Bengals tidbits

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/16/06

Palmer passes, but return date uncertain

JOE KAY

Associated Press

<!-- begin body-content -->CINCINNATI - Carson Palmer dropped back to pass Thursday and decided to take it easy, protecting his rebuilt left knee while flinging the ball to a receiver during a minicamp drill.
With that one mundane move, the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback showed how far he has come and how much progress he has to make in order to meet his goal of playing in the season opener.
"Now we've got a couple of months," Palmer said, following his most ambitious workout since his surgery. "I wish we had a couple of more months for me personally. But when you look at the flip side, if I am ready to play that day, that game can't come quickly enough."
Palmer has been immersed in his comeback since he had reconstructive surgery on Jan. 10. Kimo von Oelhoffen slammed into his left knee during the Pittsburgh Steelers' playoff victory in Cincinnati two days earlier.
After the surgery, the Bengals acknowledged only that Palmer tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. Dr. Lonnie Paulos, who performed the operation, told The Associated Press that the damage was more extensive and included torn tissue around the kneecap and cartilage damage that was repaired.
The team acknowledged the full extent of Palmer's injury for the first time on Thursday, confirming Paulos' account. Trainer Paul Sparling said the torn tissue around the kneecap - which dislocated during the tackle - has healed and is no longer a concern.
Palmer is aiming to return for the season opener on Sept. 10 in Kansas City - exactly eight months after the knee was rebuilt.
"It certainly is cutting it close," Sparling said. "I much rather would have a little bit more time. But that being said, given the position he plays, given the successful surgery that's been done so far, given the fact that he's had an uneventful rehab, it's very conceivable."
Sparling said Palmer hasn't had a significant setback in his comeback. The worst problem has been soreness and some swelling that prompted him to rest for a day.
He was cleared to throw to receivers during 7-on-7 drills Thursday morning, when defensive backs covered the receivers but no one rushed the passer. He also briefly ran the offense at the end of practice. Palmer was rusty and off-target, which was to be expected.
He moved cautiously and was careful not to put too much stress on the knee.
"It's something in the back of my mind and something I need to be aware of," Palmer said. "And as soon as I feel my body is ready take over and I'm ready to play, I need to wipe all that out and just play football."
Barring a setback, that point could come sometime during training camp. Palmer's teammates are curious to see how he responds the first time he's playing for real.
"How will he be able to adjust to the hits?" receiver Chad Johnson said. "Will it affect his knee? I think that's the only thing we have to worry about, because there's nothing wrong with his arm."
The Bengals won't rush him. Sparling wouldn't speculate about whether Palmer will be cleared to fully participate when training camp opens late next month.
"If we're going to make a mistake, it's going to be by holding him back too long, not pushing him out too soon," Sparling said. "There's too much riding on this. He knows it, we know it, and we're not going to be foolish about it."
Palmer said he's starting to get a feel for how much the knee can handle. He won't put himself in position to take a hit until he's confident the knee - and his psyche - will be intact when he gets off the ground.
"You never look forward to getting hit, but I'll be fine," he said. "I'm going to make sure that my body is fine, that my knee is healthy and I'm ready to roll. Getting hit in that game or whichever game it is that I'm back will be just like getting hit in any other game."
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

DDN

6/16/06

Bengals great Munoz to speak in Springboro

By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

Bengals legend and Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz will speak to the Springboro Football Quarterback Club next week.

New head football coach Ryan Wilhite said Munoz will speak to the Panthers' players and their fathers about Munoz's relationship with his son Michael, a former University of Tennessee player.

While the 6 p.m. Wednesday dinner is not open to the public, Wilhite said similar events may become fund-raisers.

"The focus was on the message being good," Wilhite said. "Rather than making money."

DDN

6/16/06

BENGALS MINICAMP
Palmer takes positive steps in minicamp

Quarterback attempts to shake off rust while recovering from last season's knee injury.

By Chick Ludwig
Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — It was one small step for Carson Palmer, but a gigantic leap for the Cincinnati Bengals at minicamp on Thursday.

Palmer threw a series of passes in 7-on-7 drills in the morning, then ran a two-minute drill in 11-on-11 practice in the afternoon.

Just call it another milestone in his rehabilitation from left knee surgery because it marked the first time he's faced a defense since his Jan. 8 injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I felt good," he said. "I felt confident with my reads, confident with what I was doing on the field, But I didn't quite feel athletic and fluid like I should and like I normally am.

