Que Es Esto?

Watching the Cincinnati Bengals is a like watching Mexican League baseball. It looks and sounds like something familiar but if a donkey show broke out you wouldn't be shocked.

The off season game plan has been ridiculous even for Mike Brown standards. Brown has done a lot of stubborn things during his tenure regarding player holdouts and Carson Palmer moves to the top of that list.

I understand not wanting to empower players by caving to every demand. The difference here is that Carson Palmer sucks. He's been through for about three years now. The idea that anyone would entertain giving the Bengals a first round pick for that spent round is amazing. If Brown had swindled the Seahawks out of that haul he would be lauded as the greatest executive mind in the game today. Instead, Brown does nothing and remains the sad man he is.

So what have they been doing while they blew a chance to unload dead weight? Let their best DB (Joseph) go for nothing, turned over the team to Danny Bonaduce (Andy Dalton) and spent more than five bucks resigning a RB that hit the wall two years ago and is going to miss three weeks of the season serving a short stint in the can (Benson) and let the only two playmakers walk away on offense (Ocho & TO).

I suppose Brown could have done worse things to try and compete with the Steelers, Ravens and Browns but it's hard to imagine what. If he had any dignity he pay off the rest of that stadium himself instead of raping taxpayers. Then he find out what the University of Cincinnati was charging for home tickets and match that for Bengal tickets. Then again, if he had any dignity he wouldn't run this team that was exciting about 5 years ago into the ground again. The Brown name diminishes every day that he ruins the team.

World Wide Leader of Duh

Lord knows I'm no Tim Tebow apologist but good lord the caliber of people who feel entitled to tear him down is way down in the dregs.

It's bad enough to have talking heads like Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski tearing apart QB's but how exactly did we come to the point where Merril Hoge, Mark Schlereth and Eric Mangini are somehow qualified to state without any doubt that Tebow should be taken out back and shot?

Hoge was a slightly above average fullback who suffered massive concussions and had to retire.

Schelerth was a offensive lineman best know for puking before games out of fear and smelling to holy hell.

Mangini was the genius behind the Jets debacle that was righted by one of the Ryans as well as the Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson nonsense in Cleveland.

Tebow is the classic example of losing your sponsor. He was drafted by Josh McDaniel knowing it would take 3 years to get him ready. McDaniel gets fired and suddenly everyone is shocked that Tebow can't beat out Orton right after a lockout.

If John Elway and John Fox don't want him, then fine. They didn't draft him. ESPN needs to have a little more dignity than to trot these 3 know nothings to pile on the criticism. It's like watching Herman Edwards rip someone elses coaching or seeing Rebecca Lobo rip someones lack of athleticism.

ESPN makes a bajillion dollars a minute, is some credible analysis to much to ask?

And On The Seventh Day . . . . . . .

Thank God the Raiders announced today that they decided to give a former Browns castoff 29 million in guaranteed money.

Until Kamerion Wimbley inked his deal I thought somebody forgot to tell Al the lockout was over.

As far as I can tell that's the only significant move the Silver and Black have made so far. I realize that the team had a non-losing season for the first time in a decade but it seems to me that an 8-8 team that lost its best player (Nnamdi Asomough) and is working on losing its only good vertical threat (Zach Miller) can't afford to stand still.

When a team climbs the crap ladder all the way up to mediocre they can either take the next step up to competitive or fall back down just as easy. The way things stand now they are going into the season with DHB, Jacoby Ford, the Ghost of Chaz Scheilens and Johnnie Lee Higgins in the passing game and Stanford Routt, Mike Mitchell, Chris Johnson and Tyvon Branch in the defensive backfield.

To put it simply, they have an offense built for ground-and-pound and a defense that turns every opposing offense into the run-and-shoot. There was no way they could get Nnamdi back but they needed to strike quick to fill the spot. Nate Clements, one of the Cromarties, Carlos Rodgers could have all helped. Now the best DB on the market is maybe Asante Samuel who unfortunately is zone coverage artist and would be useless in Al's beloved press coverage.

The offense is even worse. The best WR option out there is Braylon Edwards for god's sake. We've seen DHB drop enough passes that hit him right in the face. Those two on the field together could be dangerous.

I hope some good players get cut in cap situations that Al can sneak in and snatch up. Otherwise, the teams been stuck in time for a whole year while everyone else got better.