Alexander would certainly be a popular “hometown” pick. Whether the Bengals pursue him has a lot to do with $$$. Alexander is an aging RB coming off an injury plagued season. In other words, he is Rudi Johnson. So if we sign Alexander we go from having one RB that is damaged goods and commands a nice salary to having two RBs that are damaged goods and command a nice salary. If Alexander is willing to take a big pay cut however…..

The only way I see it happening is if it becomes patently obvious relatively early that Perry and/or Rudi are nowhere near up to speed. And even then, we’d likely go for a journeyman like Dominic Rhodes—he is’t great, but at least he is healthy and could probably be acquired on the cheap.

Even if Alexander took a pay cut, then many other teams would be in the fold—thus he’d up his asking price with the demand.

I just don’t see the Bengals going after an established free agent running back. If it was that much of a concern, they’d have drafted a RB. But they’ve surprised me before.

It would be a nice feel good story, kind of like bringing Junior to the Reds except Junior was thought to be in his prime when he signed and Alexander is so obviously past his. I’ve never thought Rudi was anything more than steady. He’s never gonna break a long one, rarely gonna make anyone miss, good for those five or six yard plunges that add up only if you do it thirty-five times a game- which is excruciating to watch, and, usually, good at holding onto the ball.

Honestly, though, unless we get some significant improvement from Ghiaciuc in specific and the middle of the line in general, it’s not really gonna matter who we have back there. Teams will continue playing seven in the box while still pinning their ears back to go after Carson on second and third and longs.

I think, if we need to pick up a back, there will be plenty out there jettisoned from other rosters to choose from over the summer. Conversely, we could trade Chad for a pick and a solid back but we’d have to do that before we knew whether having even Barry Sanders back there would make one bit of difference to our abysmal running game.

As much as Marvin may crow about getting back to the in your face, power rushing game, right now, our O-Line isn’t capable of getting in anyone’s face, built as they are to protect Carson.

I don’t count on Rudi to be effective. I don’t count on Perry to be healthy…EVER. I don’t count on Watson to be the answer. If the Bengals sign Alexander, they might as well go out and sign Ahman Green, plus try and talk Priest Holmes out of retirement. You get what I’m saying. Nobody has talked about Rhodes’s substance abuse anytime recently, but if Cincinnati signs him, you can bet that they will dredge all that back up.

At the end of the day, I still think we should have picked a RB sometime in the later rounds, perhaps see if Utecht is worth all that coin before we spend a pick on a TE out of Villanova. No knock on Matt Sherry, but I just think we needed to pull another RB out of the pool before we needed another TE.

A diamond in the rough during CFA signings?

Is this a flawed analogy, or does anybody else think about how John Elway didn’t get to hoist the Lombardi through the confetti-laced air until he had Terrell Davis? Carson Palmer is every bit as good of a QB (better, actually, IMHO) as Elway, but none of these RBs we have are Terrell Davis!

Again, I say, Weird Al now has Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden, Lamont Jordan (whose days as a Raider are probably numbered) and Michael Bush. Friends, if Michael Bush got the playing time, suddenly you’d hear folks like John Clayton talking about how Michael is actually a better pro than Reggie (which I was predicting before the leg-break anyhow) and you’d see Cincinnati go from divisional also-ran to playoff contender overnight.

The Bengals did a LOT in the offseason to help their defense. If they can’t run the ball, though, they just won’t win.

I should have started a poll.

Shoulda traded Chad to the Skins and picked up Chris Johnson.;)

Okay, seriously, at this point I’d like to just clean house. Goodbye Rudi, Chris, Dede, Kenny W., and hurry up and get your knee rehabbed Kenny, so we can see if you need to go, too. Take Chad’s worthless ass and trade him to, who, maybe Dallas for either Marion Barber III or Felix Jones, maybe Atlanta for Michael Turner, shit, trade him to Al Davis for Run DMC. If we can teach the O-Line to run block, we can probably find a Ryan Grant like the Pack did last year.