Bengals Coach Mike Brown In One of His "Redeeming" Moods...Again

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I honestly didn't believe there would be any real possibility that the Cincinnati Bengals would be so interested in former Bears/Cowboy defensive tackle "Tank" Johnson. As it turns out, I was wrong. Mike Brown must be in one of his "redeeming" moods this week.

Per Bengals.com, the Bengals have shown some real interest in signing the troubled former second-round pick.

"I've had several good recommendations from football people, from both players and coaches," Zimmer said Thursday night. "Coach (Marvin) Lewis and I wanted to sit down with him and see if he was a fit and tell him what what we expected, and I think he would be a good fit in the right situation."

Well, let me go ahead and make it easy for them: He's not. I don't understand what the Bengals would gain by signing Johnson. Just two years ago, Bengals defensive tackle Domata Peko hit the lottery, signing a five-year, $29.3 million extension with the Bengals (Why? I have NO idea.) In addition, the team drafted two tackles last season, Auburn's Pat Sims in the third round and Fresno State's Jason Shirley in the fifth.

With the way Sims played last season, I think it's safe to assume the starting defensive tackles going into the 2009 season will be he and Peko, thus slotting "Tank" (if signed) into a backup role.

The question becomes if "Tank" really is worth the risk as a backup. I don't think he is. If the Bengals are looking for a backup defensive tackle, why not just re-sign John Thornton to an extension? He already knows the system, he's still unsigned, he resides in Cincinnati, and would probably be willing to take a significant pay cut just to stick around.

Take a look at Johnson's Wikipedia page. There is more written about his legal troubles alone than Chinedum Ndukwe's entire page. I can only imagine the spike in criminal activity in the Queen City if "Tank" and "Slim" are on the same team. The city of Cincinnati would have to implement an 8 p.m. curfew just to keep people safe. (I'm just kidding. Henry has actually been very well-behaved this offseason.)

I guess we'll see what happens. As I said before, either Mike Brown is in one of his "redeeming" moods this week, or he's just desperate to replenish the Johnsons on the team.