Bengals, Bearcats and even the Redlegs

Yesterday was a monster day in Cincinnati sports. The Bengals had to whittle down their rosters while keeping an eye on the waiver wire and possible trades. The Bearcats played their first game under new head coach Butch Jones, Former coach Brian Kelly coached his first game with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Reds were smack in middle of their final series against arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals.

Let's start with the Bengals: our boys in stripes made some surprising roster moves, but started the day with more obvious ones. Thanks to Twitter, this year fans were able to see in close to real time the actual order players were released, which was a good distraction during extremely non-competitive afternoon SEC football games. First to go were WR Matt Jones (18), K Dave Rayner and a rookie whom they clearly hope will be one their practice squad, WR Dezmon Briscoe.

Next on the chopping block was S Kyries Hebert, OT Issac Sowells and S Marvin White. Hebert thus far was the only cut you could call a surprise, though no one could truly have been happy with Cincinnati's depth at safety.

DT Clinton McDonald, a practice squad member last season, OG Otis Hudson, a likely practice squad member this year, and rookie free agent linebacker Vincent "Sister" Rey were the next non-suprise cuts. Meanwhile, long time Bengals linebacker Abdul Hodge (52) - a solid special teams player and backup, became the biggest surprise cut yet of the day.

The Bengals quickly made a bigger splash by releasing 2nd year TE Chase Coffman, instead keeping TE Dan Coats. Coffman had appeared to make big strides this preseason, but the team apparently felt he was redundant after drafting TE Jermaine Gresham. Their has been some debate about whether or not Coffman, inactive or on injured reserve for every game last season, is eligible for the practice squad.

The Bengals had several more cuts to make, including TE Darrius Hill, RB James Johnson, WR Maurice Purify, OT Gabriel Manns, S Jeromy Miles, OT Chris Rodgers and CB Johnny Sears. Several of these guys will probably fill out Cincinnati's practice squad.

The Bengals had a few last tricks up their sleeves, however. First they released S Rico Murray, leaving them with only three safeties, then let go of both FB Joe Tronzo and put FB Fui Vakapuna on IR, leaving them without a fullback. Cincinnati immediately turned around and traded 6th cornerback David Jones to Jacksonville for safety Reggie Nelson (pictured left). Now word has it they are looking to pick up a new backup quarterback and some kind of fullback. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things shook out, even with Dan Coats on the team.


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Moving on to the Bearcats - they're not going to be particularly good this year, so this is perhaps the last you'll hear about them 'round these parts unless Perkins, Sean or Mr. Maybe have different plans.


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Speaking of Mr. Maybe, he just scribed what I believe is Dank Game's first Reds post. Officially Dank Game does not like baseball, but I was a big Reds fan from ages 10-13, so seeing them make a competent run towards the post season for the first time since I was ages 10-13 is somewhat nostalgic for me. If you move Barry Larkin over to 2nd base you've kind of got Brandon Phillips and if you take the specs off Sabo you've kind of got Scott Rolen, right?

Well anyway, I watched a good chunk of yesterday's Reds game flipping between it and Brian Kelly's Fighting Irish, a bittersweet combination to be sure. But I've seen the Cuban Missile Crisis and I've been converted. He threw something like ten pitches in one inning over 100 MPH. Nasty!