Quarterbacking the 2011 Cincinnati Bengals

For obvious reasons, the 2011 Cincinnati Bengals will scantly resemble the 2010 or 2009 Queen City Tigers. For starters, in all likelihood the team will be coached by a man who's name isn't Marvin Lewis for the first time since 2002.

At this point not retaining Lewis is really more of a business decision for owner Mike Brown, suddenly struggling to sell tickets for the first time since the Dick LeBeau era. They have a head-coach-in-waiting in defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer however, and there remains a slim chance Marvin will actually be retained. Outside of these two options only meager speculations exist, which perhaps I'll write a future post about.

What's more fun is the guessing game that is Bengals quarterbacks of the future. Let's review some candidates:

1. Carson Palmer - Carson is due something like $12 million next year, so on the surface it would be a good time for Mike Brown to rid himself of that albatross of a contract. However, even if the Bengals take a rookie QB in the draft, it will still be most sensible to keep Palmer around as the starter for at least a little while. And who knows, having an up and coming fresh QB behind Palmer (i.e. not his younger brother) might even make him better.


2. Trades/Free Agents - Slightly troubled Titans QB Vince Young and either Eagles QBs Kevin Kolb or Mike Vick might very well be available in free agency or trade next season. Redskins QB Donovan McNabb could also be on the outs after only one season in Washington. It's not really Mike Brown's style to actually go after one of these guys, but the possibility is certainly there. The Bengals were the only club besides Philadelphia to offer Vick a contract upon his release from federal prison.


3. The Draft: There are several good, or at least intriguing, college quarterbacks likely entering the draft this year. With the Bengals choosing high in each round, they are likely to be able to land a decent one even in the second round. Stanford's Andrew Luck is widely regarded as the top of the heap. Auburn's Cameron Newton, Washington's Jake Locker and Arkansas's Ryan Mallett are other strong contenders.

The biggest key to any of these candidates succeeding is probably solid offensive coaching and a good offensive line. Cincinnati has neither in Offensive Coordinator Bob Bratkowski, or their mediocre line. Bratkowski should have been replaced years ago, but remains safe for unknown reasons. Right Tackle Andre Smith was supposed to shore up the latter problem, but he can't stay healthy. The Bengals would probably be better off getting a top flight offensive lineman as opposed to a QB, but this franchise is not known for sound decision making.

Hell, who knows. Maybe Jordan Palmer will be their starting QB next year.

The Future of the Cincinnati Bengals

It's time to face the music. Unless the 2010 Cincinnati Bengals go on a massive winning streak, they won't be playing post-season football this year. At worst they can lose two more games and still play January football.

Also worth noting is the staggering number of impact players for the team who's futures are in jeopardy. Some players are simply entering their prime while closing out their rookie deals, like starting cornerbacks Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph. Other players are mid-career pickups who owner/General Manager Mike Brown likes to low-ball into short performance-incentive-based contracts like CB "Pacman" Jones, WR Terrell Owens and most notably RB Cedric Benson.

In a third category are aging superstars with long term contracts nearing their ends. Bengals fans are probably familiar with WR Chad Ochocinco and QB Carson Palmer, who is owed something like $12 million next season.

Anyone familiar with how Mike Brown runs this team knows we aren't getting all of these players back. Either CB Hall or Joseph will likely be retained along with the far less expensive Pacman, but probably not both. Unless no one else is willing to pay him, on the strength of a good season T.O. is likely headed out of town. Chad is headed into a Club-option year in his contract and will either whine for a new contract, a trade or simply for the Bengals to not use the option and give him up to free agency. Regardless of how all these lower priority Bengals contracts pan out, the team will look much different next year than it does right now.

But the biggest difference will be at either quarterback or running back. With Benson not under contract at all beyond this season and Palmer owed more money than he is likely worth at this stage in his career, it seems extremely unlikely Mike Brown will pony up the cash to keep them both. But assuming he keeps one (he really could lose both), the other position will have to be addressed in the 2011 draft.