"It's going to take a while to get the rust off and just get the strength and all the balance back. But it was a first good opportunity to get back on the field, throw against the defense and do quarterback drills."

Palmer's passes were crisp, except for one in the afternoon. It floated high over the middle and linebacker Caleb Miller swatted it away, a near interception.

"I got lucky," Palmer said. "Overall, it was a great day just because I wasn't bored watching practice. I actually got to do some things and throw some balls. That was fun. I felt rusty, I felt awkward at times and off-balanced, but that stuff will come."

As his rehab intensifies, Palmer clings to his goal of starting the Sept. 10 opener at Kansas City.

"It's not like one day the doctor is going to say, 'OK, you're ready to play,' " Palmer said. "The only person that's going to be able to tell me I'm ready and what I can do is myself — with how my knee feels and how my body responds. Everything's felt great."

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

6/16/06

BENGALS NOTEBOOK

Lewis has little to say on Henry

Friday, June 16, 2006

Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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CINCINNATI — After addressing Chris Henry’s off-field troubles last week, Marvin Lewis wasn’t in the mood to rehash old territory yesterday after the receiver was arrested yet again Wednesday.

The Bengals coach said the week before that the recent arrests of Henry and rookie A.J. Nicholson had embarrassed him and the team. So after Henry’s fourth arrest in six months, this time for allegedly supplying alcohol to minors, Lewis added little. Henry pleaded not guilty to the charges yesterday.

"Well, this issue has already been there," Lewis said. "Chris will recover from it."

Or not. It’s clear the Bengals’ hands are tied because the NFL has authority over suspensions for off-the-field behavior. Besides, Henry still has not been medically cleared from the knee injury sustained in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh. If the Bengals cut Henry now, they’d likely face a grievance from the players union.

"He has lingering soreness from a knee injury," Bengals trainer Paul Sparling said. "He’s close. We’ve got a number of guys who are close. If this camp were another two to three weeks down the road, you’d consider letting them (participate). But at this point in time, if they’re not ready, they’re not ready."
Pollack the slugger



Bengals linebacker David Pollack is not a baseball fan and said he hadn’t swung a bat since he was a sixth-grader. But when the Bengals took batting practice Wednesday before the Reds game, Pollack was the star. He hit five home runs, including one to the upper deck.

Most of the other Bengals flailed away.

"I already knew what I was getting into," running back Rudi Johnson said. "I went to batting practice with them about two years ago and I couldn’t hit anything. I knew what I was getting into."
Palmer defends Roethlisberger



Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer doesn’t hide his dislike of the Steelers, but he came out in defense of Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was injured Monday when his motorcycle collided with a car.

"He went through seven hours of surgery, and the last thing he needs right now is guys banging on him for not wearing a helmet," Palmer said. "He needs everybody’s prayers and needs to come through this thing healthy and hopefully be able to move on with his football career.

"He made a decision, went with it and a bad thing happened, but I’m not going to sit here and knock the guy. The only thing I’m going to say is that my thoughts and prayers are with him."
Thurman absent



Second-year middle linebacker Odell Thurman was not at minicamp and is not expected the next two days.

"He’s excused for personal reasons," Lewis said.
brabinowitz@dispatch.com

Dispatch

6/16/06

Palmer still hopes to play in opener

Injured quarterback participates in drills

Friday, June 16, 2006

Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>AL BEHRMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer participated in a minicamp but said he felt rusty as he completed 4 of 7 passes. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


CINCINNATI — Carson Palmer dropped back, planted his feet and fired the ball a good 45 yards. Chad Johnson got a step or two behind Tory James and caught it in stride.

The pass was majestic, reminiscent of the last one the Bengals quarterback threw in a game, which made the minicamp practice yesterday morning all the more impressive, but perhaps deceiving.

Palmer is making excellent progress in his return from reconstructive knee surgery, but he knows he’s not close to being finished with rehabilitation, and the target date of Sept. 10 isn’t that far away anymore.

Will he be ready to start the season opener? He doesn’t know. No one does.
Yesterday had to be considered a major step forward. Palmer participated in seven-on-seven drills for the first time and even took a few snaps in the full-team two-minute drill in the afternoon session.

