The Bengals need to quit drafting troublemakers.  Jonathan Joseph and Frostee Rucker have already been arrested and AJ Nicholson and Ahmad Brooks have had trouble with the law and that’s why they were available to the Bengals.  Here’s a breakdown of the picks:

In the first round the Benglas drafted future starting CB Jonathan Joseph.  He played in 16 games and made 57 tackles, defensed 20 passes and recovered two fumbles.  He has the skills to be a shutdown corner….if he keeps out of jail!

The best pick of the draft was the Bengals 2nd rounder, OT Andrew Whitworth.  He played in 16 games and started 12 of them.  He will be a starter for a long time and he’s a real good run blocker with a mean streak.

3rd round pick Frostee Rucker was had more arrests (1) than games played (0).  He’s got the look of a bust written all over him.

4th round pick Domata Peko played well as a rookie and could be a future starter at DT for the Bengals.  He played in all 16 games and made 43 tackles, had 2.5 sacks and forced a fumble.

5th round pick AJ Nicholson didn’t do jack for the Bengals.  He appeared in two games and did nothing!

6th round pick Reggie McNeal has been converted from quarterback to WR but he didn’t do much.  He played in 7 games and carried the football 1 time for 8 yards.  He also needs to keep his nose clean as he was with LB Odell Thurman when he got arrested and then suspended for the season.

7th round pick Ethan Kilmer was a pleasant surprise for the Bengals.  He was drafted as a WR but switched to DB and did a decent job.  He played in all 16 games and made 19 tackles.  He also had an interception that he returned 52 yards for a TD!  He also recovered 1 fumble.

7th round pick Bennie Brazell never saw the football field for the Bengals. He is a WR.

The supplemental draft produced LB Ahmad Brooks.  Brooks also has a shady past so Coach Lewis better keep an eye on him.  He played in 11 games for the Bengals and made 31 tackles, had 1 sack and defensed 2 passes.

The Bengals are pretty set at this position.  Rudi Johnson is the big workhorse of the Bengals offense.  He lost weight in the off-season and it helped out with his speed this past year.  He carried the football 341 times for 1,309 yards (3.8 ypc) with 12 TD runs.  It was Johnson’s third straight season of over 1,300 yards rushing in a season.  He also caught 23 passes for 154 yards (5.4 avg).  For his career, Johnson has played in 70 games and carried the 1,271 times for 5,245 yards rushing (4.1 ypc) with 45 TD runs.  He also has caught 88 passes for 478 yards (5.4 avg), but he’s never caught a TD pass.

Kenny Watson got alot more playing time than he thought he would due to the injury to Chris Perry and he did a decent job.  He carried the ball 25 times for 138 yards (5.5 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also caught 23 passes for 213 yards (9.3 avg).  For his career, Watson played in 57 games and carried the ball 167 times for 833 yards (5.0 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  He also has caught 80 passes for 637 yards (8.0 avg) with 2 TD grabs.

Chris Perry got hurt again and missed the bulk of the season.  He was going to be the third down back for the Bengals, but once again it didn’t work.  He played in only 6 games and carried the ball 10 times for 57 yards (5.7 ypc) and caught 9 passes for 42 yards (4.7 avg).  For his injury plagued career, Perry has played in 22 games and has carried the football 73 times for 337 yards (4.6 ypc).  He also has caught 63 passes for 403 yards (6.4 avg) with 2 TD catches.

Fullback Jeremi Johnson’s job is basically to pave the way for Rudi Johnson and he does a decent job at that.  Last season he carried the ball 15 times for 56 yards (3.7 ypc) with a TD run.  He also has caught 6 passes for 37 yards (6.2 avg).  For his career, Johnson has carried the ball 41 times for 116 yards (2.8 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  He also has caught 49 passes for 237 yards (4.8 avg) with 5 TD receptions.

Quincy Wilson got very limited playing time.  He played in three games in his rookie season and carried the ball 2 times for 2 yards.

Watching the Bengals this season I couldn’t stop thinking about how poor of a coach that Marvin Lewis is.  Give a good coach all the talent that the Bengals have and they’d be a 12-4 team this season.  He is not a good strategist and the Bengals draft alot of criminals thinking they can rehab their image, but they’ve been wrong about that as they had as many arrests (8) during the season as they had wins (8).  The Bengals finished 8-8 this season which gives Marvin Lewis a four year record of 35-29 (54.7%) and he’s 0-1 in the playoffs.

The Bengals didn’t know what to expect from Carson Palmer this season.  He looked a little jittery early in the season and that was understandable due to the horrible injury he suffered the year before in the playoffs against the Steelers.  But, in the second half of the season Palmer was clicking on all cylinders.  Palmer started all 16 games for the Bengals this season.  He completed 324 of 520 passes (62.3%) for 4,035 yards with 28 TD passes and 13 interceptions.  His QB rating for the season wound up at a very solid 93.9!  Palmer only carried the football 26 times for 37 yards (1.4 ypc) this season.  For his career, Palmer has played in 45 games (all starts) and has completed 932 of 1,461 passes (63.8%) for 10,768 yards with 78 TD passes and 43 interceptions for a career rating of 91.5.  He has not been much of a runner in his career as he has 78 carries for 125 yards (1.6 ypc) with 2 TD runs.

The Bengals brought in Anthony Wright to back-up Palmer, but he only played in mop-up time.  He played in 4 games and completed all 3 of his attempts for 31 yards.  For his career, Wright has played in 28 games (19 starts) and has completed 331 of 598 passes (55.4%) for 3,578 yards with 20 TD passes and 25 interceptions.  Wright has a career QB rating of 66.9.  Wright also has run the ball 79 times for 222 yards (2.8 ypc).