Five for Five: Random thoughts and beliefs about the Bengals

Adam Jones finally opened up this week during an interview on SiriusXM's Late Hits on Thursday. Instead of deflecting all of the blame, Jones finally admitted things that he needs to work on to become a better person.

I'm still growing as a person. But I'm trying to do everything I can do to make sure that I don't have no regrets at night. I had the one hiccup and that's an area I need to work on. Me being confronted or getting touched with a certain or particular object, that's an area that Adam Jones has to work on. If it would have been anything else, I probably would have just walked away. But when I'm being physically touched, it's an area I need to work on.

Be honest with everyone, including yourself and people will continue to accept you.

But this can't be an effort to apologize for embarrassing the organization again. This can't be an agent whispering in Jones's ear with the sole purpose of repairing his personal image. It has to be because of genuine growth, which will be evaluated through his actions. As it stands, people are only concerned about what Jones does on the field. By this point, people have stopped judging and rating Jones's character. Those conclusions have been made, and they're not favorable.

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Early bold prediction. Despite head coach Marvin Lewis promoting competition between Kyle Cook and Trevor Robinson as the starting center, Cook is already the heavy favorite. So much so that Robinson needs a tremendous training camp just to be a factor again. So what if Robinson missed the offseason training program this year. He's hurt. Fair or not, that weighs considerably more than a perceived projection based off of performances in 2012.

And that evaluation is flawed.

After being activated off Injured-Reserve late last season, the coaching staff elected to start Cook in a high-stakes game against Pittsburgh despite not being fully recovered from a preseason high ankle sprain. Cincinnati favors Cook's experience and football IQ.

We're not saying that Robinson won't start. Nor are we saying that Robinson isn't better. But right now, based on our experience with this team for the past ten years, we're already concluding that it's Cook's job to lose.

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One of the things that concerns me (but isn't really relevant right now): If there's such a gap regarding contract extensions with Geno Atkins, Michael Johnson and Carlos Dunlap, how much bigger is that gap in regards to wide receiver A.J. Green?

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It'll be difficult for rookie defensive end Margus Hunt to accumulate defensive snaps this year. He won't take snaps away from Carlos Dunlap and Michael Johnson. Robert Geathers and Wallace Gilberry are returning with three-year contracts and Hunt is being viewed with raw talent that needs to be developed. He'll play a lot of special teams, but defensive participation will take time.

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It might not be the training camp headline, but I'm intrigued by how the cornerback depth develops. I'm thinking that a shortage of safety talent will limit the number to four after final cuts, supplementing the defensive back roster with six cornerbacks when the team heads to Chicago.

Leon Hall, Terence Newman, Adam Jones and Dre Kirkpatrick are locks, leaving six players to compete for two spots. My focused interest will be Brandon Ghee and Shaun Prater, two players that showed some promise last year prior to season-ending injuries.