Bengals Bytes (3/4): Beautiful goodbye

Breaking down the Bengals true salary cap
It is the season for fans of National Football League teams to play general manager and, to some degree, "capologist" as they pull up salary cap web sites to fit players onto their favorite team. It’s a practice easier than ever to participate in thanks to salary and cap-tracking outlets like spotrac.com and overthecap.com that, on balance, provide accurate numbers.

Blanket Coverage: Bengals are the team to watch in free agency
With a whopping 14 players set to become unrestricted free agents, most of whom were either starters or played key roles in two AFC North titles over the past three seasons, the Bengals will be the most interesting team when free agency kicks off on Wednesday.

Bengals have to hope their key free agents are still content with roles
Mohamed Sanu was targeted 50 times last season by Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks. A.J. Green, Marvin Jones, Tyler Eifert and even running back Giovani Bernard were all thrown to more. Sure, Sanu had a few plays late in the year when he lined up as a Wildcat quarterback, but for the first time in his career he went through a season without attempting a single pass. After having been a significantly larger piece to the Bengals' offensive arsenal the year before following an onslaught of injuries at the pass-catching positions, Sanu took a relative backseat in 2015.

An older, wiser Adam Jones is taking his football future seriously
Adam Jones shouldn't even be here right now, on the verge of NFL free agency, with another payday coming and with the chance to pick his next destination. There are so many other places he could be -- in another league, in a wrestling ring, in the hospital, in prison or somewhere even worse -- that it's amazing to realize his phone will ring next week and on the other end will be a number of coaches and general managers selling their situations to him and asking if he'd like to come play for them.

Best Landing Spots for Roddy White After Release from Atlanta Falcons
After a stellar career in Atlanta, the Falcons announced Wednesday they released Roddy White, leaving us to project ideal landing spots for the aging wideout. How much does White have left at this stage of his career? Which teams would provide the best landing spots for White?

Bengals Offseason Outlook: Offensive line
Bengals columnists Jim Owczarski and Paul Dehner Jr. begin previewing the status of every position as the team heads into the beginning of the new league year and free agency on March 9. Gain a deeper perspective of the coach's thoughts on personnel, the draft prospects, free agency as well as salary cap ramifications going forward. Today we look at the offensive line.

Random Bytes

NFL's Best Coaches 2016
Coaching matters more in football than any other sport. There are finer points to be emphasized and relievers to be micromanaged in baseball, but America’s pastime largely takes place on an island. In basketball, talent trumps all. The triangle is a great system, but unless you have Michael Jordan running it, there’s only so much of an edge to be gained. Steve Kerr? He isn’t coaching this. Not that talent doesn’t take you a long way on the gridiron. Bill Belichick probably wouldn’t be an iconoclastic American legend without Tom Brady. But Brady definitely wouldn’t be searching for one for the thumb without Belichick organizing his 22-player chess board. NFL teams are only guaranteed 16 games per season. You won’t be winning many of them without good players, but taking those players from good to great has everything to do with how coaches spend their other 349 days of the year.

Marvin Harrison Destroys Terrell Owens Over the Hall of Fame: "The Hell With Him"
Marvin Harrison was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last month. Terrell Owens was not. Terrell Owens complained about the election process. Marvin Harrison had this to say on Talk of Fame Radio:

Soccer legend Brandi Chastain and WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash donate brains for future CTE research
Scientists studying the effects of CTE in professional athletes scored two big victories for future research in the last two days. Retired women’s soccer star Brandi Chastain, best known for her 1999 World-Cup-clinching goal and subsequent celebration, and WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash have both revealed they will be donating their brains for study following their deaths.

Instagram Model Spends Weekend With Johnny Manziel, Tells Tabloid All About It
Bianca Ghezzi, an Instagram model with over 122,000 followers, gave an interview with the Daily Mail where she talked about spending last weekend with Johnny Manziel. Ghezzi posted a video on Monday that showed the headless torso of a man lying in bed who had the same "Proverbs" tattoo as Manziel. It also features her and a friend making it rain from a balcony.

"LeBatard, what’s the deal, man?" Says Mel Kiper as Dan LeBatard Walks Out On Their Interview
Dan LeBatard is trying to prove some silly point here about how he doesn't care to talk about the NFL draft seven weeks before it happens - and some of the discussion, like hand size, is impossibly stupid - so he had ESPN's Mel Kiper on his radio show and decided to walk off the set.

Huh, The NFL Might Actually Win Its Appeal On Tom Brady's Suspension
Though neither Roger Goodell nor Tom Brady appeared in the courtroom, today might’ve been the single most important day in this whole Ballghazi mess: the NFL and NFLPA made their cases in front of a three-judge panel that will decide, once and for all (barring one more appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will never happen), whether Brady will serve the four-game suspension initially imposed for his role in the Patriots’ ball-deflation scandal.

Albert Haynesworth: ‘I almost died’ of brain aneurysms
Former Titans and Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth says he nearly died of brain aneurysms in November 2014. Haynesworth, speaking on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone Thursday, detailed the events that led to an 11-day stay in intensive care.

Von Miller Reportedly to Compete on 'Dancing with the Stars'
Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller will trade in his cleats for dancing shoes, as the Super Bowl 50 MVP will be a contestant on the 22nd season of Dancing with the Stars, according to Mike Klis of 9News in Denver. Miller will reportedly become the latest NFL player to participate. Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, along with former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver, among others, have taken part in the competition before.

Arian Foster Released by Texans
The Houston Texans announced they have parted ways with their all-time leading rusher, Arian Foster. ESPN's Adam Schefter was the first to report the news Thursday. After the announcement, Foster took to Instagram to weigh in on the end of his time with the Texans

The Least Valuable Player of Every NFL Team
Every year, the NFL's 32 teams hold a fancy end-of-season banquet to gather all their players one last time as a collective unit. Food is eaten, drinks are consumed and awards are handed out to commemorate special individual performances. The most coveted of these awards is the team's Most Valuable Player award. PointAfter wanted to explore the concept of identifying every NFL team's Least Valuable Player.

Picking one free agent every NFL team must sign
We've looked at the biggest free agents for every team, and we've evaluated how active each team will be in free agency. Now, as we approach the start of free agency, it's time for NFL Nation reporters to choose a free agent every team must sign this offseason. Here are the results.