-
Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
- Thread starter buckeyefool
- Start date
Upvote
0
tibor75
Banned
Considering that Palmer has more talent than Henry, Askew, Rucker, and Nicholson combined, it's a fair assessment. I'm willing to bet that the only one Lewis is worried about is Odell Thurman. If he's gone, Brian Simmons has to play the middle and only stupid Bengal fans on message boards think he is any good.
Upvote
0
I hunt manatees
in the 'glades with propeller blades
I wouldn't be so fast on cutting Henry... The kid's got talent, too bad he's a jackass. If he does get cut, I see a Koren Robinson-like situation in his future.
Upvote
0
Thats what cracks me up. There was a good chance that Askew wasn't going to make the team this year anyway. Rucker and A.J. were both reachs in the draft, and now with the guy from Virginia good chance A.J. doesn't make the team. Henry I think could be good, but lots of WR's have decent rookie years and then fade into nothingness.
Upvote
0
Tipdogusaf
Heisman
Bengals, Levi Jones agree on $40 million extension
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2529573
When the Cincinnati Bengals used the 10th overall choice in the 2002 lottery to select left offensive tackle Levi Jones, the pick was roundly criticized by draft pundits.
But it was Jones who got the last laugh Tuesday afternoon, reaching agreement with the Bengals on a six-year contract extension that moves the four-year veteran into a salary class which reflects his development as one of the league's emerging standouts at his position.
The deal is worth slightly in excess of $40 million and includes $16.3 million in guarantees. In terms of so-called "new money," it makes Jones the fourth highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL and the highest-paid blocker who has never been to a Pro Bowl.
That latter distinction belonged, albeit briefly, to Detroit Lions left tackle Jeff Backus, who less than two weeks ago signed a six-year, $38 million contract with $15.5 million in guarantees. Certainly the Backus deal helped to better define the market for Jones' extension.
Negotiations between the Bengals and agent Kenny Zuckerman had been ongoing for a good portion of the offseason, but were markedly accelerated in recent days. Jones was entering the final season of his original five-year contract in Cincinnati, and would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency next spring if the two sides had not struck the accord.
The deal is in keeping with the leaguewide trend of securing long-term contracts with left offensive tackles, a spot that has evolved nearly into "skill position" status the last several years. The contracts for Backus and Jones leave just Bryant McKinnie of Minnesota and Buffalo's Mike Gandy as the only starting left tackles in the NFL currently eligible for free agency next spring.
On average, the 32 starting left tackles in the NFL now have 3.8 seasons remaining on their contracts.
Jones, 26, became a starter in his rookie season after a standout career at Arizona State, and has started in 61 of his 63 regular-season appearances. He had a streak of 59 straight starts snapped in the season finale last year. Regarded as one of the NFL's premier pass protectors, his play has helped Carson Palmer grow into an elite quarterback, and Jones has also progressed as a run blocker.
Securing a deal with Jones was key for the Bengals, since three of their other starting linemen are in the final season of their respective contracts. That group includes Pro Bowl right tackle Willie Anderson, standout left guard Eric Steinbach and center Rich Braham. The Bengals earlier thi
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2529573
When the Cincinnati Bengals used the 10th overall choice in the 2002 lottery to select left offensive tackle Levi Jones, the pick was roundly criticized by draft pundits.
But it was Jones who got the last laugh Tuesday afternoon, reaching agreement with the Bengals on a six-year contract extension that moves the four-year veteran into a salary class which reflects his development as one of the league's emerging standouts at his position.
The deal is worth slightly in excess of $40 million and includes $16.3 million in guarantees. In terms of so-called "new money," it makes Jones the fourth highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL and the highest-paid blocker who has never been to a Pro Bowl.
That latter distinction belonged, albeit briefly, to Detroit Lions left tackle Jeff Backus, who less than two weeks ago signed a six-year, $38 million contract with $15.5 million in guarantees. Certainly the Backus deal helped to better define the market for Jones' extension.
Negotiations between the Bengals and agent Kenny Zuckerman had been ongoing for a good portion of the offseason, but were markedly accelerated in recent days. Jones was entering the final season of his original five-year contract in Cincinnati, and would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency next spring if the two sides had not struck the accord.
The deal is in keeping with the leaguewide trend of securing long-term contracts with left offensive tackles, a spot that has evolved nearly into "skill position" status the last several years. The contracts for Backus and Jones leave just Bryant McKinnie of Minnesota and Buffalo's Mike Gandy as the only starting left tackles in the NFL currently eligible for free agency next spring.
On average, the 32 starting left tackles in the NFL now have 3.8 seasons remaining on their contracts.
Jones, 26, became a starter in his rookie season after a standout career at Arizona State, and has started in 61 of his 63 regular-season appearances. He had a streak of 59 straight starts snapped in the season finale last year. Regarded as one of the NFL's premier pass protectors, his play has helped Carson Palmer grow into an elite quarterback, and Jones has also progressed as a run blocker.
