EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Eli Manning and Tom Brady were solid in their final tuneups for the regular season.

When the Bengals were selected to play in the Hall of Fame Game, coach Marvin Lewis saw it as a perfect opportunity to find out what he had with his younger players on the roster. It also turned out to be the perfect opportunity to get a floundering passing game back on track.

With the addition of Terrell Owens and drafting of Jermaine Gresham and Jordan Shipley, Marvin Lewis lived up to his offseason goal of providing Palmer with as many weapons as possible. Unlike last year when Palmer missed most of the preseason due to an ankle injury he has had plenty of chances to work with his new cast this year.

“We’ve got a very good corps,” Palmer said. “We’ve obviously got the two big guys but there are young guys behind them that are working hard to get a roster spot.

It’s true. Cedric Benson has disappointed many of us over the years.

When a player is selected No.4 overall in the NFL draft, after all, people expect big things. I mean, Matt Leinart went No.10 and look at the pressure on that guy. Sheesh.

For the first three years of his career, Benson looked more like the TV butler than a top ten running back. I should know, I was forced to play the troublesome tailback after everyone else on my 2006 fantasy roster fizzled. (How did I end up with Samkon Gado anyway?)

What a season it turned out to be. Playing behind Thomas Jones, who chalked up 1,210 yards for the Bears that year, Benson hardly got a look in. And when he did, he simply lacked the expected spark. You know, the kind of electricity that makes a back the best in college football.

He averaged a mere three fantasy points per game that season. Oh, the humanity. 

But things have changed since my seventh place fantasy finish of ‘06, and I’m not just referring to the guy’s haircut. Benson ran like a man both possessed and distressed in 2009. In 13 games for the Cincinnati Bengals, he pounded out 1,251 yards, which was good for 13 fantasy points a game. That’s 166.65 fantasy points in total and enough to rank him in the top 10 for fantasy backs that season. It was, well, pleasantly surprising. 

And so most pundits now have Benson amongst their top 10 backs for 2010. But should you have him even higher?

Yes, because he’ll get his touches

Benson should have in excess of 300 carries again, so there’s potential for him to trounce last season’s totals—especially if he plays 16 games. The addition of Chad Ochocinco should only help open up the field too, giving our man Benson a chance to score more than six touchdowns and boost his points per week even further.

Yes, because he’s a rebel with a cause

Remember, this is a guy who still has something to prove, and is young enough to make any lingering doubters pay. Again. Funny what a chip on the shoulder can do, eh? Benson hits the hole with rage. He breaks tackles violently. He makes his cut with authority. He grips the ball like Indiana Jones does that idol in the opening sequence of Raiders. Yeh, I’m saying not even a poison dart can bring him down.

Yes, because no defense can slow his charge

Now you might argue Benson’s best games in 2009 were against weak opponents such as Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City. Sure, he mauled some lesser clubs. But he also terrorized the best defenses in the league. For example, he slashed Baltimore for 120 yards in week 5, and destroyed the Jets for 169 yards in the AFC wild card game. He even silenced Rex Ryan, and for that deserves our respect. 

The Bengals will face the Ravens and Jets again in 2010, but also some more porous defensive units like Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Buffalo, Atlanta, New Orleans and Carolina. There’s a slew of potential Benson fantasy points right there, folks. Couple that with the fact that he’s on a contract year and 2006 might feel like it never happened.    

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By CLIFF BRUNT AP Sports Writer

In the past two days, the Bengals medical staff has been rushed into the spotlight quicker than a Tiger Woods mistress.
 
Two days in a row the Bengals, due to injury, cut a player. Both players are expected to retaliate against the team.
 
First it was the knee of Antonio Bryant, aka the man with the $8M signature.
 
We all know the story by now. He signed a four-year, $28M deal in the off-season. The team doctors green-lit the signing back in the winter, so how could he have gotten worse?
 
The medical staff claimed that Bryant had passed his physical and it was all systems go. Bryant was poised to be a reliable No. 2 receiver for Carson Palmer.
 
Instead, Bryant was cut on Sunday due to his ongoing medical issues. He only participated in the very first practice of training camp.

It raises an eyebrow to the competence of the Bengals medical staff and their ability to evaluate a player’s injury. Bryant and his agent plan on filing a grievance to collect even more money ($1.55M base salary).
 
