BengalsCentral Blog

Head over to my new site

I will be posting over at my new site.  If you have this one book marked, please change it.  I'm working out the kinks as I add new material.  Thanks

Oldie but goodie

I think I posted this video before.  We were on a road trip to Denver to play the Broncos.  A big storm had hit so we left on a Friday instead of our normal Saturday.  I actually had more footage but it was lost when I switched cameras.  Check out the funny moment at the 5:20 mark.  

JTV Denver from john thornton on Vimeo.

Mailbag

Greetings from Vail, CO.  I just got here for a family ski trip.  But....I have time to update my blog.  Slow day in football but a lot of small things are worth talking about.  I will hit on some of those later.  It's time for Mailbag.....

P.S.  These questions can be found in the comments section of each post.  I'm not making these questions up lol.  I say that because I always joke with Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com about how he makes up questions from readers on his site.  I know he doesn't, but we still kid him about it. 

John, I agree with not taking a tackle that high, but for different reasons. I think they should move Collins to Right tackle and Whitworth to left tackle. They could be the tackles for years to come. Collins was a fourth round pick. Why not draft one later in the draft. Do you think it would be a good idea to pick up a center in free agency like Steussie or Faine? I know Steussie is older but has a lot of exp. Faine has only played for 5 years. I would like to see them sign Ray Lewis and draft Raji. That D would be awesome! I also would like to see you stay and play some D end. Let me know your thoughts. Last thought I hope they sign Crocker and Benson! Thanks Jim

Trade Bait

Sports Agent Drew Rosenhaus

Bengals WR Chad Johnson said he was going to be quiet this off season and not talk about getting traded to another team.  And so far Chad is staying true to his word.  But that doesn't mean that his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, is going to be quiet.  Reports are surfacing saying that Drew has sent a letter to all 32 teams that some of his players, including Chad Johnson, could be traded for the right price.  I wouldn't read too much into that though.  If you think about it, about 95% of the players in the NFL could be had for the right price.  Obviously, Anquan Boldin wants to be traded, Chad wanted to be traded last year, and Plaxico Burress has legal issues with the New York Giants and the New York City police.  

If you take a look at the whole report, it says that Drew Rosenhaus sent a letter to all 32 NFL teams letting them know which players  he was representing for this upcoming free agency period, and which players he was representing for the upcoming NFL Draft.  Then he threw in the three WR's that could be had via trade.  Other than the trade section of this letter, it seems like common practice for agents to let teams know who they are representing.  And apparently the Giants didn't give Drew permission to shop Plaxico Burress around, according to this ESPN.com story.....

"One source told the Star-Ledger that Giants assistant GM Kevin Abrams informed the rest of the league that the team had not given Rosenhaus the authority to pursue a trade on Burress' behalf. Another source told the paper that Rosenhaus sent a second e-mail Tuesday to tell teams he doesn't have permission to see a trade for Burress, Boldin or Johnson."

LOL, I forgot about Levi

When I said this morning that I needed my coffee, I wasn't lying.  When discussing the offensive line in an earlier post, I forgot about LT Levi Jones.  I asked myself how did that happen and the only reason I could think of is that he was injured for much of this past season.  

A reader asked me if I thought Levi would be back next year and the answer to that is.....I don't know.  That's a tough one.  Levi is very talented.  But he has been injured since his best season back in 2005.  I read things in previous seasons about him having problems with the organization, so maybe with the young Anthony Collins getting good game experience last year, the Bengals would be willing to explore trading or letting Levi go. I remember his agent asking for that last season. That's just me thinking out loud, again I have no inside info.  This has been written about on Bengals.com in the past, so I don't want to be breaking any news here.  ha ha.  But if Levi can get healthy and the team keeps him, he is clearly the starter at LT.  No questions asked.

Reader Comments

I will try my best to respond to questions that are posed by readers.  A lot of you have brought up good points and countered things that I have said.  Good debate.  We all have opinions.  Here is a comment from a reader,

"TJ was 7th rd pick Ocho Cinco and Carl Pickens were 2nd rd The only 1st rd WR pick I can remember from bengals was, Peter Warrick... I feel pretty good about 1st rd pick of A. Smith/J. Smith/Monroe/Oher and a second rd pick of Alex Mack/Max Unger Whats the point of having Carson if you won't protect him. If I was Carson I'd be in someone's ear about making o-line a priority, and who could blame him? "

My response:

Draft projections will change

As I look at many mock drafts on the Internet, I find myself shaking my head.  It's way too early to predict which team will draft what.  Is it fun to predict?  Yes.  But in reality, you have to wait until after free agency to see what each team really needs.  If the Detroit Lions somehow make a trade for Patriots QB Matt Cassel, do you think they will still draft a QB with the No. 1 pick?  No.  So the key to predicting who your team will draft is predicting who they will get/lose in free agency and how that changes their roster.  I will show you what I'm talking about.