Enter Mike Brown first round draft pick speculation:

[Indoor Practice] Field of Dreams

If you build it, they will come ... and stay.

Last season the Bengals' lack of an indoor practice facility became a public issue when the team embarrassingly had to travel 20+ miles up to Mason to use an indoor soccer field. Blogs like WhoDeyRevolution.com have noted for some time that Cincinnati is the Northernmost NFL team to not have such a facility, and given that football is played into December (if not January and February, knock on wood) it should be a no-brainer that inclement winter weather will interrupt practice sometimes in Southern Ohio. It is simply pathetic to take a team by bus to a soccer field. This is one of many reasons why Cincinnati has a long standing issue getting free agents to want to play for the Bengals.

Fast forward to 2010 and we find Head Coach Marvin Lewis in the final year of his contract after eight years with the team. It is no easy task to make the Mike Brown run Bengals into a success [see: 1991-2002] so anyone who thinks Lewis isn't crucial is dreaming.

But for once the chips are not on Mike Brown's side of the table. After a surprise 2010 playoff appearance and division championship, Lewis is in a position to make demands. Brown is a notoriously private owner, refusing to comment on negotiations with Lewis except to assure that they are ongoing. However it is widely assumed that Lewis would like more control over personnel decisions, if not the hiring of a General Manager not named Brown or Blackburn.

One nugget of negotiation that has emerged however (via James Walker of ESPN - the only ESPN journalist who has any clue about the Bengals) is that "an indoor practice facility appears to be one point of contention between Bengals ownership and . . . Lewis."

So the situation is eerily similar to the movie Field of Dreams. Mike Brown wants to honor his sports figure father's legacy (Paul Brown). He catches wind that good things will happen if he builds a field (the indoor practice facility). And if he builds it, they will come (good free agents, coaches, etc).

More accurately, if he builds it, he will stay. Surely Lewis will want more than just the indoor facility, but it would be an excellent start. Even if Lewis does not stay with the Bengals beyond the 2010 season, this is a step that still serves the long term interests of the team. Especially if the salary cap does not come back after this season, the Bengals will need to do everything they can to lure talent to remain competitive as one of the smaller market teams.

Enough useless talk already; Mike Brown, please just build the damn indoor practice field (of dreams).

NFL's Biggest Collection of Jackasses?

Well, the Bengals done signed Terrell Owens. Owens doesn't have the best reputation as a teammate, though Mike Brown thought highly enough to make him a last minute addition to the team. And Cincinnati might now have the most jackass-filled roster in pro football, although it should be noted that the presence of Roethlisberger alone puts Pittsburgh way up there. On the bright side, they could very well join other jackass filled teams in Lombardi trophy history (1970's Steelers and Raiders, I'm looking at you).

So I'm taking a look at all the guys on the roster who seem like assholes. This isn't about arrests (Leon Hall is not on the list in spite of a DUI arrest last offseason for example), but I'm factoring some in.

Asshole index:

Adam Jones (CB) - HIGH - He has missed two entire seasons of football in a five year career because of off-the-field incidents - no, catastrophes. I'm honestly surprised he wasn't suspended for life. His most recent team, Dallas, hired around the clock security to keep him out of trouble and he ended up getting in a fight with a bodyguard. If he hadn't said and done all the right things since coming to Cincinnati (after sitting out last year and probably going broke making it rain too many times) I'd make a special category that only he and Ben Roethlisberger could fill.

Terrell Owens (WR) - HIGH - has called out the following teammates in public: Jeff Garcia (49ers), Donovan McNabb (Eagles) and Tony Romo (Cowboys). He has also claimed to have intentionally dropped passes when his team didn't include him enough in the game plan. He did however play nice in Buffalo last season.

Classical Finale

Let me go on record as saying Mike Brown should be fired. I had a little Lebron fatigue this week because of all the coverage. Only World Wide Wes could really have any insight, but, like Gnarls Barkley, who cares? It's a lot of talk for a team that lost three straight--reminds me of Bill Belicheck last year talking about the Patriots.