"Even though it was limited, it was great being able to see him do what he did after going through what he went through," left tackle Levi Jones said. "I mean, it was a devastating injury. For him to be able to do anything at this point is spectacular."

Johnson, Palmer’s favorite target, also was impressed.

"There’s nothing wrong with his arm at all," he said.

Palmer was a tougher critic. He was unhappy he completed only 4 of 7 passes in the seven-on-seven drill.

"Overall, it was a great day just because I wasn’t bored watching practice," he said. "I actually got to do some things and throw some balls. That was fun. But it wasn’t a good practice as far as I’m concerned. I felt rusty. I felt awkward at times and off-balance, but that stuff will come."

The Bengals made trainer Paul Sparling available to the media yesterday, the first of a three-day minicamp, for the first time since Marvin Lewis took over as coach in 2003. Sparling praised Palmer’s work ethic and attitude.

He said there have been no setbacks. He said he was "cautiously optimistic" Palmer would be able to start the opener against Kansas City. But Sparling also acknowledged they are pushing it with only eight months of recovery time after the injury occurred in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh in January.

"It certainly is cutting it close," Sparling said. "I much rather would have a little bit more time. But that being said, given the position that he plays, given the successful surgery that’s been done so far, given the fact that he’s had an uneventful rehab, it’s very conceivable."

The Bengals have been tightlipped about the full extent of Palmer’s injuries, suffered when Steelers lineman Kimo von Oelhoffen hit him. Sparling confirmed the description given to Sports Illustrated — anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament tears, cartilage damage and a dislocated kneecap.

"Certainly, if he were a wide receiver or a running back, another skilled position, we wouldn’t be able to push him and have him do some things in camp as we can now, given what he needs to do at his given position," Sparling said.

The challenge for Palmer is mental as well as physical. In drills yesterday, he said the knee remained in the back of his mind. Overcoming that will take patience, and Palmer said he’s impatient by nature.

Meanwhile, Sept. 10 looms.

"It seemed close a month ago (when) someone told me I had three months to get ready. Now, we’ve got a couple of months. I wish we had a couple of more just for me personally, but when you look at the flip side, if I am ready to play that day, that game can’t come quickly enough."

brabinowitz@dispatch.com

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

6/17/06

BENGALS NOTEBOOK

Truth’s out: Johnson played hurt

Bengals back set rushing record despite knee injury

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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CINCINNATI – It wasn’t necessarily a secret that something was wrong with Rudi Johnson last season, but the details were always murky.
For most of the season, the Cincinnati Bengals running back didn’t practice on Wednesdays, typically the heaviest practice day of the week. But only now has Johnson revealed what was wrong and how close he came to missing a big chunk of the 2005 season.
Johnson played the final 14 games last season with torn cartilage in his left knee. He hurt the knee in the season’s second week against Minnesota, but he can’t specify the play.
"That’s the crazy part," Johnson said yesterday between minicamp practices. "I went home after the game and I stayed up until about 2 in the morning with no pain. I woke up the next morning and my leg was swollen and hurting. I thought I was just banged up. A couple days went by and it didn’t get any better."
A magnetic resonance imaging the next week revealed the injury.
"When it first happened, we didn’t know if I was going to have surgery during the season and sit six to eight weeks or whatever," Johnson said. "So we took it week by week."
Johnson gutted it out. He didn’t miss a game and broke his own team record for rushing yards in a season with 1,458.
"If you knew him like we know him, you’d know how much of a warrior he actually was," Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson said.
But even as the yards piled up, Johnson knew he wasn’t the runner he could be.
"I wasn’t as powerful with my left leg," he said. "There were definitely some times I could have pulled out of some tackles or moved the pile more if I’d been 100 percent."
Johnson said he’s not completely pain free, but the knee feels dramatically better than it did a year ago. Not much can be definitely judged in a minicamp devoid of tackling, but Johnson does look to be moving crisper. "He has looked really quick," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. Considering that Johnson broke a record with one good leg, he’s practically salivating about the possibilities this year. "The sky’s the limit," he said.
Chad scare

Receiver Chad Johnson was carted off the practice field yesterday afternoon with what appeared to be a groin injury, but Lewis didn’t seem overly concerned.
"I don’t think it’s serious," he said. "He goes down quite a bit, but usually he pops up. This time he was hurt. He had already tweaked himself once in practice."
Palmer timetable

