If you're interested in joining a fantasy football league at CincyJungle.com, email me (joshkirkendall [at] gmail [dot] com). One person is picking T.J. Houshmandzadeh over Chad Johnson in his fantasy football league because of his red-zone threat.

My Ride with Rudi Johnson.

Sean McClelland says Palmer's "rant shows a lapse in judgment". A lapse in judgment would be getting arrested for trafficking heroine (just started watching The Wire). A lapse of judgment would put his entire family in jeopardy (and I'm really liking The Wire). Pumping your alma mater for some trash talk? That's just plain fun. And for those of you that hate Mike Brown (and that's cool, whatever feeds the lifeline to make you happy), he fires back at Palmer on tOSU/USC trash talking.

“I was going to talk to him through you (the media),” said Brown with a grin. “Tell him – he might not know that my dad coached at Ohio State and beat USC two years in a row, 33-0 and (28)-13, and if he wants to make something out of that he knows where he can find me."

The following is Mark Curnutte's impression on seventh-round pick Mario Urrutia who finally penned his contract Tuesday.

He certainly looks the part at 5-5, 232 pounds, almost more of a tight end than a wide receiver. The Bengals spent a lot of time with him before the draft. His production fell off as a junior when he missed two games and was limited in others because of turf toe. As a sophomore, he had 58 receptions for 973 yards and six touchdowns. He has been productive in a big-time pass offense.

Still, Marvin Lewis sees him as a player to "develop and work with." Urrutia is a longshot, I think, to make the final 53-man roster, but the Bengals might be able to keep him around on the practice squad, where he might be a tempting acquisition for another team to sign him to its active roster.

All in all, he would seem like a lot of value for a seventh-round pick. Remember, a guy named T.J. Houshmandzadeh was a seventh-round pick in 2001, mainly because the Bengals saw him when scouting Oregon State teammate Chad Johnson. 

Bengals Locker thinks that the wide receiver position is set. I'm taking a stab at the depth chart for kickoff weekend (using the age-old Blogger science of speaking out of my ass):

1. Chad Johnson
2. T.J. Houshmandzadeh
3. Andre Caldwell
4. Jerome Simpson
5. Glenn Holt
6. Marcus Maxwell

I don't believe that Antonio Chatman will make the team -- primarily because of recent durability issues. And I believe that they'll put Mario Urrutia on the pratice squad.

For the addicted to readers, here's Chinedum Ndukwe's Notre Dame page.

My award for "Mr. Obvious" headline of the day comes from John Clay of the Herald-Leader. He writes "Bengals need more wins, less drama in '08". I'll let you sit back and absorb that mind-blowing revelation.

Finally, yesterday I bought the first season on DVD of the HBO series, The Wire. I watched the first four episodes and, just, wow. I'm also digging HBO's Generation Kill. Anyone seen either?