Jungle Noise News, Notes from OTAs

                                                              Jungle Noise

This is the second installment of Jungle Noise. In this edition we will be catching up on the news and notes of OTAs after the holiday. The Bengals were off on Memorial Day but returned to practice on Tuesday.

                                                                 Easy Going

Coach Marvin Lewis said that he is giving the players Wednesday off, trying to ease the burden of the NFL season. This is the first time Marvin has given the players a day off during OTA’s in his tenure. The Bengals will be off Wednesday and return to work Thursday. Marvin believes that giving the veteran’s time off to recover and relax from the grueling NFL workout session's will pay dividends in the season; Marvin is also going to give them another Wednesday off on June 10.

                                            Benson Off and Running

Cedric Benson has been nothing but impressive in OTA’s this year, early reports are that Benson is flying around full speed, and trying to establish himself at the Bengals workhorse. Carson Palmer is very impressed with his new running back, and said he is going to tell him to slow down so he does not wear himself down for the upcoming season.

Cedric carried the ball 100 times during the final month of the season, and believes that he can handle the bulk of the load in the run heavy AFC North. Benson told of the Bengals record for most carries in a season held by former Bengal Rudi Johnson of 361 said “cake”.

                                                    Beefing Up

Antwan Odom has transformed his body drastically in the off-season; Odom has put on 30 pounds of muscle this off-season.  Odom began the off-season strength and conditioning program to help rehabilitate his shoulder, after several injuries in his college career. Antwan is walking around at 285 pounds, and the coaches say they haven’t seen any drop off in speed and maneuverability.

Antwan is looking to get back to his eight-sack days he had with the Titans. Zimmer is hopeful with a healthier Antwan and all his additions on defense that he is going to be able to bring pressure from all over the field and bring up their sack total of 17 last year, which ranks second-worst in Bengals franchise history the worst being the 1969 Bengals 16.

                                                        Changing of the Guard

The Cincinnati Bengals will have a new left guard this year in the form of Nate Livings, who made his NFL debut in game 11 last year. With Andrew Whitworth moving from LG to LT Livings is going to get a chance to man LG from the start of the season. In the last three games last year the Bengals averaged 167 yards rushing with him at LG. This year two-fifth's of the Bengals line will have no NFL experience when the season begins. The Bengals will be counting on Rookie Andre Smith and third-year center Kyle Cook, to keep Carson Palmer healthy. A big job for anyone, but the Bengals, and particularly Carson Palmer have no time for learing on the job.