Bengals Banter: Franchise Tag, MJ’s Return, & Youth is Served
Dec 30, 2012; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson (93) high fives a fan before taking the field prior to the game against the Baltimore Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals defeated the Ravens 23-17. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports
After notching a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2012, defensive end Michael Johnson will be one of the top free agents this offseason, but he continues to stress his desire to return to Cincinnati:
"Everything will work itself out and I’ll be in the best situation — hopefully that’s in Cincinnati. We’ve got a good thing going. We’ve got to continue to improve, make some more strides and make even more noise. We’ve done a little bit but there’s a lot more left to do. We’ve got a great group of young guys and I’m a part of that, and I look forward to continuing to be a part of that for many years to come."
Joe Reedy pointed out an interesting stat regarding which Bengals players had the most offensive snaps last season:
"It ended up being left guard Clint Boling who played all but one snap (1105 of a possible 1106 or 99.91 percent of the snaps). The rest of the Top 5 are right guard Kevin Zeitler (1100), Andre Smith (1096), Andy Dalton (1076) and Jermaine Gresham (1052)."
I find this both interesting and encouraging, as four of those five players have been in the league three years or less. Smith, who is set to become a free agent, is also young with just five seasons of NFL experiences and if he can be re-signed, it will further strengthen the young nucleus the Bengals are blessed with right now.
Want more Bengals news? Like Stripe Hype on Facebook, or grab our RSS feed.