He was paid $8M for NOTHING. This is one of the biggest debacles in the history of the franchise (and that’s saying a lot).

How furious must the penny-pinching owner Mike Brown be at his medical team? Flushing this much money down the toilet is something Brown will not tolerate.
 
My guess is that somebody had to have been fired this week—possibly even more.
 
One day later, the Bengals medical staff was under fire again for not properly diagnosing a player injury. This time it was the long-time Bengal, Rashad Jeanty.
 
The fifth-year linebacker was waived on Monday after failing a team physical. According to Jeanty’s agent, David Canter, Jeanty would still be on the team had the Bengals medical staff properly diagnosed his injury. The news came as a complete shock.
 
“Rashad is as flabbergasted as I am the way this was done,” Canter said. “To do this to him after the success he had with the team and throw someone on the trash heap like this is mind blowing.”
 
Jeanty fractured his leg on the opening kickoff of the playoff game against the Jets in January. The Bengals staff told him that he would not have to undergo any type of surgery.
 
Fast forward to March and the free agent Jeanty was visiting the Miami Dolphins. After a failed physical, the Dolphins staff told him he needed ankle surgery to heal his leg injury. There was also ligament damage.

Jeanty re-signed with the Bengals later that month and had the surgery at the very end of March.
 
Now we are in the final days of the preseason and the Bengals made Jeanty take a physical. After receiving a big fat “F”, the Bengals decided to dump the veteran. He had played in 54 games for the team, starting over half of them (32).
 
To be cut after suffering from a misdiagnosis is a low blow to a former Ed Block Courage Award winner and locker-room leader.
 
“It’s tremendously disappointing on the way this has been handled,” Canter said.
 
“We don’t see how the Cincinnati Bengals can do this without any inclination that this was even a possibility. It’s a tad shocking how he was released and was done in a disheartening, callous and unfair manner.

“The only reason why he isn’t healthy and wasn’t able to pass the physical is because they failed to fully diagnose and mistreated the injury.”
 
Since Jeanty can’t file an injury grievance because he was waived due to a failed physical, there is a great chance a lawsuit could be filed against the Bengals for medical malpractice.
 
It’s disappointing to have such negative news just a week before the season begins. Both players could have been critical parts of the ‘10 Bengals. They would have been fighting in the trenches for the men in stripes in the harshest of conditions.
 
Instead, they will be fighting against them in an air-conditioned courtroom.

Read more Cincinnati Bengals news on BleacherReport.com

In the wake of the Cincinnati Bengals' medical staf drawing heavy criticism from the agent for linebacker…

In the wake of the Cincinnati Bengals' medical staf drawing heavy criticism from the agent for linebacker…

In the wake of the Cincinnati Bengals' medical staf drawing heavy criticism from the agent for linebacker…

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Maurice Purify has been suspended without pay for one game for a violation of…

On March 10 of this year, the Bengals signed Antonio Bryant to a four-year deal worth $28 million. Oh how different things were back then. That was the day the Bengals thought they found their complement to Chad Ochocinco. Things were looking up in Bengals land.

Now fast forward to today, August 31th, and look where we are. Antonio Bryant is no longer with the Bengals after being released by the team on Sunday despite never playing a down for the team.

Don’t feel bad for Bryant though, he has already collected $7.85 million from the Bengals and filed a grievance for the $1.55 million he was scheduled to make in base salary.For the 172 days he was a Bengal, Bryant made $45,639.54 per day. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Which got me thinking, what could you do with that $7.85 million Bryant collected for his short time in Cincinnati?

Buy 87,222 Carson Palmer jerseys.
Buy 9,812 pairs on season tickets seated on the sideline.
Bail Cedric Benson out of jail 1,570 times.
Buy 2,616,666 boxes of the new “Ochocinco’s” cereal.
Buy 673,241 copies of T.O.’s book “Little T Learns to Share.”
Pay Chad Ochocino’s recent twitter fine 314 times.
Buy 174 Lexuses that Chad Ochocino promised to give away during a raffle at a comedy club.
Legally change your name in Ohio 38,088 times.
Buy 1,121,428 beers at Paul Brown Stadium
And finally, make it rain with Pacman Jones 7,850,000 times.

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