And with the 6th pick.......

I was talking to a buddy(NFL employee) today about a topic he heard on some local sportstalk shows here in Cincinnati.  He was pretty irritated because fans here in Cincinnati were opposed to taking a WR with the 6th pick in the NFL Draft.  We got into a pretty good debate about who we thought the team should take with the pick.  In the middle of the conversation I said that I wished I had a recorder to put this on my website.  It was pretty good.  Anyway, I will bring you bits and pieces of the debate and you can chime in to let me know what you think.  Today's debate is going to be the case of drafting an Offensive Tackle with the 6th pick.

Hmmm

I know I said I was tired of the A-Rod talk but he keeps saying silly things.  I like it when guys detail exactly when they started taking steroids.  Like I'm really going to believe him.  We always stretch the truth a little right?  A-Rod said he started using in 2001, right after he got the largest deal in sports history.  Hmmmm.  Either he is lying or he does things exactly opposite of most of the other steroid users. 

 I would think guys would use steroids to get that big contract, not after they get it.  But A-Rod said that he felt pressure to live up to the deal and he wanted to live up to being among the all time greats.  Ok.  You get a 10 yr, 250 million dollar deal, that's fully guaranteed no matter if you play or not, and then you start doing steroids?  So you were good enough to get that kind of deal without taking steroids and now you have to take it?  Wow.  

The bad part is that the ESPN sports ticker that runs across the bottom of the screen ran some stats tonight that supports what A-Rod is saying.  It said that he hit 52 HR's per year from 2001-03, the same time that A-Rod said he took these steroids.  And hit 39 HR's per year in his other nine years in the league.  So maybe he was telling the truth.  Who know's.  But I still think he had it all backwards.

Scouting Report: Penn State DE Aaron Maybin

I just got finished breaking down some film of Penn State DE Aaron Maybin.  I watched the Ohio State game and the Rose Bowl Game vs USC. I was actually at the Rose Bowl, but I didn't know of Maybin at the time.  The reason I watched those two games were because there were different kinds of offenses and I got to see Maybin attack people in different ways.  In the OSU game, Maybin faced a mobile QB, and in the USC game he faced a pro style offense.  Watching tape against pro style offenses gives you more of a read because that's what he will see on Sunday's in the NFL. I can look at a defensive lineman and tell right away if he has certain skills to play at the next level.  I do not claim to be an NFL Draft expert so I won't say where he should be drafted.  Some say he is a top 10-15 pick.  Who knows?  

Midday monday

Sometimes I get a brain freeze when it comes to what I want to talk about.  When that happens I usually take a ride in my car and listen to different talk shows.  I go to Starbucks.  I go to Fresh Market.  I go to the  Apple Store.  But today I did some daddy duty and dropped my son off at preschool then rode to a meeting for some things I want to incorporate into my new website.  That went well.  I'm excited about it.  Anyway, back to the radio.  I checked out some local sports talk and they were talking about A-Rod.  I turned to Howard Stern and he was talking about A-Rod.  I turned to ESPN Radio and they were talking about A-Rod.  I'm really tired of hearing about it.  The one name that is getting brought up now is Ken Griffey Jr. He is probably last big name player who never took steroids and people are looking at his career now and appreciating it more.  Ken is my favorite player of all-time, right next to Barry Bonds, so the whole A-Rod thing doesn't bother me.  If he did it, he should be talked about in the same light as Barry Bonds.  Speaking of Barry, I know he is happy that someone just as big or bigger than him is taking some of the negative spotlight away from him.  

I blame it all on football season being over.  Whoever broke this story probably had all of this info a while back, and waited for the Super Bowl to be over and then have the headlines.  

Restricted Free Agency

Ed Thompson of Scout.com wrote a good article about the rules of restricted free agency.  He breaks down the salaries and compensation that the original team receives for losing a player to another team.  

I don't understand it

Former NFL star Jamal Anderson was recently arrested for drug possession at a Atlanta bar.  When I read the headline on the Internet, I said "COME ON MAN!"  Last week while I was in Las Vegas, I was watching ESPN in my hotel room and Jamal was on TV.  I thought to myself, "that's cool,  he has a cool job, I'm happy for him."  Let me be the first to say, never believe everything you read.  I have seen people get accused of something and a few weeks later we find out that the story was different than first reported.  Many of my teammates(WVU, Titans, Bengals) over the years have been involved in situations where they were on the wrong side of the law.  So I will say Jamal is innocent until proven guilty.  

