

For those who point to the possibility that some teams would never relinquish possession and go for it on fourth-and-fifteen every time, think about how often that happens in the game's current form. Even with the most risk-taking team, no one goes long with that down and distance on their own 30-yard line, so why would Bill Billicheck of anyone else start now because of a rule change. Gaining 15 yards on one play is hardly a gimmie. I agree at first such a dramatic change would feel gimmicky, but I don't think it would immediately revolutionize the game into something foreign or extreme.
 

The NFL has the perfect balance of number of teams, number of playoff teams, and number of games. Their format is in harmony with the sport. The safety element should be more emphasized on equipment rather than rules. Referees are already asked to evaluate the impossible on a nanosecond basis and by refusing to challenge bad calls; the league has made them into the scapegoats of the sport. It seems completely backwards and unfair to coach players throughout their lives one way and then demand they change their game into something else once they've refined their skills to a professional grade.

 

In the end, Roger Goodell will be blamed for football devolving into what the Pro-Bowl looks like today if things continue on their current path. Rather than make changes that make the game more exciting, he and his administration are working the other direction by cultivating a culture that keeps the players afraid to mess up rather than just play the way they've been coached. Some conflicting reasoning is brooding within the league office and the long-term future of the sport is in jeopardy whether the league wants to admit it or not.
 

Mojokongs-an ape of many rules and customs.

The Strong, Silent Type

Many of us knew the Bengals wouldn't be major players in free agency this season because they were more interested in locking up many of their younger stars long term. Their outright disregard of just about anyone available, however, feels like an almost snobby approach to team building.

In a sense, one can gauge the desperation of a team by their involvement in free agency. Some teams are forced to plug in multiple veterans in starting spots to assist the rebuilding phase they find their franchise in. In places like Kansas City, Cleveland and Philadelphia, stopgaps have been acquired at multiple positions to afford the time needed to develop their draft picks and future starters. Second-year coaches in Miami and St. Louis are also heavily tinkering with their rosters in order to discover a team identity they can live with. Then there is the old, upper-echelon teams like New England and Denver who have made some splashy moves early on to hopefully remain relevant for a few more years before their aged star quarterbacks call it quits.

Then there are teams who wish they could be more involved. Oakland would do something rash and borderline illegal for an additional $10M in cap room if they could, but as it is, they are strapped and forced to negotiate with second-tier guys like...Pat Sims? Closer to home, but in the same boat, is Baltimore who opened the doors of its facilities only to watch a plethora of its starters wander off to either retirement or to other teams. After winning theSuper Bowl and pouring cash all over their quarterback, Joe Flacco, they simply do not have the loot to keep much else right now. General manager, Ozzie Newsome, has been forced to rebuild, like it or not.

Then there are the Bengals who have only invited perhaps third-tier players in for visits and haven't signed anyone who has never worn their helmet in the past. Before I go on to claim that Cincinnati is satisfied with their own roster more than the rest of the league, it's important to remember the modus operandi of one Mike Brown when making off-season moves. Typically, the man is not all that interested in the hoopla big-named free-agents come with. Win or lose, he never tosses money at players just for the sake of being "active" in March. He has always believed, like most sage football executives would repeat, that the best teams build their foundation through the draft and that free agency is simply expensive window shopping.

In Cincinnati's case, no team has drafted better in the last four years. It has homegrown talent brimming at its edges and all that cap-space they have squirreled away over the years will help secure them seeing the fruits of their recent drafts bloom into full harvest. In other words: they like their own players more than anyone else's, and that, as Marvin Lewis would say, is a good thing.

If one were to read into the limited interest in the players they have hosted for visits, one might be able to catch but a glimpse of the team's thinking. First and foremost is the lowly caliber of these players. Beanie Wells stopped in and presumably didn't pass his physical. He has since been described as having "a bad wheel" and his football future appears in doubt. Next was Mike Goodson who peaked the Bengals' interest but was lost to them when the despondent New York Jets gave him the Champaign treatment and signed with Gang Green. Then Ted Ginn Jr. was sought to have "chats" with Bengals management about taking over as the new return specialist in town though nothing official has yet to materialize there either.

