Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco still isn’t talking to the media (a smart decision, in my view), but Coach C gives an update to the team’s official site. The Ocho is “in his best shape since 2005,” reports Charles Collins, and looks to continue working out in California for the next two weeks, before reporting to the Bengals’ mandatory minicamp June 18-20.
Collins also insists Ochocinco still has the passion to play and understands that at age 31 he can’t do what he did to his body last offseason and let it go.
“To go from one of the top five [...]

All is quiet on the Cincinnati Bengals front these days. Players are diligently going about their business in OTAs. Aside from a toe ding to starting TE Reggie Kelly, voluntaries have (so far) been injury-free (knock on wood). QB Carson Palmer continues to field questions about his elbow and absent wideout Chad Ochocinco and continues to repeat himself: the elbow’s fine, and Chad isn’t here and he’s focused on the players who are.
Sure, Bengals fans could always hope for more, say a motivated Chad in Cincy or less drama on the Andre Smith’s agent front, but as Bengals offseasons go, [...]

Over at ESPN, James Walker buys into the emerging conventional wisdom about the 2009 Cincinnati Bengals. He believes they’ve improved — but questions whether they can overcome division rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
It is well-documented that Cincinnati added a lot of talented players via the draft and free agency. But I still question if this team is good enough and tough enough to beat Pittsburgh and Baltimore four times a year, which ultimately will determine how far the 2009 Bengals go.
I’m not really sure why Walker thinks it necessary that the Bengals win all four games against the Steelers and Ravens. [...]

Hard Knocks, Al Davis in diapers and Brett Favre on the can.
As usual, I love me some John Tayman!
Have a happy — and safe — holiday weekend, everyone!

Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer’s comments about Chad Ochocinco have generated understandable buzz around Bengaldom. Via The Enquirer’s Joe Reedy, here’s what Carson had to say.
“It’s definitely a new look for the Bengals receiver corps but I couldn’t be happier with the guys we’ve got,” Palmer said. “T.J.’s (Houshmandzadeh) gone and Chad’s pretty much gone, he hasn’t been here, so we’ve got guys that want those two spots, guys that compete day in and day out, when we’re out there on the field, running, conditioning and in the weight room lifting. They’re guys that want to take over for those two [...]

Remember Kirk Barton? Well, no, of course not. But Barton remembers you, Cincinnati. (h/t mikebrownsucks.com)
Barton is in the midst of a 56-night hotel stay in Detroit for offseason workouts. Good thing the Lions are picking up the tab. You may think of Detroit as an organization that cuts corners because of the team’s lack of on-field success. Not so, Barton said.
“If I had to pay for this and continue to pay rent in Cincinnati, I’d be breaking even,” he said. “Honest to goodness, the ownership is great here. Our training table is great. Of all the places in the NFL [...]

Fans of the Cincinnati Bengals might have been expected to kvetch about the news that top pick Andre Smith is being installed at right tackle in spring camps. But generally speaking, they haven’t. If anything, more eyebrows have been raised by the decision to move LG Andrew Whitworth to LT and not leave Anthony Collins at the spot where he started the final six games of 2008.
But Smith at RT? The Chickster has it right: “As for the right side of the line — RG Bobbie Williams and RT Andre Smith — that’s 677 pounds of Ground Brat waiting to [...]

Alvin Keels, the agent widely blamed for not having Cincinnati Bengals first round draft pick Andre Smith properly prepared for the combine, and the NFL’s pre-draft dog-and-pony show in general, is reportedly once again Smith’s agent.
The word going around the league Tuesday is that Bengals rookie right tackle Andre Smith has gone back to the agent he fired just before the NFL Draft in Alvin Keels. One league source even said, “It’s a done deal,” but Keels declined comment in an e-mail Tuesday.
The buzz surfaced after Smith’s first workout with the Bengals’ full squad. He said after the first OTA [...]

Cincinnati Bengals first-round pick Andre Smith, who worked at left tackle during the rookie minicamp earlier this month, was on the right side on this first day of voluntary team workouts — and head coach Marvin Lewis says that’s the way it’s going to stay.
“When I watched (Smith) on tape, that’s what he looked like to me. It looked like he would have an opportunity to be real successful,” Lewis said.
That the Bengals used the sixth overall pick in the draft on a right tackle — especially one who has never played the position in his life — will no [...]

As the Cincinnati Bengals take the field for their first OTAs of 2009, the Doubting Thomai are out in force. Doc tinkles in the team’s Cheerios, writing that “the D is good, but still not Pittsburgh good or Baltimore good. The running game is suspect, the pass defense still lacks a consistent rush and anything approaching a shutdown corner.”
Over at ESPN, John Clayton continues to damn the Bengals with faint praise. “The only true additions to the Bengals’ roster were defensive tackle Tank Johnson, who signed a one-year, $670,000 contract; safety Roy Williams, who signed a one-year, $900,000 deal; and [...]