If I were GM....

[joseph]

If I were the Bengals GM the first thing I would do is trade Rudi Johnson. You'd like to get a 2nd round pick for him, but taking into account the market for running backs and his high contract demands, a 3rd round pick might be the best that can be had. Plus Rudi's trade value will never be higher than it is right now. Next sign Anthony Thomas to a 1 or 2 year deal for a 2mill a year. This deal would be good for both the Bengals and A-train. The Bengals don't have to pay too much and A-train gets a season or two to come in and get his value up to where it should be on the market. Right now A-train has to be looking for a place to come in and start for a season, and get back out on the free agent market. You bring him in with the promise that the starting job is his to lose. A-train, barring injury, can put up just as good of numbers and probably better than Rudi. Rudi just isn't that great of a RB, and if A-train gets the same amount of carries next year as Rudi did this past year there is no way, NO WAY that he won't put up higher yardage totals. A-train quite frankly is just a better RB imo. Plus signing Rudi to a long term contract at 5mil plus will totally jack up the salary cap for the Bengals in the near future. Not only can you not sign any free agents this year, but most likely next years free agent room will be even less. With an eye to the long term fiscal stability of this team you just can't have that much money locked up in an average RB with the contracts of Anderson, Levi Jones and Justin Smith coming up next year. Those three are at the 3 most expensive positions in the NFL and it's going to take a handsome chunk of change to keep all 3. Anderson is a great leader and pillar of the team and has to be signed to a long term contract, expensive. Justin Smith is primed to have a break out year and is one of the few players on D that is an impact player. Levi is the player that I'd be marking for a Franchis Tag and trade next year (I'd be a cold hearted GM ) depending on the progression of Stacy Andrews. Either way though the Bengals have some big time contract coming next season and should be locking up money that will be needed to sign these players when you can get a better back at a 3rd of the cost and pick up an extra draft pick.

Now it might be tempting to take the saved money and throw it at some free agent, but in all honesty there really just isn't anyone worth signing right now on the free agent market. No impact players. Maybe Hartwell and that's about it. You'd have to pay a lot to get him it sounds like, but I'm not sure he's worth it. I'll be the first to say I know little to nothing about Hartwell, but thats not too comforting when you're talking about throwing a large chunk of money at an average player. I guess it really depends on the current health of the Bengals injured linebackers whether he should be pursued. Also the center position has to be addressed Rich Braham always seems to find himself in the same place every year this time. You gotta love the guy, he leaves it on the field and is a true professional, so it's a priority to resign him.

Next in the draft. First pick..YOU'VE GOT TO DRAFT FOR NEED!!! The offense should be somewhat set. While imo Bobbie Williams had a sub par year and needs to improve, Richie can't play forever, and the tight ends could use some improvement, the overall glaring weakness of this team is stopping the run on the defensive side of the ball. Everyone knows it... And the Bengals can't be an upper echelon team till the problem is solved. So they need to go after a player that excells at stopping the run at their respective position. Hopefully Spears slips down to the 17th pick, but it's not looking too likely. The safety from Georgia Davis might be a good pick. You really would like to see a safety display a little more ball hawking skills though imo. Solid run support safety though. I personally as GM would trade down to the mid to late 20's and pick up an extra 2nd round pick. Or even better maybe you could do another deal with our trading buddy Denver where we get theier 1st, 3rd and DT Trevor Pryce for the 17th pick. Then take the best run stopping player at 25. Speculating I'd say Attaj Hawthorne at 25. So with the addition of Pryce and Hawthorne the D-line is vastly improved and set for the season.

2nd round- I personally like OLB Rian Wallace for the Bengals in the 2nd round. It sounds like he's good at stopping the run and could bring a lot of emotion to the team. Get em fired up!! Also SS Donte Nicholson or RB Ciatrick Fiason, OG Marcus Johnson, DE Justin Tuck or OLB Demarcus Ware could be the pick

3rd round- Jamaal Brimmer SS

3rd round- Terrance Murphy, Craphonso Thorpe WR

3rd round -Ben Wilkerson, Jason Brown C

4th round- Walter Reyes RB

5th round- Adam Snyder OG

6th round- Adam Bergen TE

7th round- Maurice Clarett why not:)

And then the Bengals go on to win the Super Bowl!!!!

[BengalNation1281]

If I were GM, I would lure LT away from the Chargers and make him our RB...then I would get Jamie Sharper, Samari Rolle, Ed Hartwell, Lavar Arrington, and whatever other top defensive talent I could and put them on the team for the leauge minimum. After that, I would time-travel back to 2004 and prevent the drafting of Chris Perry.

Then I would dance atop a mountain of candycanes and lollipops.

Man, I love fantasy threads.

[AGrizzlyBaer]

the thing with brimmer is he ran like a 4.7 40 thats pretty slow for a saftey