Three Reasons The Bengals Will Struggle In '09
Call me skeptical, but I'm concerned the Cincinnati Bengals administration and players have lost focus. That's disturbing, especially considering the three previous decades of futility. Other NFL teams (the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles minus the Vick fiasco and Kansas City Chiefs) have made great strides recruiting new talent and fine-tuning operations.
The Bengals?
First, the Bengals exhausted their franchise tag selecting Shane Graham. Graham's a good guy and an outstanding kicker. Don't get me wrong. Kickers and special teams are critical to a team's success. But wasting the franchise tag on a kicker is unusual, to say the least, and unwise, considering the number of offensive and defensive holes the team possesses. After all, you're talking about a franchise that reportedly couldn't even land Vick for more money than the Eagles offered.
Second, the Bengals are horsing around. In this week's preseason game, the stupidity hit a new level. Wide receiver Ocho Cinco (formerly known as Chad Johnson) was tasked with kicking the PAT (and I say THE PAT because the Bengals only managed a single TD). So here you have the ailing eight-year veteran kicker on whom you spent your franchise tag unable to kick a simple extra point and what do you do? You send a legitimate franchise-tag quality player out to risk injury (hamstring pull, torn ACL, whatever) for a senseless PAT in a meaningless game. I don't get it.
Third, this morning I read a headline that QB Carson Palmer's brother (also a team QB) is excited about this year's season. I think that's good. Why's he excited? Jordan Palmer (who I would have hoped spent his summer studying the playbook, working out, strengthening and conditioning his body, etc.) dedicated his time to developing an Apple iPhone application. The purpose? To profile Ocho Cinco photos, thoughts and other crap.
Maybe I'm dejected after so many years of failure, but these don't seem harbingers of greatness.
The Bengals?
First, the Bengals exhausted their franchise tag selecting Shane Graham. Graham's a good guy and an outstanding kicker. Don't get me wrong. Kickers and special teams are critical to a team's success. But wasting the franchise tag on a kicker is unusual, to say the least, and unwise, considering the number of offensive and defensive holes the team possesses. After all, you're talking about a franchise that reportedly couldn't even land Vick for more money than the Eagles offered.
Second, the Bengals are horsing around. In this week's preseason game, the stupidity hit a new level. Wide receiver Ocho Cinco (formerly known as Chad Johnson) was tasked with kicking the PAT (and I say THE PAT because the Bengals only managed a single TD). So here you have the ailing eight-year veteran kicker on whom you spent your franchise tag unable to kick a simple extra point and what do you do? You send a legitimate franchise-tag quality player out to risk injury (hamstring pull, torn ACL, whatever) for a senseless PAT in a meaningless game. I don't get it.
Third, this morning I read a headline that QB Carson Palmer's brother (also a team QB) is excited about this year's season. I think that's good. Why's he excited? Jordan Palmer (who I would have hoped spent his summer studying the playbook, working out, strengthening and conditioning his body, etc.) dedicated his time to developing an Apple iPhone application. The purpose? To profile Ocho Cinco photos, thoughts and other crap.
Maybe I'm dejected after so many years of failure, but these don't seem harbingers of greatness.
Labels: cincinnati bengals futility
posted by Erik Eckel at 1:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home