Quarterback Carson Palmer practiced twice without incident for the second day in a row. That’s significant because the Bengals will not have back-to-back two-aday practices in training camp.
"He is continuing to be ahead of where we thought he’d be when we got started. When we got started, we thought he’d be doing this (full-team drills) in August. He’s doing it in June. It’s a credit to him and the people he’s working with."
Lewis said he targeted a while ago a preseason game for Palmer’s return but wouldn’t tip his hand as to which one.
"You’re not going to not let him play in the preseason and then say, ‘Go out there in the first game,’ " Lewis said.
He said he would not move up the timetable even if Palmer continues to be ahead of schedule.
brabinowitz@dispatch.com

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

6/18/06

Wright accepts insurance role with Bengals

Backup quarterback wants to be ready if opportunity knocks

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>AL BEHRMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Bengals quarterback Anthony Wright is the top backup to Carson Palmer, who is coming off an operation to his left knee. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


CINCINNATI — A knee injury holds Anthony Wright’s fate this season.
Only this time, the knee that will determine whether and how much the quarterback will play is not his.
Wright knows he’s the Cincinnati Bengals’ insurance policy in case Carson Palmer’s knee isn’t sufficiently healed for the start of this season. Being the quarterback the team would prefer not to use can be humbling. Wright is fine with that.
"It’s always good to have an insurance policy, you know," Wright said Friday during the Bengals’ minicamp. "You’ve got to have insurance for everything. You’ve got to have insurance for floods now. I don’t have a problem being an insurance policy. It’s either be an insurance policy or be at home. Any day of the week, I’d rather be an insurance policy."
Wright, 30, can identify with Palmer’s plight. If not for his own knee injury, Wright’s career path might have been much different. He was a budding star as a junior at South Carolina, where he was the first African-American starting quarterback in school history. But in a game against Tennessee, he was tackled by Al Wilson and suffered a torn anterior cruciate and torn medial collateral ligaments, a torn meniscus and two torn hamstring tendons. Except for the hamstring, the injury was similar to Palmer’s.
Unlike Palmer’s surgery and rehab, which has been remarkably smooth, Wright’s did not go without complications.
"They didn’t tie my ACL down," he said. "There was some laxness in my ACL."
That wasn’t discovered right away. Wright returned for his senior season and went to the NFL combine, where doctors discovered the problem.
"I had a pretty good combine and had a couple of teams that really wanted to draft me, but they didn’t based on the physical," Wright said.
Wright signed as a free agent with Pittsburgh and played so well in the 1999 preseason that the Steelers took the unusual step of keeping four quarterbacks rather than risk losing him. He didn’t play that year and was released the following season. Dallas signed him and he played in 11 games the next two seasons for the Cowboys.
Wright spent the last four years with the Baltimore Ravens. He was a part-time starter two of the last three seasons. He missed the 2004 season recovering from a torn labrum.
"I’ve proved myself in a lot of cases," Wright said. "Coming in as an undrafted free agent, a lot of people don’t really give you the respect of a drafted guy. I’ve pretty much earned my due. If I hadn’t produced, I definitely wouldn’t have been here.
"The undrafted label never really leaves you. I pretty much get scraps."
That’s what it could be in Cincinnati, or it could be much more if Palmer has a setback.
When Jon Kitna left as a free agent for the chance to start in Detroit, Cincinnati was desperate to sign an established veteran backup. Though the Bengals also signed Doug Johnson and have been careful not to tip their hand as to which quarterback they prefer, Wright has the stronger resume.
Though his career statistics are mediocre — a 55.1 completion percentage and 20/25 touchdown-to-interception ratio — Wright is certainly a serviceable quarterback. He has good arm strength and accuracy and can scramble when necessary.
"I think this weekend and in the off-season Anthony has been sharp," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "He’s been impressive. He’s getting a good handle for what we want. He’s real hard on himself, which we’ll have to correct a little bit.
"I think he’s embraced this (opportunity) and handled this as though he’s competing to be the starter and is willing to be the starter."
In his mind, Wright is a legitimate NFL starting quarterback.
"I think it’d be tough for somebody to give me the opportunity, but I believe I am," he said. "I know the hoops I’ve jumped through have been very tough hoops to jump through."
brabinowitz@dispatch.com