FanHouse John Thornton

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

It could be argued that the Cincinnati Bengals did well to win four games in 2008. They were missing their star quarterback, Carson Palmer, for the majority of the season. That left the job to an overmatched Ryan Fitzpatrick, who did his best, but was saddled with a bad running game, worse offensive line and not much defense. The Bengals found a way to win three straight at the end of the season, finishing 4-11-1.

There are many areas for improvement as the Bengals make their way toward 2009 trying like crazy to avoid doing 2008 over again. Luckily, kicker is not one of those areas of need.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: If there is one constant on this team, it is Carson Palmer. Sure, Palmer didn't have his best season a year ago, but his off seasons are better than many QBs best years. In reality, other things factored into his poor season (injuries to the line, injury to Rudi Johnson, receivers pouting). The only issue here is what happens in Cincinnati if Palmer gets hurt. They have no one groomed to come in. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jeff Rowe are in their second seasons with the team and Carson's brother, Jordan, is fighting for a spot. Heat Index: 8

Running backs: Injuries have hurt this unit in the past couple of years. Workhorse Rudi Johnson finally hit a wall; Kenny Irons blew out his knee in his first preseason game; Chris Perry has never been able to stay on the field. Well, Rudi and Perry are healthy again, with 2007 surprises Kenny Watson and DeDe Dorsey around to give the offense a different dynamic. Cincy needs this unit to get back to form to allow the entire offense to explode. Heat Index: 4

Receivers: Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh are one of the best receiving combos in the NFL. T.J. tied for the lead in receptions; Chad was third in receiving yards. However, this could be the last season either is in Cincinnati. Johnson's issues with the team are well documented. T.J. is in his final contracted season. Chris Henry is finally gone and there are several guys trying to step into that #3 spot. Rookie Jerome Simpson will get a strong look, as will Andre Caldwell and Antonio Chatman. Chatman is the only one with experience and could get the nod. Heat Index: 8

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.

This is a little surprising to me, but it looks like Eric Ghiaciuc will probably be starting Sunday. I figured the Bengals would take the safer route and just start Ben Wilkerson, but Ghiaciuc practiced on Friday and looks good to go. Rich Braham is still doubtful and not practicing. Reports on him were pretty rosey until the week of the Baltimore game. He had to leave practice early that Tuesday, and I'm starting to think he might have reinjured himself.

Other injury notes:

• Kelley Washington was downgraded to doubtful, and he unfortunately didn't practice all week. It's weird how things seemed to be getting better with him too, and then ... nothing. It wouldn't surprise me if Washington also had a setback, but you'd never know it with the Bengals. Marvin Lewis really hates having to give out more info than he absolutely has to.
• Tory James, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and John Thornton are all probable, and all practiced Friday. I honestly don't know if Thornton coming back is a good or bad thing though.

More: Ghiaciuc returns to practice, likely to start Sunday - Mark Curnutte's Blog

For the first time in quite awhile the Bengals prospects are looking pretty damn good.

They're 7-5, just a half game out of the Wild Card race, and they're looking at ten days off after playing (and winning) three games in just twelve days. That's awesome news for a team that's been as banged up as the Bengals. Here's the early health outlook for Oakland:

• Eric Ghiaciuc (pictured at right) was the only Bengals injury last night. He suffered a sprained knee and was replaced by Ben Wilkerson, who saw his first NFL action last night, and performed extremely well. Ghiaciuc is questionable for Oakland, but that's not as bad as it sounds because Rich Braham will almost certainly be back by then, and the aforementioned Ben Wilkerson looked more than capable. Plus it's Oakland. If Ben Wilkerson has to play against anybody Oakland is a pretty good opponent.
• Bobbie Williams will be back from his appendix surgery. He's been replaced by Stacy Andrews, a guy who's 6'7, 350 pounds. Andrews has played like a monster, but Williams is a capable vet. The Bengals are pretty much fine here with either guy, and the upside to Williams getting hurt has been the discovery that Andrews is good enough to see game time.
• Deltha O'Neal will be healthy. The defense has been great the past two games, but it's going to be even better when Deltha O'Neal lines up opposite of Jonathan Joseph instead of Tory James. I'm sure James will still see plenty of playing time, but it'll be less than he sees with O'Neal hurt, and that'll only help the Bengals. James is a lot more palatable an option when he's only playing part time.
• Kelley Washington will be back. Maybe he can get some of Chris Henry's playing time, since Henry seems to be afraid of getting hit lately.
• John Thornton will be back. Not really sure if this is a plus though. The defensive line was outstanding last night without him.
• Rich Braham is questionable, but my guess is he'll be ready for Oakland or Indy. Holding him out until Indy might not be a bad idea if he's not totally healed up.
• Levi Jones is still questionable. Whitworth has been a great replacement, so I'd rather not see Levi back until he's 100%. No reason to risk further injury, and Levi should be a big boost down the stretch.
  

