As the offseason continues to drag on, MSM reporters try and conjure up entertaining stories to get the fans talking about, oftentimes, meaningless speculation, and players gear up for the new season, I am left in a state of longing and depression. It seems like it has been forever since we last enjoyed a pleasant sunday afternoon full of football. Almost long enough, that I seem to forget what it all feels like. What do I do on a sunday that makes the day so special and enjoyable? Sure, I watch television on other days of the week, but nothing compares to a sunday of football.

 

My typical sunday starts with waking up and going to church. I then come home where the first thing that is touched is the remote. It goes immediately to the pregame show. The computer is then fired up so that I can complete any last minute fantasy adjustments. The first slate of games comes up. BENGALS!!!!!!!!! Snore. Luckily, there are other games on, thanks to the ticket. Hopefully there is an enjoyable game on during the early games, otherwise, maybe I will have to switch to NASCAR.

 

Then.....................the Broncos game is on. How exciting. I have the lucky jersey on. It can be changed later if the team is doing poorly. I always sit on the same edge of the couch. The remote is on the coffee table and the water bottle is in my right hand. KICKOFF!!!!!! My eyes widen as the ball goes in the air and falls gracefully into the returners arms. They widen even more as the returner flies up the sideline and is destroyed by a tackler.

 

The game goes on and everyone in the room is not allowed to say anything unrelated to the game. Talk about your sick cousin or divorced parents some other time. Sundays are for football. Until the final whistle blows, the broncos are the center of attention. To me, the broncos are like the bonfire for Bear Grylls, it is near impossible to survive without it. Sure, it may be possible to live on, but it is very uncomfortable and I would rather die.

 

I long for those sunday afternoons. With us only being in July, in the middle of minicamps and preseason, those sundays look so far away. However, soon enough, we will all have our places on the couch, jerseys on, eyes wide, mouths shut..... watching the Broncos. Oh, how I long for those sundays.

Poll

Do you have any rituals?

23%

wear a certain jersey

14 votes

10%

sit in a certain place

6 votes

3%

eat a certain food

2 votes

6%

drink a certain drink

4 votes

33%

a mixture of the above four

20 votes

23%

other

14 votes

60 votes | Poll has closed

Well, the E sports network has finished it's may power rankings and, as you would expect, the broncos are near the bottom at 25. Billy W, as is customary with the AFC West Blog, says "The Broncos have to show they can win with Kyle Orton and with a rebuilding defense." Apparently, the MSM still doesn't get it, so you guys can just calm down. Hell isn't freezing over, everything is the same.

The Bears are ranked 12th and their blogger wrote, "The addition of Jay Cutler gives the Bears the early advantage in the NFC North." Clearly, the MSM is still drinking the Bear koolaid over there, too.

The reason I bring this up is this. I don't want anyone here to go complain about the rankings. We all know that the Broncos are better than this and the Bears may have gotten a bum deal here, but let's keep that to ourselves. We could shock the league and come back in a few months and show everyone this site and how we knew all along what was really happening.

As tempting as it was for me to go on that site and freak out on them and say "look what the broncos have done and how good we can be", but I didn't.

 

They are gonna look back and know that we were right and they were wrong.

Shannon Sharpe is going to be inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame. This comes as no surprise to me, but to a few, this is a head scratcher. Shannon definitely earned it. He was one of the greatest tight ends to ever play football.

I was just in a debate the other day about whether Shannon Sharpe or Sterling Sharpe was the better player. It's hard to compare a WR to a TE. Throw in that Sterling was cut down in the prime of his career to an injury, and that comparison gets harder. Someone in the circle said "well, Shannon talks funny." What does that have to do with football? I just find it as a unique trait that makes him special.

I'll never forget on Hard Knocks with the Baltimore Ravens Shannon saying "Goose, I need my restitution." Shannon is one of the funniest guys out there. Remember when he picked up the phone on the sidelines and said "Mr. President call in the National Guard. Send as many as you can spare, cuz we are KILLING the patriots. They need emergency help" The guy was money. CBS hired him as a broadcaster, so he must not talk too "funny". True, he talked some trash but if you play better because of it, fine. He was an amazing player.

Shannon had 10060 yards and 62 TDs off of 815 games in 214 games. Oh yeah, and he won 3 super bowls. Two with the Broncos and one with the Ravens. If that isn't hall of fame worthy, I don't know what is.

