UPDATE: One down. The Cincinnati Bengals, it was reported hours ago, had offered Cedric Benson a new contract after Benson publicly showed interest in joining the Houston Texans. Whatever the Bengals offered, it worked. Geoff Hobson writes:
The Bengals filled a major gap Tuesday when they re-signed their starting running back for the upcoming season a day after Cedric Benson visited the Texans, the club announced.
Now that Benson is signed for 2009 -- terms are undisclosed at this point -- the Bengals will have a running back roster of:
- Cedric Benson
- Kenny Watson
- DeDe Dorsey
- James Johnson
- Chris Perry
Original (now out of date) post. Apparently when Cedric Benson started talking all sorts of happy love about returning to his home-state of Texas, the Bengals were listening. When Benson said that, “the business side here (Houston) might be better than the business side in Cincinnati," the Bengals were listening. When he said that the odds of signing with the Houston Texans were "good", the Bengals were listening.
Joe Reedy writes that the Bengals upped their offer. "We are hearing from our friends in Houston that the Bengals have made a new offer to Cedric Benson" No numbers are known.
Now that the Bengals lost out on Derrick Ward, who signed a very manageable offer that was much lower than some projected, we figure that the Bengals would push hard to bring Benson back. However, we also caution, as fence-sitters like myself generally do, that running back of all positions in the NFL seem to be the easiest to replenish, if the cost seems arguably high. Well, unless the Bengals draft Chris Perry (injury + disappointment) and Kenny Irons (severe injury).