Report: Bengals working to bring Tank Johnson back

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 5, 2010 4:40 PM EST in Analysis

While trying to seal up one former one-year veteran in Roy Williams, the Bengals are also making an effort to keep Tank Johnson around for another season. Pro Football Talk writes that they're being told (weird sentence structure) that "the Bengals are working to keep Johnson, who became an unrestricted free agent at midnight."

Johnson started 13 of the 14 games he played with the Bengals in 2009. A foot injury slowed him early in the season. As he got healthy, he become noticeably more productive, recording seven tackles against the Kansas City Chiefs and five against the Minnesota Vikings including a quarterback sack on Brett Favre.

While Johnson teamed up with Domata Peko to become a reasonable decent duo at defensive tackle, the biggest issue this year will be depth. After those two, you have Pat Sims (who is respectable but hardly feared), Orien Harris and Clinton McDonald. I don't know about you, but crap. The Bengals could clearly look to upgrading the position after Peko and Tank, which we're sure they could look into after the first round of free agency slows down.

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BTW - Ben Roethlisberger was accused, again, of sexual assault.

The alleged incident occurred early this morning at Capital City — a club in Milledgeville, Georgia.

According to law enforcement sources, the alleged victim — who has already been interviewed by police — was treated at a local hospital and released.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/03/05/ben-roethlisberger-accused-of-sexual-assault/#ixzz0hLCHGB11

by jsl413 on Mar 5, 2010 4:42 PM EST reply actions

Really? The time and place for this?

Blogger at CincyJungle.com -- SB Nation Cincinnati Bengals blog.

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 5, 2010 4:45 PM EST up reply actions

I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing.

In fact, you know I think it’s a bad thing for football and for society in general.

But we’re not a Steelers blog, so I’m not gonna dedicate a whole post to it, and people tend to read the top thread.. soooo! Here’s a news clipping. Joe Reedy tweeted it, it must be Bengal-relevant.

by jsl413 on Mar 5, 2010 4:48 PM EST up reply actions

HA!

Stoolers

CB85......Collaros for Heisman

by TennBengalfan on Mar 5, 2010 5:08 PM EST up reply actions

over on BTSC

They are saying cut Ben and draft TEBOW!!!!

CB85......Collaros for Heisman

by TennBengalfan on Mar 5, 2010 5:11 PM EST up reply actions

Hell yeah, they should do it...

by WHYUS!! on Mar 5, 2010 7:08 PM EST up reply actions

We can find a good DT in the draft

Assuming we bring Tank back, I think we’ll take a shot at a DT at some point in the middle rounds. Given how deep this year’s DT class is, we should be able to find someone good.

by Big Sky Bengal on Mar 5, 2010 4:55 PM EST reply actions

Yep.

I think Tank was productive for us last year when healthy. I think he’ll be decently cheap. And I think we can find decent DT talent in the middle rounds.

by jsl413 on Mar 5, 2010 5:19 PM EST up reply actions

Pat Sims

I’m pretty high on Pat Sims, especially his upside. This was his second year and DT’s typically take a few years to grow into the role of a real NFL player. Look at Peko, there were flashes in his first few years, but this year he really seemed to put it all together. I see the same thing happening with Pat Sims this year or next. I think he might have more raw talent than Peko. We’ll see if he works as hard as Peko.
That said, I agree with our need to either keep Tank here or find someone else how can contribute. We need atleast three solid DTs to compete.

by Heywood on Mar 5, 2010 5:29 PM EST reply actions