It looks like another Celtics v Lakers final, which is really what the NBA conspiracy theorists should worry about. I mean seriously, only Nike wants Lebron v Kobe, not David Stern. The team everyone should be talking about is the Celtics. I know the Lakers are the defending champs, but the Celtics were sans KG last year. Last I remember the Celtics with KG, they ripped the Lakers in the Finals and everyone was questioning Pau Gasol's toughness.

Both teams are a little older; I wonder which one has the toughness to win. This is what the Lakers got Ron Artest for. Ron could be the defensive leader they lacked in 2008. I think people sometimes forget that Ron led the Rockets last year, the only team in the Playoffs to take the Lakers to 7 games. But Rasheed Wallace gives the Celtics even more toughness as well. It should be a great series, but here I go talking like the match up is already set. Damn, is Dank Game becoming the George Noory of the NBA blogosphere?

End of an Era in Cleveland?

I know, the Cavs are out of the playoffs and there's still more basketball to be played until someone hoists up the Larry O'Brien Trophy in early June, but until then, here's another post on the last Dank Game-endorsed squad to be eliminated from the playoffs. This is a collaboration between myself and guest writer/Dank Game loyalist, Andy Young.

So this is a post I have wanted to make for quite sometime and maybe it’s a bit late, just like the Cavs' performances in the last three games. Enough has been said about LeBron, but now speculations that crazy Delonte West had an affair with LeBron’s mother have begun to surface. The authorities are citing this as the reason why LeBron went from averaging over 30 points per game in the playoffs to just over 21 points and over 6 turnovers for the final three games. I mean really, West having intercourse with Miss James is like Peter and Paul running a train on Mary. (The biblical Peter, Paul and Mary, not the shitty folk band from the 60’s) The “WITNESS” shirts might have to be recalled until this scandal subsides. I’m sure West was too busy freestyling about barbecue sauce to sweet talk Miss James into something that's finger lickin' good, but then again, maybe she is trying to conceive the next greatest thing to ever happen to basketball.

But let's talk about the rest of the team. Shaq Fu, I love you but you're old. Just about as old as the original Aristotle. Like his free throw shooting, Osama Bin Shaq was just too slow to make a difference defending in the paint against Jake Sully (Kendrick Perkins looks like an avatar) and Big Baby, who won’t be crying until he faces Dwight Howard or is yelled at by Kevin Garnett. Speaking of Garnett, let’s not also forget the Big Ticket's fade away jumpers that no one could defend. Not even "Wild Thang" Varejão could stop KG, who did come up pretty big with his frantic offense and constant effort, excluding the time he quit playing because he was bleeding and begging for a foul call. Overall, the Cavs just looked about as pathetic as the Flats in Cleveland.

Fascinating Failure

Another year, another early playoff exit for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was supposed to be their year, but they came up short against a wily Boston Celtics team that put it all together after waffling through the second half of the regular season. While the Celtics deserve praise for how they handled the Cavs, much of this epic collapse falls on the Cavaliers organization.

Despite being the best regular season team two seasons in a row with the league's back-to-back MVP, the Cavs' personnel moves have reeked of desperation ever since they pulled the trigger on the Shaq trade this past summer. With the clock ticking down on LeBron's impending free agency, Cleveland's management made decisions that were supposedly meant to put the Cavs over the hump, when in reality they were making decisions in an attempt to appease LeBron James. Of course this is easier said in hindsight, but the Cavs made moves simply because they could, not necessarily because they should. These trades culminated in another heartbreaking season for Cavs fans that was wrought in irony.

Killer Instinct

I really liked the way the Cavs went after the Celtics right from the start last night. Lebron killed it in the first quarter, lighting it up for 21 points on his way to 38, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. The Cavs defense turned Rondo into a jump shooter. He did make several shots, but the Cavs will live with that all day, especially when he takes threes.

Mike Brown did a great job with the match-ups, putting Anthony Parker on Rondo and Mo Williams on Ray Allen. Parker's length makes it a little tougher on Rondo and his position defense is far better than Mo's. Ray Allen is less consistent in games now so he could hide Mo Williams on him. As soon as Ray Allen got a couple shots over Williams and started to get in a rhythm Brown pulled Williams and brought in Delonte West, who is a much better defender. I think this definitely kept Ray Allen from getting hot, he finished 2-9 from the floor for only 7 points.