So, Congratulations to Shannon. You deserve it, man. I'm glad you spent most of your career in Denver, because you were fun to watch and were an amazing player. Thanks for the memories. Now, we are going to give one back to you. Welcome to the Ring of Fame.

That won't be your last stop, though. We'll see you in Canton, later, too.

 

The 2009 Cincinnati Bengals are going to be better than last year if they can stay healthy.

 

Players are healthy again.

I am going to read off a list of injured players for last years' Bengals.

WR Andre Caldwell (5 missed games)

C Kyle Cook (10 games)

RB DeDe Dorsey (12 Games)

DE Robert Geathers (5 games)

SS Jonathan Joseph (8 games)

WR Brian Leonard (14 games)

FS Cory Lynch (9 games)

FS Chinedum Ndukwe (5 games)

WR Chad Ochocinco (3 games, but was injured the entire season)

DE Antwan Odom (4 Games)

QB Carson Palmer (12 games)

LB Keith Rivers (9 games)

TE Ben Utecht (6 games)

SS Roy Williams (14 games - Dallas)

They may not have had as many RB injuries as the Broncos, but their injuries plagued their entire team, offense and defense. With a healthy team, the Bengals could contend, but the real question is can they stay healthy through the whole season?

 

Palmer excited

There are no questions at the quarterback position for the Bengals. Carson Palmer is the quarterback and is finally healthy.

Carson Palmer is happy and excited for the season. He is healthy for the first time in years. Ever since the 2005 brutal injury against the Steelers in the AFC Wildcard game, Palmer has been riddled. The Brady-like injury that he suffered years ago has set his career back a few years. Last season, he injured his throwing elbow and had surgery during the season. He has recovered and participated in mini camp and said he is feeling good.

Last season was poor from the quarterback position as Ryan Fitzpatrick led the way. Fitz has been a backup for a long time, in fact, you may remember him having an amazing 300 yard day playing for the injured Marc Bulger for the Rams a few years ago. He was a one week wonder that was put at the helm of the Bengals last season as Palmer was still recovering.

Putting all that behind them, the Bengals now have a Pro Bowl quality QB in the backfield. Unless injury plagues this team again, the QB position is set.

 

Roy Williams is a Bengal

With the safety woes the Bengals have suffered, they signed Roy Williams in free agency. This move sures up the defensive backfield that was 15th last season against the pass. He may not be able to cover anymore, but the rest of the DBs have an aptitude for getting to the ball in the air. Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph should be a good duo at CB and Chinedum Ndukwe should complement Roy Williams at FS or SS.

 

Questions at Reciever

Here's the deal at reciever. Chad Ocho Cinco is still in the Queen city, but nobody knows what he is going to bring to the table. Is he going to be a pro bowl talent like he was just two years ago or an underproducing mouth like he was last season. With the loss of TJ Houshmazilly or TJ Hwhosyourmama or TJ Hoshmazode or TJ Houshmandzadeh, the Bengals are likely going to struggle offensively. TJ was a third down machine for the Bengals the last few years, much like a larger Brandon Stokely.

To compensate for the loss of TJ, the bengals added former Jets reciever Lavernaneus Coles. Coles is a great stop-gap solution, but he will not put this offense over the top. In his ninth season, he consistently puts up between 800 and 1200 yards every year. His production may drop, this season, because the only other recieving threats on this offense are TE Ben Utecht and WR Chad Ocho Cinco, even WR Chris Henry if he can stay out of trouble. With the questions surrounding the recieving corp, despite a healthy Carson Palmer, this passing offense may struggle. At best, I see the passing offense as average.

 

Interior line trouble?

Despite having one of the best left tackles in football, Levi Jones, the Bengal Offensive Line is porous. Even bengal fans don't believe the Oline is going to work out.

Here is a quote from firstpick on the Bengals SB site The cincy Jungle, "Kyle Cook and Jonathan Luigs are going to battle it out for the starting Center position. Great, a guy that that has never started a game in the NFL (Cook) and a Rookie that isn't strong at the point of attack (Luigs). Throw in Dan Santucci, a former 7th round pick who has only played in 2 games, and we have some big questions at Center going into training camp."