Hardly headline maneuvering but action nonetheless.

Jay Gruden admitted to the media he wished for a speed back that could be mixed in for big plays in the running game. To see the Bengals bringing in potential compliments to BenJarvus Green-Ellis is hardly surprising, but like everything else in stripes, they aren't going to pay a lot for that muffler. Despite murmurings of interest, Steven Jackson and Rashard Mendenhall never really appeared on their radar. A few veterans with higher mileage remain like Ahmad Bradshaw and Felix Jones, but it's that clear Cincinnati doesn't just want a recognizable name, they want a specific type of player and is more than willing to let the market come to them. The Bernard Scott experiment seems to have concluded with disappointing results. He had his explosive moments to be sure, but the pro game proved to be too grueling for the little guy as he was unable to remain consistently healthy. It is certainly not impossible to see him return to the Bengals in a pinch, but it seems obvious that he isn't their first choice as a complimentary back anymore. Also in the discussion remains Cedric Peerman who the team did re-sign to a few more years this offseason, indicating the offensive brain trust may picture him with an expanded role in the ground attack, but his solid special-teams play is more likely the reason for his extension.

The position of kick-returner has been historically a secondary priority when assembling a team. There have been a few individuals who bring notoriety to the position in the pro game, but by and large it is performed by players operating in an ephemeral role. Either it has been young prospects yet to crack more meaningful snaps at their natural position, or it is expendable fast guys who don't bring the required skill set to ever be handed a larger role on either offense or defense. Last year in Baltimore, however, Jacoby Jones made a real impact for the Ravens as returner, typified by a kick-return for a touchdown in the Super Bowl. His speed did allow him a minor role in the passing game and he scored big there too in the post-season, as he tied the game late on a Hail-Mary to send it into overtime during the Divisional round in Denver.

Ginn has similar abilities to Jones and could give the Bengals a real weapon as a returner. While Brandon Tate put up solid stats for the Bengals in his time here, he didn't pose quite the same threat Ginn and Jones do. Ginn can also be another speedy receiver that defenses have trouble containing on deeper routes. Anyone lined up opposite of A.J. Green will find a bit more space to run their routes in, and someone with world-class speed could make a cornerback on an island nervous in man-to-man coverage.

There will likely be a few other players the Bengals will examine, but they too are expected to be of the manager-special variety. A linebacker or two appear to be on the shopping list and the safety position requires attention of some kind. If they were to sit back and do nothing, though, would any of us assume they aren't doing their due diligence? Another draft is coming up and Cincinnati has a bonus second-rounder this year. They have a big wad of cap-space to lock up the Greens and Daltons and Dunlaps and Atkins' for the next era. They have arguably been the most effective front-office in the past four seasons. They have a young roster that improves more every day and requires limited to no maintenance in its current form. The future is gleaming in Cincinnati these days and the lack of money on the table for outsiders is a strong indicator that the Bengals wholeheartedly agree.

Mojokong-out like a lamb.

The Chance He Took

Even though Carson Palmer is now thousands of miles West, he remains on the playbill of the Marvin Era theater and will therefore continue to be chronicled within these pages. He was a major player in the early going of the saga and was largely responsible for making football fun again in this town, but he was dealt a heavy hand of great expectation which, through cruel twists of fate mixed with his physical limitations, he was never able to live up to. Here in Cincinnati he had a contract that was as sure as the setting sun and an owner who drooled over him, positively mystified by his face-of-the-franchise charm. Yet as generic and routine as Palmer portrayed himself to the outside world, he apparently also had a brooding side that unexpectedly lashed out when he announced his immediate resignation as quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals.

That must have been an emotionally challenging moment for Carson. Something frustrated him enough for him to leap into that wildly unpredictable void of a future rather than to carry on with his safe and blasé life with the Bengals. Whether it was the lackluster season his team turned in after the 2010 campaign, the fans, the city, his wife or all of it, has yet to be shared by the man himself, but it had seemingly built up over time before erupting into one giant and rash decision.