The Bengal's Big Chance

The Bengals have become well known in the Mike Brown era of ownership for making some of the worst personnel decisions in the league. The goal appears to be simple: build an incredibly unstable core of possibly talented, but definitely combustible athletes.

The question of why Brown chooses to run his team this way is moot. But assuming insanity in Cincinnati (Cinsanity?) really is the goal, there's one obvious obstacle in his way: these players keep getting arrested, suspended, drunk, fat, or in one tragic case dead.

So each and every year the Bengals sign the newest generation of miscreants. I'll go back a couple of years to illustrate:

In 2007 drunkard Odell Thurman and general asshole Shuan Smith (who was brought back to the team for a few games in 2009) left the team. The Bengals went out and got Harvard (freaking Harvard) quarterback Ryan "Crazy Legs" Fitzpatrick. In 2008 the team lost Chris Henry to suspension. They replaced him by drafting DUI machine Jason Shirley, and signing Jordan Palmer, who runs the ridiculously nerdy RunPee. Later in the season they added Cedric "DUI-by-land-or-by-sea" Benson.

Lebrondomination!

The Cavs poured on the scoring tonight to beat the Bulls 121-98. Lebron had his fifth career playoff triple double with 37 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists, throwing in 2 steals and a block for good measure. It is unbelievable to me to see him dominate every facet of the game like that. He controlled the defensive glass in the first quarter, getting 5 rebounds in the first 10 minutes. He looked so strong on that two handed monster jam. It's crazy because, as good as he played in the first half, he played better in the second half. His leadership down the stretch run was great. I was out of my seat when he hit that buzzer beater from two steps inside the half court line. Mike Brown sat him down towards the beginning of the fourth quarter and the Bulls pulled it back under twenty only to see Lebron come back in the game and bring the lead back up to thirty. His efficiency is off the chart; who else would put up 37 points on only 17 shots?

In Yer Face Noah!

Lebron played great tonight even though he took some really tough shots. It would be easy to call Lebron out for his shot selection, but I loved his killer instinct. When he drained that 3 pointer over Joakim Noah you could see it in his eyes. It was like his answer to Joakim's comment about Cleveland--a step back 3 pointer over a 7 footer, only Lebron man, only Lebron. The Cavs are rolling against the Bulls and I don't think there is anything Derrick Rose can do to answer.

As Charles Barkley was saying on TNT, they don't care about the Bulls, they're playing for a championship. The supporting cast will need to step up as they get deeper in the Playoffs. Antawn Jamison is going to have to play better defense. There was one play in particular that did not look like Cavs basketball; Jamison was late getting back on defense and was out of position with his back turned instead of playing help D. The play ended with an easy layup by Flip Murray. I don't mean to call him out too much, but I think he needs to play with more intensity. It was good to see Shaq back. Hopefully he'll be able to play more than 15 minutes. I'm sure he will since Mike Brown is probably trying to ease him back in a little bit.

The Cavs Length Issues

The Cavs have had to deal with a couple of transitions since the trade deadline. The Antawn Jamison for Zydrunas Ilgauskus swap is the most obvious one, but the return of Mo Williams and Delonte West in the backcourt is almost as meaningful.

Before their return, the Cavs rotation was heavy on forwards. Mike Brown would often go to a lineup of Daniel Gibson, Lebron, Jawad Williams, Anderson Varejao, and Shaq or Z at center. Heavy on forwards, this lineup provides extraordinary length on the perimeter and really strong rebounding. Delonte and Mo coming back takes away from that length. Jamison instead of Z in the rotation is also a minus in length.

I hate to say it, but I think playing Mo less would help. Mike Brown tried to play Delonte West at shooting guard last year, even having him guard Hedo Turkoglu in the east finals, and it didn't work. I think Delonte is an excellent defensive point guard, which he showed with two key blocks tonight, but he is not a very good shooting guard defender. He just isn't tall enough to hang with most NBA 2 guards. The more Mo Williams plays, the more Delonte is the second shortest guy, thus he would guard the 2.

