FanHouse Landon Johnson

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: Jake Delhomme is coming off Tommy John surgery so no one knows what to expect. At the end of 2006, some fans wanted someone new at quarterback. Before he was injured in 2007, he was off to a white-hot start. How he recovers will go a long way to a successful Panthers season. Matt Moore filled in nicely late last season and may be the team's future. Brett Basanez isn't ready for prime time. No more Vinny or Mr. Mittens. Heat Index: 5

Running backs: The Panthers have been looking for a Stephen Davis type back and may have found one in rookie Jonathan Stewart. He's the kind of bull coach John Fox likes to center his offense around. DeAngelo Williams will be more efficient as a change-of-pace back. Brad Hoover is back again as an effective fullback. Nick Goings is always around to back up anybody. Heat Index: 5

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet the ...
Super Bowl Champions. Look, people can claim they're not homers all day long, but the fact of the matter is, I read/watch/write re: the Panthers a lot. (Well, as often as I can anyway.) And maybe I'm a little biased, but they're going to win the NFC South this year and they're going to do it by scoring a ton of points. Of course, if Jake Delhomme goes down again, I may look stupid. But it wouldn't be the first time.

The Breakout
The bad news? Jonathan Stewart is already getting a lot of preseason love (check him dead center of the sixth round in an average 12 teamer). The good news? The love is warranted. Stewart was thought to be a top choice of plenty of teams in the draft, but a turf toe injury let him hang around for the Cats. Note that the Carolina team doctor performed his surgery

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.

According to the Bengals official website, Odell Thurman plans to appeal his denial for reinstatement:

The process starts early next week with attorney John Michels sending a letter to the NFLPA requesting that it argue the grievance and it then has 30 days to decide if it will take the case. "It's a difficult appeal," said Michels Friday night. "The first tier is to convince the NFLPA and then it would go to the commissioner and he made the original decision." Michels plans to draw up a letter this weekend, have Thurman read it Monday, and then send it to the union.

Some other notes of interest after the first day of camp:

• WR Antonio Chatman tweaked his hammy while running a route in practice. Chatman is in the competition for the third receiver job while Chris Henry sits out eight games due to his own NFL suspension.
• Also, fourth round pick Marvin White signed to a four-year deal. That means that Leon Hall, Cincy's top draft pick, is the lone holdout.
• Here is linebacker Landon Johnson's website. Hat tip to Lance McAllister.
• The Bengals have agreed with Fox Sports Ohio to become the cable home for the Bengals. This will allow the network to exclusively house "encores of all available preseason games, a weekly Bengals Spotlight show, and live coverage of head coach Marvin Lewis' regular Monday news conferences during the regular season. "

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!

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