FanHouse Caleb Miller

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

Needless to say, the 2007 season for the Cincinnati Bengals was a major disappointment. That being said, Cincy finished 7-9 and has plenty of talent to make a U-turn and get back to the elite status they feel they should be at. The Bengals notoriously doesn't try to build via free agency but they need to fill in some cracks this way for a turnaround to be successful.

1. Defensive Line – The first major move was firing Chuck Bresnahan as defensive coordinator and hiring Mike Zimmer. The next big moves cannot be made until the team decides if it is going to switch to a 3-4 defense or not. If they decide to do that, there will be a ton of work to do.

It is widly speculated that the Bengals will be looking to go after a rush end in the draft. Defensive end Justin Smith may be as good as gone. Smith is a decent player but isn't worth being the second highest paid player on the team. Letting him walk would free up all kinds of money to rebuild this unit. However, re-signing him for a paycut would be beneficial, too. John Thornton could be a salary cap casulty, though the team seems to want him back.

It's amazing how much an unexpected win can lift the weight off of your shoulders. I was certain that the Bengals would have problems with Carolina on Sunday, but I didn't give the Bengals enough credit.

Quick thoughts:

• The offensive line was terrific. Julius Peppers was completely shut down after the first quarter, and Carson Palmer had time to throw most of the game. The first quarter was rough, but adjustments were apparently made because Carolina didn't get any push after that.
• At some point people are going to have to start respecting the Bengals defense. Steve Smith had a nice day (8 catches for 126 yards), but the Bengals contained everything else about the Panthers offense just fine. It was especially nice to see Carolina held to just 60 yards rushing. The three sacks all came at opportune times as well.
• Ahmad Brooks is a player. He needs to stay in the middle when Brian Simmons comes back. I'd like to eventually see Simmons and Jeanty on the outside with Brooks in the middle and Landon Johnson rotating in for relief. That's a solid linebacking crew I think.
• Caleb Miller is impressing me. He was pretty terrible last season (outside of special teams) so it would be huge to continue getting good play from him.
• I hope Chad Johnson feels good about the offense and his role in it, because he was huge on Sunday. He didn't have as many catches or yards as Steve Smith, but I think Chad outplayed him. Everything about the catch on 4th and 1 was incredible, from the playcall to the great play action to the circus catch from Chad. That's why Chad is one of the best offensive players in the game, because he's capable of coming through when it's all on the line. And I mean all, if the Bengals lose on Sunday the season really would have been slipping away. Instead the Bengals are tied for first, two games up on the Steelers, and holding the tiebreaker right now against the Ravens.

Huge win, it's impossible to overstate how big this one was. WHO-DEY!

I found out about this over at the Pittsburgh FanHouse. You can see the cover of Caleb Miller hitting Hines Ward here. Suitable for framing I think.

JJ asks over at the Pittsburgh FanHouse if Steelers fans consider the Bengals their biggest rivals now, and says no, that the Ravens are still number one (as the continuation of the old Browns rivalry). As a Bengals fan I can definitely say that the Steelers are the biggest rivals of the Bengals right now. There's not even really an argument for anyone else.

The Cleveland - Cincinnati rivalry has the potential to be great, but right now Cleveland is in the midst of rebuilding. If Romeo Crennel can get that team turned around I think Bengals - Browns games will be awfully fun, but right now they're simply games that the Bengals can't afford to lose since it's inferior competition.

I also hate the Ravens, much like JJ I can't stand Brian Billick or Ray Lewis. But really they haven't been good enough lately to worry about either. Maybe that'll change this year, but I still have my doubts. Baltimore might be 3-0, but they've done it against pretty weak competition. At this point in time I'm still quite a bit more worried about a Steelers team that played the Bengals awfully tough last week. I'm hoping that Pittsburgh will dig a hole early that'll be impossible to climb out of, because I know they'll get things turned around at some point.

It's an interesting question, and I'm glad Bengals fans even get to ask it. It wasn't that long ago when Cincinnati was simply the doormat of the NFL and certainly not considered anyone's rival.

More: Cover boy enjoys time in spotlight - Columbus Dispatch

Apart from Carson's comeback tomorrow night, the big story this week is going to be cuts. The Bengals have to get down to 75 players on Tuesday, and then cut 22 more on Saturday to get to the normal regular season 53.

Chuck Ludwig of the Dayton Daily News has put in his guess for what the final 53 man roster is going to look like. A couple of surprises with his list, one being his belief that the Bengals will keep eight linebackers, and that's without counting Odell Thurman who's exempt from roster considerations until he returns from his suspension. Simmons, Pollack, Johnson, Brooks, Jeanty, Wilkins, and Nicholson all seem like locks, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Caleb Miller get cut. That's going out on a limb, but he's had so many injuries that it wouldn't surprise me to see the Bengals cut bait. He also looked pretty bad last year in late season action. Another player on the bubble is Hannibal Nevies, a decent special teams player who might be a casualty of all the talent the Bengals have at LB. They're really loaded at this position, so cuts will be the most interesting for this group.

The other interesting note from Ludwig is his belief that the Bengals will be keeping Kelly Washington. There's been a lot of speculation that the Bengals might look to trade Washington, but I'm not sure they can afford to do that with Chris Henry being so up in the air. It also remains to be seen how big of a role Antonio Chatman will play.

But really in the end I'm mostly rooting for DeDe to get a job.

More: Roster will take shape with 24 cuts next week - Dayton Daily News