It's tough to call for less Mo Williams minutes as a Cavs fan, but I think they would just work better defensively with Delonte at the point. Not that I think they should be playing Jawad Williams 25 minutes a game or something, but they need more perimeter defense now that they are getting more scoring from the power forward position with Antawn Jamison.

So close to Kentucky

So that's it! That's what's wrong with the Bengal's front office. With the rolling hills of Kentucky so close to Paul Brown Stadium - literally right across the Ohio River PBS is so proudly perched - they must have given into temptation.

Mike Brown & co. has been drinking the moonshine.

How else can you explain yesterday's signing of Wide Receiver Matt Jones, memorably nicknamed "Moonshine" by ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio? Are they sitting around drunk on power and moonshine, joking that it would be funny to have a player named moonshine?

Furthermore, this explains why they have recently worked out cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones. Perhaps they have an old Pacman machine in the bowels of the stadium that they play after downing their sweet Kentucky swill?

It also could have a lot to do with their supposed interest in former Browns wide receiver Dante Stallworth. What do these three men have in common by the way? All three did not play football in 2009 due to legal ramifications!

On the more serious now (but not totally serious), Mike Brown's tendency to find talent in the NFL's scrap heap has been well documented. Is he just goofing now, showing interest in some of the NFL's biggest fuck ups? Pacman played college ball at West Virginia with our dearly departed Chris Henry. He is often credited as the guy that taught Slim how to get arrested.

Donte Stallworth isn't nearly as big a dumbass as Pacman, but he simply isn't that great of a receiver. And he DUI killed a guy in 2009. Just stay away, it's amazing he's even out of jail already.

Matt Jones actually might not be the worst idea ever. I think TO might be a better fit, but he comes with a much larger price tag ($6 million for one season last year in Buffalo). Dude is 6' 6" and pretty quick. Although he never lived up to his potential in Jacksonville, pairing him with Ochocinco is an interesting line up, and could very well open up the passing game.

So let's just hope that whatever sociopaths Mike Brown signs this offseason limit the Bengals' arrests to hopefully just that unfortunate Maualuga DUI.

Can't think of a pun with T.O. in it

Straight from Superbowl week in Miami (Chad Ochocinco's home town): Jay Glazer reported via a tweet that Ochocinco believes that Terrel Owens might be headed to Cincinnati for the 2010 season.

TO was once a top five receiver, but is now in the twillight of his career. He played on a one year deal last season in Buffalo putting up mediocre numbers for the first time since his rookie season. Then again, his quarterbacks were Trent Edwards and Ryan "Crazylegs" Fitzpatrick, so that may have been part of the problem.

This is not the first time Ochocinco has linked himself with TO. In 2008, when Chad was trying to get himself traded out of Cincinnati, he suggested going to Dallas, then TO's team. I don't feel like looking up the exact quote, but he implied that it would be extremely entertaining.

However, a trade to Dallas never looked likely. The Bengals simply weren't willing to trade Chad, and I doubt the Cowboys were interested. This time around, the move seems much much more plausible. The Ocho went as far as to say that "he's sure of it," according to Glazer. Chad even posted a picture of himself and TO in Miami on his Twitter account.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the Bengals need another solid threat at wide receiver. Although I didn't consider TO at the time, he is still a serviceable WR, especially paired with 85. The biggest drawback is TO's reputation of being a poison in the locker room. However, no serious reports came out of Buffalo depicting him in the negative. Also, it's impossible to believe that Bengals owner Mike Brown would worry about this anyway.

So we may just get Terrell Owens in stripes next season. Take if for what it's worth.

Update:

Chad tweeted this morning, directed at Owens, "bruh pack yo bags and head to cincy damit, see you in training camp, one goal in mind superbowl."