The LT position is taken care of, but Carson Palmer may be on his back quite a bit next season. Don't look for a lot of runs to the right side, either.

 

Questions in the backfield

The RB position will be interesting to watch as we go forward. As it stands, Cedric Benson is the leading candidate for the RB job. Rumors have surfaced that the Bengals may get Edgerin James. If that comes to fruition, there could be a RB competition in Cincinnati. I don't see this RB core being very good if their offensive line is as bad as I have read.

 

Tank Johnson lack of production

A year ago, the Bengals signed DT Tank Johnson, the former Chicago Bear standout. They expected a lot more than 1 sack and 22 tackles. Of the 22 tackles, 20 of them were runs up the gut. He has no lateral movement and no penetration into the backfield on running or passing situations.

The Dline looks much worse than Denver's. The DEs are average and the DTs are almost nonexistent. The Bengals did nothing to address the Dline this off season. If Tank Johnson's production doesn't improve, this defense may be in trouble.

Behind the Porous Defensive line is a pretty good LB core. Dhani Jones, from the travel channel, is actually a pretty good LB. Keith Rivers and Rey Maualuga are both USC graduates that have a very promising future in the NFL. Keith Rivers has been a solid LB for the Bengals for a few years, while Maualuga could play in his first year, although he has to beat Rashad Jeanty for the job. The LB core should be okay for this season, although I do not see any pro bowlers coming from the Bengals LB core.

 

Special Teams

The kicking game will be good as usual, with Shane Graham booting the ball. Kyle Larson is another good special teamer, averaging 42 yards per punt and holding teams inside the 20 yard line 28 times in 2008. They should have pretty good field position, for the most part.

 

Overall Offense

The offense is going to have a rough time getting points. Carson Palmer could get frustrated behind a terrible line and have limited targets to throw to with the departure of TJ Houshmandzadeh. The running game may struggle as well, with Cedric Benson being average behind a good offensive line, how will he do behind a terrible one?

They should at least be able to score field goals, however, because Shane Graham is money. This won't be a top 10 offense unless Chad Ocho Cinco has an amazing season and has well over 1000 yards, which he hasn't shown capable of doing in a few years.

 

Overall Defense

The defense should be pretty average. They don't have all the pieces in place to make a dominant defense, but there is enough defensive talent to keep them in the game. They should be better with the addition of Roy Williams.Given Williams has had trouble covering receivers, they may use him more as an 8th man in the box to help the run defense.

The defense will be a tough defense, with some quality leadership and good talent.

 

Predictions

The Bengals have a good team, but they are going to be victims of playing in a very tough division. The Superbowl Champion Steelers, very tough Ravens, and Rival Cleveland Browns will keep the Bengals out of the playoffs once again.

I think they go 7 - 9 and miss the playoffs. Injuries to Carson Palmer, Laveraneus Coles or any member of the defense will take away 2 to 3 wins from that total. With the history of Palmer, this could be a very real possibility.

 

I am going to be at the Broncos vs Bengals game in Cincinnati in Septemberj, cheering on the Broncos. Hopefully, this article has been helpful in letting you all see the opponent of the Broncos for Week 1 of the 2009 NFL season.

Poll

What is the Cincinnati Bengals' biggest need?

8%

RB

7 votes

67%

Offensive Line

53 votes

12%

Defensive Line

10 votes

7%

WR

6 votes

3%

other

3 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

Quarterback - Orton and Simms. I really think Orton is going to win this battle and is going to do great things for Denver. As a Purdue graduate, you can see that this dude knows his stuff. He is a cerebral player with great arm strength (although people have been saying he has a "noodle arm"). He threw 50-60 yard bombs to Hester all year and still has great accuracy to hit guys over the middle. He loves throwing to RBs and TEs, so look out Moreno, Hillis, and Scheffler.

I think that QB will not be a problem like many people throughout the league think. JC was good, but Orton has control and brains. He can throw it long when he needs to, but he doesn't throw stupid picks, either.

 

Runningback - Where do you wanna start? There is a huge logjam at RB right now. I am really excited about Moreno and Hillis being in the same backfield. I am not going to rule out Torain, although he may have trouble making the team if he doesn't get healthy. I don't like LaMont Jordan at all. Arrington is okay with me, but I don't see him taking the starting job. Overall, I think our running game will be stout. We have depth and talent.