Saturday Night at the Movies

He's Just Not That Into You is a good movie.  I went into it thinking it would be a chick flick but it ended up being a movie that men and women will like.  Fellas go check it out.

Sorry about my previous video not playing.  I will repost tomorrow.  Something is wrong with my internet connection tonight.  

A-Rod on steroids? So what

This steroid stuff is old news.  Jose Canseco outted A-Rod years ago when he released his first book.  Nobody cared because Jose said it and they think he's an idiot.  But he has been dead on with every player that he named.  I wish every baseball player just came out and admit they used steroids whether they did it or not.  Then the story would be over with.  I really don't care that Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, A-Rod, or anyone, did steroids.  Is it wrong? Yes.  Should they do it?  No.  It sets a bad example for kids.  They weren't being tested for it back then and they did them.  The bad part is when they lie under oath about it.  Then the player becomes just plain stupid.  Just admit it, take the blame, and move on with your life.  Finish the rest of your 200 million dollar deal, move to Florida, and detox your body from all of the juice.  Sounds good to me. That's what my man Jason Jiambi did.  Said he was sorry, but didn't say what he was sorry for, and he was forgotten about.  I honestly care more about A-Rods divorce and how he is chasing Madonna, more than I will ever care if he took steroids.  

Mailbag....reader puts on his GM hat

From Louis D,

"As far as free agency, I would concentrate young "up and comer" type players that haven't had the chance to shine. There may not be a lot of them out there, but they're out there. As far as the draft, pick the best player available in the first round. If the BPA is a low character guy then get the next. The top of the draft has players that would be an upgrade at their respective position. The only exception would be WR. The only position I would reach for would be for a kick returner. Preferred a CB or RB. It's a position that has been long ignored."

Louis,

There is nothing wrong with your theory. Fewer and fewer teams are letting those "young, up and comer types" go into free agency. You will see teams signing young players a year or two before their contract is up. I think the Eagles started this trend about five years ago. They started giving their good young players 5 year deals and people around the league were scratching their heads. Guys like Shawn Andrews, Lito Sheppard, Trent Cole, and even Mike Patterson were all in their second or third year of their rookie contracts when the Eagles came to them to do a new deal. The player is all for this deal when it happens. They are getting market deals when their contract isn't even up. The team looks silly for giving these players all of this money when they don't have to, but in two or three years when these same players become Pro Bowlers or even very good players, the teams have these guys locked into their contracts at below market salaries. The Bengals did this last year with Domata Peko and Andrew Whitworth.

Mailbag

From David,

"John can you blog about what some of the emotions and the thought process a player goes through. Especially if they are attached to a city and there team isn't showing them the respect the deserve. Also when you make a decision to go a team is it just about the money or are you thinking about your kids and there schools, your wife friends, etc. . . We as fans forget that you are people just like us. And that you have a very limited amount of time to make a great deal of money, that in my job if I make a mistake maybe 3 people know it not 30 million. I really enjoy your blog because you make football players humans instead of just machines."

David,

Free agency is different for each player.  I can only speak for myself but I know what usually happens.  When a player is coming off of his rookie contract, money is the most important thing.  Even though rookie deals are good money, they are not enough to live the rest of your life off of, unless you are a top ten pick or something.  I was a second round pick so I wanted my next contract be the one that determined my financial future.  I didn't know what my value would be on the open market so i had no idea what to expect.  The Titans had players behind me that were pretty good(Robaire Smith and 

Albert Haynesworth) so I knew they weren't going to match any offer that I got from another team.  So I went into free agency feeling like I was blind folded. 

Ok, back to TJ

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America)

Joe Reedy has an article about TJ in today's Enquirer.  I thought it was a good piece.  TJ doesn't think the Bengals will put the franchise tag on him and he explains why.  He feels as if the team has too many holes to tie up 10 million dollars into him for one year.  And with the looming uncapped year coming up in the NFL, he may be right.  With each day that goes by, TJ is going to let his feelings be known more and more.  

Getting ripped!!!

I wasn't lying about going to workout.  I go to this little gym near my house during the off season, they have pretty good workouts. One on one work, not a lot of traffic.  

More on Big Al and TJ

(Albert Haynesworth)

I woke up this morning and read a few football articles on-line. What I posted yesterday got me to thinking.  Players scheduled to become free agents are really getting antsy.  It's like a kid knowing that Christmas is three weeks away.  Each player has different circumstances to worry about.  I will look at two guys, both are guys that I have played with in the past, Albert Haynesworth and TJ Houshmandzadeh.