A major question this off-season is Rudi Johnson. Is he able to come back and be effective or will he continue to degrade? After 2005, Johnson decided to get thinner in the hopes to have more acceleration and quickness. Those advantages, though slight, came at the expense of his strength.
It appears that Johnson knows this and is determined to do something about it. "He looks back and sees he did some (dietary) things where he's thinned himself out," (Head Coach Marvin) Lewis said. "He was a different player. As he's told me he wants to make sure he does a better job of making sure that yeah, it's great to do these things but, 'Do I still have the same strength and girth to take the NFL season and run through some guys?' He did those things. He wasn't small. He's just got to go back and make sure he's all put together the way that is best for him."
Running back is two stories. In one story, the Bengals could be log-jammed with talent after Kenny Watson had his semi-break out season and with Kenny Irons, entering only his second season after missing his entire rookie season after shredding his leg, very much in the mix. Add in the impressive production from DeDe Dorsey with the few chances to show what he can do.
In the other story, Rudi Johnson is cut, Irons still hasn't recovered from injury and Watson -- while nice to have someone running the ball well, didn't show anything that Rudi Johnson hasn't done before his dietary change -- does little to improve on 2007.