Wednesday morning links and notes -- Brown fires back at Palmer

by Kirkendall on Jul 23, 2008 9:50 AM EDT in Analysis Comment 4 comments

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):

Chad Johnson
T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Andre Caldwell
Jerome Simpson
Glenn Holt
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?

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“He certainly looks the part at 5-5, 232 pounds”
Hopefully Mario Urrutia looks a little bigger?

by saljr23 on Jul 23, 2008 1:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

No Choice

But can they realy dump Chapman before seeing strong evidence another receiver can fill the No. 3 WR job? Those other than The Chad, T.J. and Chapman barely have more total NFL catches than me, which is zero. If Chapman comes up lame again, agreed, he’s gone. But if he’s healhy, I’m betting he makes the team, if for nothing more than his experience. Different story, tho, in ‘09.

by Timzilla on Jul 23, 2008 4:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Look who's talking

What’s great about Carson’s trash talking is what kind of guy Carson is. Definitely a “shut up and play the game” kind of guy. This makes me think about how much he must hate Ohio State, given how little he does trash talk.

Plus the fact that he lives in Ohio during the football season must make things that much worse for him. Living in Cleveland as a Bengals fan, my appreciation for how bad Browns fans are has grown exponentially. I can understand what Carson has gone through, having to live among OSU fans.

by JohnnyK on Jul 23, 2008 6:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

While I think eventually Jerome Simpson’s superior athletic talent will make Caldwell a dedicated return specialist, Bubba is probably much closer to game ready. Along with USC, Florida is the closest thing to an NFL franchise you can get in D-1. Caldwell has seen essentially the same speed he’ll see on Sundays probably half the timehe suited up in Gainesville. Plus he’s got a brother already playing in the league.

The only thing about Chatman I’ve ever been impressed with was his prodigious ability to get hurt. In the best of all possible worlds, Urrutia will be a slightly slower Calvin Johnson.

As a diehard Buckeye fan, we deserve some grief. Frankly, after the last two title game fiascos, we deserve a timeout from that game at least until playing a Big 10 schedule offers more of a challenge than scrimmaging the local high schools. If Coach Tressel isn’t spending 90% of his recruiting time after the speed guys in Florida and the southeastern US in general, he needs to have his head examined. As for Carson, what do these lunatics expect? He grew up, attended college and still makes his home in SoCal. USC is in his blood like OSU is in mine. Just be glad he didn’t come here from that state up north.

by IgnatiusJReilly on Jul 23, 2008 8:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs