A whole lotta nothing...

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 28, 2008 9:34 AM EDT in Analysis

Things have been a bit slow, lately. An understatement, for sure. Well, I suppose there's only so much one can talk about when the team is lifting and conditioning. Sure, we could talk about Chad Johnson not being in camp, but what's the story there? What about Xavier's awesome win over West Virginia in the waning seconds of overtime when B.J. Raymond dropped two 3's? Reds opening day is days, not weeks or months, away from the first pitch. Days.

What about T.J. Houshmandzadeh not being in camp? I have zero problem with him not being in camp. As far as we know, he's not protesting anything. And last year, after skipping camp for the services of a personal trainer, he had the best season in his career. One of the best single seasons in franchise history. The news of him staying away from Paul Brown Stadium didn't submit his nomination for the best timing awards. It just appears worse than it really is with multiple sources grouping T.J. with Chad Johnson in their disgruntled wide receivers off-season story line.

There's another aspect to that. Houshmandzadeh is entering the final season under his four-year contract. Sports Illustrated's Bucky Brooks says the Bengals should be "concerned". And if there's an issue in T.J.'s mind, then he'll keep it private. Houshmandzadeh isn't Chad Johnson and that's a primary reason I don't think Housh is missing camp. But we'll see. It could get interesting and it could be a non-story written by off-season football writers.

We could talk about league meetings and how it appears that the league continues to make rules simply for the sake of an illusioned idea towards progression. Like the length of one's hair. Like giving Wild Card teams home games if they earned a superior record to the third and fourth seeded teams -- conference champions. Like removing five-yard face mask penalties and making them all 15-yard penalties. The sport was just fine without these additional rule proposals. I'm not sure if the league is better off with these rules, but they do seem like rules proposed to give the idea that the competition committee is needed.

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Comments

My topic proposal:

In light of Dayton Daily News reporter Chick Ludwig starting to refer to himself on his blog as "the Chickster," should our host here begin referring to himself as "the Kirkster"?

(PS is it draft day yet???)

by BeerRun on Mar 28, 2008 11:04 AM EDT reply actions

Topics

(1) The ludicrous blog posting by Chick Ludwig (who I usually like) saying that we MUST draft an Offensive Tackle with the first pick. He's overlooking that we can and have gotten value in later rounds and that Whitworth can play tackle.

(2) Housh. I'm actually pretty concerned that we might not be able to sign him. He had 11 touchdowns last year and with the current free agent market and all of the Chad BS and our recent lack of success, might he leave?

(3) Who are possible trade candidates to get Dorsey or Ellis and what might we have to give up if we wanted to trade?

by mp45242 on Mar 28, 2008 12:44 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Topics

(1) Yeah, the Chickster is nearly as deranged as the Chadster these days.

(2) The rumors that TJ wants No. 1 money and/or wants to be a No. 1 for someone and/or wants to play for a west coast team so he can be closer to his family have been around for more than a year. The vibe I get from TJ is Justin Smith-like: if the Bengals give him big bucks, great, if they don't and someone else does, that's great, too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was tagged next year.

(3) google nfl draft trade value chart, that will give you an idea of what it would cost to move up.

by BeerRun on Mar 28, 2008 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions

trade up?

Okay, so according to the trade value chart, to get up to, say, KC's #5 pick, it looks like we'd have to part with our first and our second- 1700(#5)= 1350(#9)+ 440(#46) with change. We could, maybe, exchange both our normal 3rd(#78) and our supplemental- wherever that ends up, along with our first rounder to move up to NYJ's #6. Crap, we need Ellis, Dorsey, a new coach(pick up the phone, Cowher!), or a new owner/GM. Hmm.

by IgnatiusJReilly on Mar 29, 2008 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions

Not so high, I'd hope

I think there's a reasonable chance that Ellis slips to at least the 7 spot, from which New England is said to want to trade down. Our 3rd would be more than enough to move up to 7 -- in fact to even out the value I would insist on their fourth. So basically the deal would be our first and third for their first and fourth.

The trouble I see is that, if Ellis is still their at 7, I doubt the Bengals would be the only likely trade partner. New Orleans, just behind us at 10, is also said to covet a DT. In a trade with them, NE wouldn't have to give up a fourth. I fact, they might even be able to squeeze an extra 7th out of NO.

by BeerRun on Mar 29, 2008 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions

Patriots?

So, if Ellis were available at #7, would the Pats even be interested in him? And, given the experts opinion that the Ravens go either QB or CB(McKelvin or Rodgers-Cromartie), would we even need to trade up for that?

by IgnatiusJReilly on Mar 29, 2008 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Two words: New Orleans

The rationale for moving up is to make sure we "get our man" versus getting beaten to the punch by New Orleans. As for Ellis & NE, yeah, I could see them having interest. I could see Baltimore having interest. Ellis could play in either a 4-3 or 3-4. That said, both have bigger issues at CB and LB.

by BeerRun on Mar 29, 2008 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Housh

Here's where I'm conflicted. While I believe he's a fantastic receiver, I still struggle to believe he's a #1 WR. While most #1 receivers are the best because they can overcome the mounting defensive coverage schemes, I'm not sure T.J. would do well in that role.

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 28, 2008 3:52 PM EDT reply actions

Franchise Tag on TJ

I never thought of that. That's a very good idea. He is getting older and we could always delay the decision one more year and we'd have him for 2 years.

by mp45242 on Mar 28, 2008 4:32 PM EDT reply actions

No news

Given our recent history(Henry et al.), no news, is good news, this time of year.

by Smigelskas on Mar 28, 2008 5:52 PM EDT reply actions

Re:

What! Are you kidding? I see you all over the Chickster's site.

Hey! There's plenty to talk about.

One is that TJ is a #2 receiver period. Without Chad drawing the defender deep TJ would shutdown. Trouble with Chad is he's not happy sharing amd it shows.

Two is that Cincy has to draft defense in order to turn it around. Cincy hasn't done nearly enough to make this team better, in fact the result of the offseason is a negative. Considering the players that they lost and the players they picked up they come up short in the offseason. All the crazy stuff that Marvin is doing to pretend like they have adequate players on defense is a pipe dream. We want to see Cincy smack teams around and we want to see it right now and not in 2022. Can you say tackles and sacks?

Three, yeah there has to be a three, is the lack of talk about the conditioning of the LBs and the conditioning of the OLM in the offseason. Someone? let me know if the injured people are going to play this year or what? Is Pollack coming back? Will Odell be reinstated? Is Jeaunty okay? What about Brooks? Can Levi still block? Will Willie make the cut this year?

Four, is everyone out to lunch? Does anyone think that Marvin is doing anywhere near a mediocre job of recognizing talent and coaching this team? The guy does a godawful job of preparing the team last year? It's like everyone is supposed to sit back and listen to him as if he's some kind of sage about football. I'm getting that shitty feeling that Cincy is just placating their fans so they can sell tickets.

Five, it's Friday so that is good news for all of us and I hope that Davidson kicks ass.

I'm out of here.

by davidincincinnati on Mar 28, 2008 8:51 PM EDT reply actions