Hot Grizzlies Ground Down by Cavs

The Cavs mopped the floor with the Grizzlies tonight, beating them 105-89. They held Zach Randolph to only 8 points and 4 rebounds, forcing him into 5 turnovers. The Cavs played OJ Mayo extremely well too. All night they forced him into the shot blockers, with Shaq blocking two and Lebron getting a chase down block, which he swatted off the glass. The Grizzlies are one of the better fast breaking teams in the league, but the Cavs held them on the break. Rudy Gay was the only guy who could score on the Cavs in the first half and they held him to just 3 points in the second half. Just an all around show of defensive prowess by the Cavs. Lebron even sounded like KG out there screaming at his bigs to force Zach Randolph, who likes to go left, to his right.

With 15 assists Lebron hit his career high with only 4 turnovers. He was setting people up with ease, hitting Varejao for a couple easy baskets in the lane and getting Shaq the ball with very deep position. Lebron didn't need to score much and he took advantage of the Memphis zone with his distribution skills. One thing I did like about his scoring tonight was how he took smaller defenders in the post. He got single coverage from Mike Conley Jr., backed him down in the post and hit a baby hook over him. He did the same on OJ Mayo and got even deeper position for another hook. It was positively Carmelo Anthony-esque the way he took the small guys on his back down low. I hope he continues to do this throughout the year as it only adds to his offensive efficiency.

Memphis is a great rebounding team, with the number one rebounding differetial in the league at 4.7 a game. The Cavs are one of the best too, with a 4.5 differential, and were able to out rebound the Grizzlies by 3. That is a testament to their work ethic as a team on the block. They kept one guy on Randolph the whole game and wouldn't let him control the glass. Varejao did some pesky blocking out on Randolph and frustrated him all night.

This was a real strong win for the Cavs and it puts them a game and a half up on the Lakers for the best record in the league. They also have the longest win streak in the league at 9 games. They are looking strong going into the allstar break.

I expected a better game from the Grizzlies after they beat the Lakers at home, but the Cavs won easy in a blowout. Cavs coach Mike Brown said this week that he wanted some games that weren't so easy so the team could learn to execute in a close game. It didn't happen tonight as Lebron sat for the last 5 minutes of the game. I am a little worried about his lack of 4th quarter minutes because it looked like he got worn down late in games last year in the playoffs. I hope Mike Brown adjusts his minutes as the year goes on so he can be used to playing a full 48 minutes despite the blowouts.

Sir Shaquille and Prince James start the season 0-2

I didn't manage to catch the Cavaliers 91-101 loss to the Raptors last night, but I'm relatively shocked. I've had my doubts about whether the Shaq trade would work out, but I figured it wouldn't catch up to them until the playoffs. You can't look too far into this 0-2 start, but losing to a Raptors team that most see as a fringe playoff team is a cause for concern. I actually have the Raptors as a 5-7 seed in the East, but I still expected the Cavs to come out and win this one. Toronto's Andrea Bargnani drove past Anderson Vaerjao for the first play, and it seems that would set the tone for the rest of the game, as the 7-foot Italian went off on the Cleveland frontline for 28 points on 11-15 shooting.

One thing that caught my eye in the boxscore was that Shaq's +/- rating was -25. I'm no stat whiz so I can't tell you exactly what this statistic entails, but it's not often you see it dipping into the negative mid-twenties.

I'm sure the Cavs will get it together soon and establish themselves as one of the top team's in the East. I mean, they do have LeBron James. But I can't stress enough that the Cleveland frontcourt combined with Mike Brown's lack of offensive know-how is going to catch up to them. The past two years, Brown had assistant coach John Kuester running the offense. Now that Kuester is the Pistons' head coach, it's widely speculated that the Cavs might revert to their offensive tendencies of seasons prior to Kuester's arrival when it was give the ball to LeBron and get out of the way. That is if they haven't already.

As I'm not a huge Cavs fan myself, I suggest you take a look at this article by Biff from Cleveland Frowns for some true Akron/Cleveland perspective. I have to point out that Cleveland Frowns is one of few blogs with a banner that makes me feel less self-consciously skeezy about the Dank Game banner.