Had Carson not gone public with his frustrations, I think he would still be the Bengals quarterback today. Mike Brown wasn't going to cut him; he was going to pay him. He may not have resigned him once he became a free agent, but he wouldn't cut him. Palmer would have had A.J. Green to play with and be coached by Jay Gruden. Life wouldn't have been so bad here after all in retrospect.

I think he is happy in Oakland, though. He is a California dude, been there most of his life. He probably feels more comfortable operating in the Pacific Standard Time zone. Probably eats way better tacos on a regular basis. His daily life probably has likely become more comfortable for him.

The football side though isn't as sure of a thing outside the cozy and forgiving confides of Paul Brown Stadium. Here he could have coasted on decent numbers but lower win totals for a good five or six more years before some mutual departing decisions would be necessary, but already in Oakland his value is now being scrutinized.

When the Raiders traded for him, they signed him to a funky contract that paid him only $2.5m in the first year but double-digit numbers in the next three years. That means he makes $13m in 2013 which forces the front office to fix their eyes a bit more firmly on the young and athletic backup quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, as the team's future at the position. The Raiders gave him a start in the season's finale and the kid didn't look too bad, a clear indicator what the thinking might be this offseason.

Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore just signed a two-year deal worth $8m and was considered the best QB available in this year's free-agent class had he hit the open market. Moore is a backup to Ryan Tannehill, and is likely one of the better-paid backups in the league.

This forces the question: has Palmer reached backup status at this point of his career?

I still think he is a pretty decent player. His numbers were good last year (4,018 yrds, 22 tds/14 int, 85.3 rate), he's been healthy with Oakland, and he is well-trained for his position. Yes, his turnovers are a problem. Yes, he still throws too high too often, and yes, his mobility gets worse every year, but his arm is still strong and his mind still sharp and in this league, that will alone will find you a job.

But what kind of job?

If Oakland were smart, they wouldn't low-ball Palmer out of town. Sure, Pryor is an interesting player whose skill set fits in nicely into the perceivable future of the quarterback position, but you can hardly call the guy proven. Also, can Pryor take a season of hits? If that answer is anything other than a resounding yes!, than it would be prudent to have somebody around who can. Pryor might dazzle from time to time, and might even turn out to be a great player himself, but to go “all in” on the young man seems hasty.

I'm sure Palmer would rather not be a backup quarterback, and I think he would command a bit more coin elsewhere (Arizona?), but I think he might sign a contract around Moore's number and risk riding pine in Oakland because of how comfortable life is in California for him. It's not all that unlikely that the offense and the game itself is still too large for Pryor to lead his team to the playoffs any time soon and that Palmer could be reinstalled fairly early to salvage the season. Though, in fairness, I have read how diligently Pryor has prepared for this season and is working his way into serious contention in regards to the starting job. I would think Palmer would also be of tremendous value for Pryor as a person to learn from, and while I don't know exactly what kind of guy Carson is, I would also think he would help Pryor in this way.

Like many of you, I relished seeing him sacked numerous times by the Bengals when he returned to town last November, and felt vindicated after they kicked Oakland's ass all the way back to the West Coast, but I have made my peace with the man and would like to see him succeed again. The parallels between him and Drew Bledsoe continue to be spot on, and if that comparison carries on this way, Palmer will bounce around to a few different teams before hanging it up, but I would rather not see it that way. I would rather see Palmer stay a Raider and lead them back to respectability. I would like to see him win a playoff game and be remembered as a good quarterback in his later years. And someday, I would like him to tell us why he left Cincinnati they way he did.

No matter how it ends up, it will be detailed here. He is a polarizing figure in the annals of Bengal lore and invokes feelings of both gratitude for his many years of service here and betrayal for his abrupt and heartless departure. He is so predictable, so hum-drum as he heavily tows the company line, yet at the same time was so mysterious and surprising with his “retirement” that no one can know for sure what he will decide. For a pretty regular guy, he brings about a thick cloud of drama wherever he plays football. I'm not sure he wants it this way, but such is his life. The unpredictably mundane.

Mojokong—the written word can reach any coast.