Securing a deal with Jones was key for the Bengals, since three of their other starting linemen are in the final season of their respective contracts. That group includes Pro Bowl right tackle Willie Anderson, standout left guard Eric Steinbach and center Rich Braham. The Bengals earlier thi
Upvote
0
Finally, a little good news from Cinci...they needed something, anything positive for them to focus on even if only for a little while.
Upvote
0
GoBucks89
Straight Shooting
Agreed. I was predicting that Simmons would be cut in the off-season but the coaches must have known about the Thurman situation and that's why he was kept. Maybe the switch to the middle will spark a sudden resurgence of effort on his part. He's been tanking it for the last 3 years.
Upvote
0
OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
Dispatch
7/27/06
7/27/06
Lewis tries to look past Bengals’ sea of red flags
Thursday, July 27, 2006
BOB HUNTER
<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
CINCINNATI — Coach Marvin Lewis was determined to deal with the team’s offseason ugliness before the Bengals opened training camp and then move on.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Lewis said.
That’s not really what he said yesterday at a media luncheon. It’s what I heard. The Great and Powerful Oz, er, Lewis, a man who has seemed like a wizard in the way he has turned around the Bengals on the field, apparently believes that he can simply tell everybody that they don’t see what they think they are seeing.
Why he would try to do that is anyone’s guess. As team president Mike Brown pointed out, the offseason incidents that have made the local sports pages seem like a Bengals crime magazine "involve only four of 85 players."
Rather than trying to act like all this stuff never happened, wouldn’t it be wise to admit a little culpability, say that the team took some chances drafting guys with character issues and maybe even admit their draft strategy bears another look?
Instead, Lewis, a pretty smart guy from everything else we’ve seen, tried to stiff-arm the issue.
He announced that linebacker Odell Thurman was being suspended for four games because of violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy — not exactly a secret — then made a point of saying that the recent arrests of four players were all just "allegations" at this point.
"There’s no question we’ve had a bad run of events this spring and these allegations have been embarrassing to our players and our organization and our fans," he said. "However, these things still do remain allegations, and at this point not any of them have been adjudicated, and players will all have the opportunity to state their side of the case …
"We’re moving forward on this today and we’re done with it, OK? So understand that, all right? We’re done with it. It’s ludicrous for anybody to feel that these acts will affect the team or have any negative approach toward the mentality of the football team. No one who has ever played a competitive sport in their life feels that that has an effect on these (athletes)."
Actually, former Bengals Bob Trumpy and Dave Lapham have talked about that subject on their radio shows, and the national media have been even more vicious. Sportspickle.com recently ran the humorous headline, "Bengals intrigued by size of local murderer."
The Bengals brought this on themselves. Lewis said that character issues were red flags before the draft, but it obviously didn’t stop the team from taking guys who seemed to be furiously waving them.
Defensive end Frostee Rucker, a thirdround pick from Southern California, has a history of sexual misconduct charges. Fifth-round pick A.J. Nicholson of Florida State was dismissed from the team before the Orange Bowl for alleged sexual misconduct in his hotel room. Then this month, the Bengals took former Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the third round of the supplemental draft. Brooks had been dismissed from his team in March for repeated violations of its substanceabuse policy.
Whether any of this will have any bearing on how the Bengals play is debatable, but it is an issue that should be addressed, particularly when Rucker, Nicholson and Brooks are three of the players who have recently run afoul of the law.
The fourth, 2005 draft pick Chris Henry, had run-ins with his coach in college but not with the law; he has been arrested four times as a Bengal.
And this isn’t an issue?
"If Carson (Palmer) was still injured, we’d talk about Carson," Lewis told a Cincinnati TV station. "Because he’s not and there’s not that story line to go with, we have to go somewhere else." Somewhere else? "There’s nobody guilty of anything," Lewis said. "You could walk out into the street and I could sue you. I could say you did this and I could charge you." Can you see that man behind the curtain? For some reason, he’s waving a red flag.
Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch
. [email protected]
Upvote
0
OSUsushichic
Fired up! Ready to go!
Cincinnaughty
The new "Most Arrested Team in Sports"
By: MATT TAIBBI
7/26/2006 2:42:36 PM
Bengaols?
We’d better hurry. If the Phoenix and its readers don’t step on it and come up with a new nickname for the suddenly oft-indicted Cincinnati Bengals, someone else is going to do it for us — undoubtedly Dan Le Batard or Stephen A. Smith — and it’s not going to be pretty. Are you ready for six months of “Slammer-natty Bungles” references from Chris Berman on NFL Primetime? I thought not. But that’s what’s going to happen if no one comes up with a fitting moniker for the team that’s now replaced the Portland Jail Blazers as the most arrested pro-sports franchise in America.
The Bengals somewhat-officially inherited that mantle in the past month or so, following the arrests of defensive tackle Matthias Askew, linebacker A.J. Nicholson, and defensive end Frostee Rucker. The Askew arrest, which came last week, was the most embarrassing.
