Week In Review: High Turnout For Bengals Practices And Marvin Lewis Speaks

You have to enjoy the momentary pauses during the NFL lockout. Newsworthy stories that breaks the stale months of May and June, assisted with player workouts and a head coach talking to a radio station in St. Louis. Yea. Not Cincinnati radio hosts. St. Louis. Stories involving the lockout have gone from concern, to general interest to now passive observation. There's a court date today? Big deal. Just wake me up when the lockout is actually over. They're talking about an eight game season now? With the rhetoric from both sides being echoed throughout the media, no one really believes what one side or the other is saying. Wake me when football starts.

And for a moment, an awakening happened this week. A high turnout of Bengals players gathered in and around Cincinnati for workouts with a team-workout at Nippert Stadium on Wednesday. The quarterbacks looked sharp, Andre Smith appears to have lost a lot of weight and the least favorite rookie (at least amongst the commenters at Cincy Jungle) wide receiver Ryan Whalen looked good.

Then Marvin Lewis joined ESPN 101 in St. Louis on Friday and talked about a variety of issues.

• Lewis is given another chance at rebuilding this football team, and he knows it. However you look at it, this is definitely his second chance after being hired in 2003. Or his third chance on a more philosophical level after the 2002 and 2008 seasons.
• Lewis also reiterated two things. There is a plan in place after the Carson Palmer era if the "franchise" quarterback elects not to return. Lewis also reiterated that Andy Dalton could be the starting quarterback if he's ready.
• What was surprising during the interview had more to do with the praise that Lewis gave Chad Ochocinco after months of public shots the two have taken at each other.