Things are looking up. I'm going to have a good time settling in and watching all the teams the Bengals are chasing this weekend, secure in the knowledge that the Bengals already did their part for this week.

The injury reports obviously come a little earlier this week with the Thursday game, so let's get right to things. Here's who's banged up heading into Baltimore Week ...

• John Thornton is doubtful with a knee injury that he suffered on Sunday. No, not during the game, during pre-game warm-ups. That's pretty much how the Bengals roll this season. He actually has a fairly impressive consecutive games streak that's probably going to end Thursday. Thornton's played in 59 games in a row.
• Levi Jones is still out. Maybe next week.
• Bobbie Williams is also still out. Should be awhile for him still, but I'm pretty happy with the way Stacy Andrews has filled in.
• Rich Braham has been elevated to questionable, and could actually play on Thursday night. This one could be huge.
• Deltha O'Neal is questionable. It'd really help if he could play, since that would probably mean a little less of Tory James on the field.
• Kelley Washington is also questionable. I'm hoping he comes back fairly soon, because Cincinnati's fourth wide receiver is an undrafted free agent at the moment. I don't have anything against Glenn Holt, but I'd rather see Washington doing that job.
• Sam Adams is probable, but not practicing, which is standard operating procedure for him. He might want to consider practicing so that he'd be a little less of a fat ass, but whatever works I guess.
• Brian Simmons is probable, which is huge. The linebacking corps has been absolutely decimated this season, and getting Simmons back into the rotation can only help.

Just to illustrate how bad off the Bengals are this year, the Ravens injury list features three players, all of whom are questionable, but all of whom will almost certainly be on the field Thursday night. Three injured players against eight, and that's not even counting all the guys on IR (Tab Perry, Chris Perry, Bennie Brazell, Antonio Chatman, Frostee Rucker, David Pollack, etc. etc.) The Bengals are incredibly fortunate to even have a shot at the playoffs with the bad injury luck they've had this season.

The Bengals pretty much have the longest injury list in the NFL at this point. Here's what we've got headed into tomorrow's game against the Browns.

Chris Henry is probable with a hip flexor. He didn't practice on Friday though, which might not be a good sign. Most player who're probably usually play, but you never really know because so many coaches play games with the injury report. I don't know if Marvin Lewis does, but I do know he doesn't like giving out too much info, so it wouldn't surprise me if Henry is more hurt than he's letting on.

All three of Cincinnati's wide receivers are listed on the report, with Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh both listed as probable as well. Chad has a hamstring problem, while T.J. has bruised ribs.

Kelley Washington was upgraded from out to doubtful. Hopefully we'll be seeing him in the next couple of weeks as the fourth receiver.

Levi Jones was downgraded to doubtful, and I'm starting to wonder if he'll be healthy again this year. Sure there's six week left, but if he doesn't play Sunday it seems unlikely that he'll play next Thursday, and after that there's only four games left. You never know, but I'm skeptical.

Rounding out the offense is Willie Anderson who's probable with a bad shoulder, and Jeremi Johnson who practiced Friday and who's probably with a toe injury.

On the defensive side Brian Simmons and Keiwan Ratliff are both questionable, but both practiced this week. Getting Simmons back would be a nice boost. Dexter Jackson and Deltha O'Neal are both questionable as well. Jackson practiced this week, O'Neal did not. Sam Adams is probable (he's probable every week pretty much) and John Thornton is also probable.

And thus ends the longest injury report ever. This team really needs to get healthy.

More: Henry added to injury report as probable - Mark Curnutte's Blog