Cincinnati Bengals' Training Camp Postion Battles for 2009

Safeties: One thing is for sure for the safeties on the Bengals roster this year; they are going to pack a punch.

Chinedum Ndukwe, Marvin White, Chris Crocker and Roy Williams are all known for making an emphasis on impact; Marvin White was given the nickname Gator for his aggressive style of play.

Roy Williams is a monster run stopping safety, and Chinedum Ndukwe and Chris Crocker are known to pack punch as well. The Bengals have younger safeties in Corey Lynch, Kyries Hebert, and Tom Nelson who will all battle for playing time with four experienced safeties ahead of them.

Center: This year no matter who wins the job, the Bengals will start the season with no NFL experience at center. While Center Kyle Cook is not a rookie, he has not had a snap.

Last year he was poised to take over the starting job in Dallas and had a toe injury in pregame warm-ups. Still one could argue that no NFL experience is better than having the open door they had manning Center last year in Eric Ghiaciuc.

Cook has been named the starter coming into camp, which in my opinion is a mistake seeing how they used a fourth round pick on Center Jonathan Lugis of Arkansas.

Lugis can only be judged on his past performance, which in his last three years has been one of the finalists for the Rimington Award, winning it in 2007.

Leaving this position open for battle in camp might have inspired better play out of both, I just don’t think you hand over a position without making them sweat and bleed for it in camp.

Fullback: Jeremy Johnson must be considered the favorite to land the starting job; he was the Bengals starter before being released in 2008 for being out of shape.

He just resigned a contract this year, it is not yet known if he can physically handle the job.

Jeremy and Chad Johnson are the only two Bengals not in minicamp, Jeremy is not in camp because he is working with a personal trainer to get in shape for the season.

If he can’t watch out for Fui Vakapuna drafted in the seventh round, a powerful runner out of BYU known for his explosiveness at the point of impact.

Chris Pressley, an undrafted free agent, is a powerful classic style fullback, can block out of the power I, and catch out of the backfield, Chris is known for his YouTube video where he squats over 600 pounds repeatedly.

If Jeremy Johnson is not in shape look for him to be ousted before the season, with two young capable fullbacks pushing for playing time behind him.