The Cincinnati Bengals announced that former outside linebacker Brandon Johnson has signed with the team Wednesday afternoon; thus ditching the former part because it never applied, allowing the Bengals to further improve the depth they've been developing at linebacker. Earlier this week negotiations between Johnson and the Bengals were reportedly stalled, though there was little known interest from other teams. Eventually the two sides made progress Tuesday night culminating to today's signing.

We're generally expecting the starting lineup to include Rey Maualuga in the middle, Manny Lawson on the strong-side and Thomas Howard at weak-side; though we have no reason not to believe that Johnson shouldn't be given the opportunity to start now that Keith Rivers will reportedly miss some time during the regular season. Do I smell competition battle?

Brandon Johnson becomes the team's ninth free agent signing (by our count) that doesn't include restricted free agent, exclusive-rights free agents, rookie signings or undrafted free agents.

Also, Cedric Benson and Manny Lawson signed their deals making it official.