About once a year a major college or pro-football player is subdued with a Taser gun, usually during the off-season and usually at a bar in Florida or Texas. Ironically, last year’s entry was then–Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson, who police caught hiding in the bushes of an apartment complex in Tallahassee. No bar was involved in that one. Other recent Taser-ees include Jags lineman Chris Naeole (shot in a bar in Jacksonville), former Dolphins safety Gene Atkins (shot during an arrest for conspiracy to firebomb a former business associate, one of the weirder sports cases ever), and NHL super-good Bob “The Bad One” Probert, shot in Delray Beach, Florida, in a coke bust. Probert is the only athlete who ever required two shots to take him down; he must have had a good coke dealer.
The Askew case was a strange one. He had parked his car illegally in downtown Cinci and cops asked him to move it. Instead, the 300-pound lineman tried to drive away. Cops told him to stop; Askew then got out of his car, got “in a fighting stance,” and struggled with police as they tried to cuff him. When he broke away, police shocked him. He’s being charged with resisting arrest and obstructing official business.
With Frostee Rucker busted on domestic abuse charges, Nicholson busted for burglary, linebacker Odell Thurman serving a four-game suspension for substance-abuse violations, and wide receiver Chris Henry working on his fourth arrest since the end of the season (speeding and DUI, weapons possession, pot possession, and giving alcohol to two underage girls, a charge that was originally more serious), the Bengals are now openly being compared to the Jail Blazers. (ESPN’s John Clayton even wrote a column comparing the two last week.)
The crowning insult may have been the team’s decision to draft linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the recent supplemental draft; Brooks was an arrest champion in college who had to come out early because he was kicked off his college team. The Portland Trail Blazers’ decision to trade away many of their troublemakers last year (see Ruben Patterson and Qyntel Woods) clears the deck for the next flagship franchise.
Personally, I’m torn. The obvious choice is probably the Cincinaughty Pen-gles, but there ought to be more options than that. A play on the word “gaol” might fit (Ben-gaols?). But how many Old English scholars follow American football? Reader help is appreciated; if you have an idea, write to [email protected]. We’ll submit it to the powers that be.
http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid18713.aspx
The new "Most Arrested Team in Sports"
By: MATT TAIBBI
7/26/2006 2:42:36 PM
Bengaols?
We’d better hurry. If the Phoenix and its readers don’t step on it and come up with a new nickname for the suddenly oft-indicted Cincinnati Bengals, someone else is going to do it for us — undoubtedly Dan Le Batard or Stephen A. Smith — and it’s not going to be pretty. Are you ready for six months of “Slammer-natty Bungles” references from Chris Berman on NFL Primetime? I thought not. But that’s what’s going to happen if no one comes up with a fitting moniker for the team that’s now replaced the Portland Jail Blazers as the most arrested pro-sports franchise in America.
The Bengals somewhat-officially inherited that mantle in the past month or so, following the arrests of defensive tackle Matthias Askew, linebacker A.J. Nicholson, and defensive end Frostee Rucker. The Askew arrest, which came last week, was the most embarrassing.
About once a year a major college or pro-football player is subdued with a Taser gun, usually during the off-season and usually at a bar in Florida or Texas. Ironically, last year’s entry was then–Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson, who police caught hiding in the bushes of an apartment complex in Tallahassee. No bar was involved in that one. Other recent Taser-ees include Jags lineman Chris Naeole (shot in a bar in Jacksonville), former Dolphins safety Gene Atkins (shot during an arrest for conspiracy to firebomb a former business associate, one of the weirder sports cases ever), and NHL super-good Bob “The Bad One” Probert, shot in Delray Beach, Florida, in a coke bust. Probert is the only athlete who ever required two shots to take him down; he must have had a good coke dealer.
The Askew case was a strange one. He had parked his car illegally in downtown Cinci and cops asked him to move it. Instead, the 300-pound lineman tried to drive away. Cops told him to stop; Askew then got out of his car, got “in a fighting stance,” and struggled with police as they tried to cuff him. When he broke away, police shocked him. He’s being charged with resisting arrest and obstructing official business.
With Frostee Rucker busted on domestic abuse charges, Nicholson busted for burglary, linebacker Odell Thurman serving a four-game suspension for substance-abuse violations, and wide receiver Chris Henry working on his fourth arrest since the end of the season (speeding and DUI, weapons possession, pot possession, and giving alcohol to two underage girls, a charge that was originally more serious), the Bengals are now openly being compared to the Jail Blazers. (ESPN’s John Clayton even wrote a column comparing the two last week.)
The crowning insult may have been the team’s decision to draft linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the recent supplemental draft; Brooks was an arrest champion in college who had to come out early because he was kicked off his college team. The Portland Trail Blazers’ decision to trade away many of their troublemakers last year (see Ruben Patterson and Qyntel Woods) clears the deck for the next flagship franchise.
Personally, I’m torn. The obvious choice is probably the Cincinaughty Pen-gles, but there ought to be more options than that. A play on the word “gaol” might fit (Ben-gaols?). But how many Old English scholars follow American football? Reader help is appreciated; if you have an idea, write to [email protected]. We’ll submit it to the powers that be.
http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid18713.aspx
Upvote
0