Wide Receivers - Not a problem at all. Unless Marshall gets suspended, I see no problems with our WRs. With Marshall, Eddie, Stokely, Gaffney, and Jackson, we will have plenty of talent and depth. Stokely is a slight concern with injury. He is getting up there in age, but I think Jackson or Gaffney could take over in the slot if he had any problems. I really think the receiving game will be a strength again this year.

 

Tight Ends - I think that our TE position is going to be a point of interest this offseason and into the season. It all depends on which direction the offense will take. If McD wants to run the ball and pound the rock, we will have Quinn and DG competing for time. If McD wants to air it out, we have to stick with Scheffler and have Graham play behind him. Or maybe McD just wants to get rid of Scheffler and stick with DG and Quinn.

I would love to see Scheffler stay (since I have his orange jersey and love to watch him play), but if he goes, I think our offense will still be okay. We won't have as many receiving threats, but our offense will be able to run on any down because DG and Quinn can block better than Scheffler. We'll see how that plays out, but regardless of how it works out this offseason, I think our TE position will be good.

 

Offensive Line - With all five starters coming back, our offensive line should look stout just like it did last year. I love Clady protecting the blindside again this year. These guys are awesome and will really help our offensive production. We got some more depth in the offseason with Seth Olsen, so even if one of our starters goes down, we should still be okay.

 

Defensive Line - We couldn't have gotten any worse than last year. I really like the improvements we made to the DLine. Getting Ayers will prove to be a great pick for Denver. I am really pumped to see Baker play some ball. Fields or Askew should be alright, too. Reid, Powell and Crowder should be fine at DE, too.

I think that the move to a 3-4 will be a good call. I think that we should be fine. It probably won't be a top 5 defensive line, but we made some strides this offseason and that's all we can ask for. I think the Defensive Line will be fine.

 

Linebacker - DJ Williams will be good, Woodyard will be good, Davis should be decent. The rest ............. I'm not so sure yet. Dumervil and Moss have only played OLB a little while and Boss Bailey is bound to be injured again. I think that time will tell how good this LB group can be. I think the middle will be good, but the outside may be a weakness right now.

Again, I am not saying that it will be, but it might be. If Dumervil and Moss can learn OLB quickly and Boss can stay healthy, our LBs will be amazing. Right now, though, it is early in the offseason, so we can't really tell how good they can be. Ayers will play like an OLB or DE mix. So, that will help, as well. Larsen should get some plays, too.

 

Cornerbacks - Champ Bailey. Okay, halfway there. hahahaha. Andre Goodman should do okay for a while. I am really excited to see how our young CBs do this year. What about Jack Williams? He played a little near the end of last season. Alphonso Smith really excites me too. With Champ getting older and Andre being no spring chicken, himself, I think that seeing these young corners develop is going to be very important to the future of the broncos.

 

Safety - Brian Dawkins is going to save this team next year. We have needed a leader on defense ever since Lynch and Wilson left. He may not be as quick as he once was, but he is still a lights out defender who can knock a receiver clear into next week. I really like Renaldo Hill, too. For Miami, he was a solid free safety. In rushing downs, we might see Darcel McBath make some big stops, too.

 

Kicker - I would really like to see some competition for Prater. The dude needs to work for it. He was amazing the first 5 weeks of the season. He led the NFL in scoring at one point. He faded down the stretch with some huge misses. If he improves his conditioning and makes that leg more consistent, we could have the next Elam on our hands.

 

Overall Offense - I think our offense will be strong. We have no glaring weaknesses. We should be top 5 or top 10 next year in scoring with our improved running game and quarterback. Yeah, I said it. Improved quarterback. No more interceptions in the red zone. No more pick sixes. Orton is a smart qb that doesn't waste posessions. I am excited about our offense.

 

Overall Defense - Our defense has improved. I am not going to go out and say that we are a top 10, by any means. I am willing to say that we will not give up 28 points per game. If we finish top 20 in scoring defense, we will go to the playoffs. I think this is a good possibility.

 

Poll

How many games do the Broncos win next season?

4%

less than 5

8 votes

6%

5-6

11 votes

22%

7-8

40 votes

53%

9-10

95 votes

4%

11-12

8 votes

8%

more than 12

15 votes

177 votes | Poll has closed