hought there was a thread but I'm looking past it. anyway Lewis had a press conference today and the combine. Should be interesting to see who gets cut or doesn't get resigned (kitna?) sometime soon.
Lewis insists on maturity
By GEOFF HOBSON
February 24, 2006
2:30 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS _ It’s so early in the scouting process that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis didn’t watch college tape until he arrived here Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine to find his room rigged by video director Travis Brammer.
But he believes his team is far enough along n it’s maturation that it is “this close,’ to achieving “the ultimate.” As he met with the team’s press corps Friday at the Indiana Convention Center, Lewis admitted his team imploded in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh and vowed that the player who leaked the story of wide receiver Chad Johnson’s half-time tantrum won’t return.
“Unfortunately we had somebody else who was more selfish than Chad,” Lewis said. “That person won’t be with us next year, I’ll tell you that. Those people aren’t good for you.”
In an offseason fraught with bad news, Lewis has gone to great lengths to make no news and was a smashing success. He reiterated several points he has made in the last month, such as expecting Carson Palmer to be the Opening Day quarterback, expecting to sign a veteran backup quarterback early in free agency, and don’t go looking for them to draft one early (if at all) since he has yet to see any college quarterback tape and they work out here at the RCA Dome this weekend.
But he did continue to pound his off-season theme. Coming together as a team is the biggest step that has to be taken to win a Super Bowl instead of any roster overhauls. So look for Lewis to point his team toward the clubs in their own division. He talked about how the Steelers went from 7-5 to 15-5 to win the Super Bowl last season while Lewis’ own 2000 Ravens hovered at .500 in midseason before winning out.
“No doubt in my mind,’ said Lewis when asked if maturity is the missing link. “It’s time for our team to achieve success. We’ve had personal success. We’ve had a little bit of team success. That’s not the ultimate success. The only way to get the ultimate success is to become a football team totally. And when you don’t win, everything falls apart.
“We saw it up the road (in Pittsburgh). They figured out a way to turn it around,” Lewis said. “Go to the Baltimore team. The teams in our division, we’ve seen it begin to implode on them during the season. Our season didn’t implode during the season. We had an outburst at the bad time and, frankly, a guy saying something that probably he shouldn’t have said outside of the locker room when things occur in your house all the time.”
Lewis continued to insist reports of Johnson taking a swing at Lewis and putting receivers coach Hue Jackson in a headlock were exaggerated.
He said Johnson was right in his complaint that they should have tried to have thrown the ball more to him in the first half, but “he didn’t voice it in the right way. He was correct. He didn’t voice it in the right way.”
Lewis described the scene as Johnson “raising his voice,” and being told to calm down.
“Our wide receiver was upset that we weren’t being as productive as he thought we could be on offense,’ Lewis said. “He raised his voice.”
Lewis said Johnson understands that he was wrong, but he also thinks the team learned from it. “In the big scheme of things,” Lewis said, “that person needs to look at themselves. No. 1 for speaking about it and No. 2 for embellishing on it. For not really telling the truth. That’s even worse.”<SCRIPT> <!-- var FiltersEnabled = 1 // if your not going to use transitions or filters in any of the tips set this to 0 applyCssFilter() var link_text=[]; //--> </SCRIPT>
Lewis insists on maturity
By GEOFF HOBSON
February 24, 2006
2:30 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS _ It’s so early in the scouting process that Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis didn’t watch college tape until he arrived here Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine to find his room rigged by video director Travis Brammer.
But he believes his team is far enough along n it’s maturation that it is “this close,’ to achieving “the ultimate.” As he met with the team’s press corps Friday at the Indiana Convention Center, Lewis admitted his team imploded in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh and vowed that the player who leaked the story of wide receiver Chad Johnson’s half-time tantrum won’t return.
“Unfortunately we had somebody else who was more selfish than Chad,” Lewis said. “That person won’t be with us next year, I’ll tell you that. Those people aren’t good for you.”
In an offseason fraught with bad news, Lewis has gone to great lengths to make no news and was a smashing success. He reiterated several points he has made in the last month, such as expecting Carson Palmer to be the Opening Day quarterback, expecting to sign a veteran backup quarterback early in free agency, and don’t go looking for them to draft one early (if at all) since he has yet to see any college quarterback tape and they work out here at the RCA Dome this weekend.
But he did continue to pound his off-season theme. Coming together as a team is the biggest step that has to be taken to win a Super Bowl instead of any roster overhauls. So look for Lewis to point his team toward the clubs in their own division. He talked about how the Steelers went from 7-5 to 15-5 to win the Super Bowl last season while Lewis’ own 2000 Ravens hovered at .500 in midseason before winning out.
“No doubt in my mind,’ said Lewis when asked if maturity is the missing link. “It’s time for our team to achieve success. We’ve had personal success. We’ve had a little bit of team success. That’s not the ultimate success. The only way to get the ultimate success is to become a football team totally. And when you don’t win, everything falls apart.
“We saw it up the road (in Pittsburgh). They figured out a way to turn it around,” Lewis said. “Go to the Baltimore team. The teams in our division, we’ve seen it begin to implode on them during the season. Our season didn’t implode during the season. We had an outburst at the bad time and, frankly, a guy saying something that probably he shouldn’t have said outside of the locker room when things occur in your house all the time.”
Lewis continued to insist reports of Johnson taking a swing at Lewis and putting receivers coach Hue Jackson in a headlock were exaggerated.
He said Johnson was right in his complaint that they should have tried to have thrown the ball more to him in the first half, but “he didn’t voice it in the right way. He was correct. He didn’t voice it in the right way.”
Lewis described the scene as Johnson “raising his voice,” and being told to calm down.
“Our wide receiver was upset that we weren’t being as productive as he thought we could be on offense,’ Lewis said. “He raised his voice.”
Lewis said Johnson understands that he was wrong, but he also thinks the team learned from it. “In the big scheme of things,” Lewis said, “that person needs to look at themselves. No. 1 for speaking about it and No. 2 for embellishing on it. For not really telling the truth. That’s even worse.”<SCRIPT> <!-- var FiltersEnabled = 1 // if your not going to use transitions or filters in any of the tips set this to 0 applyCssFilter() var link_text=[]; //--> </SCRIPT>