Cincinnati Bengals: Antonio Bryant Cut and Four Burning Bengals Stories

The Bengals are now four games deep into the preseason with only one meaningless game remaining. On Saturday, the Bengals fell to the Bills. There were some good things and some bad things.

Jermaine Gresham looks like a stud in the making. Cedric Benson was in mid-season form. Carson Palmer looked good. He hooked up with Gresham and Chad Ochocinco for touchdowns and Terrell Owens continues to impress.

The Bengals also had 12 penalties for 122 yards charged against them. They need to clean that up. Their defense had their share of costly penalties and gave up a lot of yards to the Bills' C.J. Spiller. The starters weren't in long though.

While the Bengals are busy working on the final spots on the roster, you should check out this week's five Bengal topics.

Last week's five Bengal topics can be found here.

Antonio Bryant did not play one down for the Bengals and raked in $7 million. Then the Bengals cut him thus paying Bryant for nothing. Could the Bengals possibly look more incompetent with how they handled this?

To top it off, Bryant's agent wants them to pay Bryant's entire 2010 salary.

Bryant must have fought through a lot of pain during his physical to get the contract. However, is the Bengals' crack medical staff that easily fooled? Perhaps the Bengals knew of the injury and signed him anyway. After everyone knew of the injury, the Bengals allowed Bryant to practice during the first day of camp which prevented them from putting Bryant on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. Without the roster exemption that the PUP list would have allowed, they had to keep him on the roster or dump him. We all know how it ended now.

Here is a coincidence: the Jets cut Laveranues Coles on the same day. Coles is another player who the Bengals mistakenly gave a lot of money to. At least he played though.

Justin Smith was picked fourth overall by the Bengals back in 2001. He left the Bengals two years ago and was replaced by Antwan Odom. How do these two stack up?

Smith signed a six-year, $45 million deal with the 49ers. Odom signed a five-year, $29.5 million deal with the Bengals.

Smith has not missed a game in 2008 or 2009. Odom missed four games and eight starts with a shoulder injury suffered during practice in 2008. Last year, he missed 10 games with an Achilles injury.

Over the past two years, Smith has averaged 2 tackles and .4 sacks while Odom has averaged 2.5 tackles and .6 sacks.

Oh yeah, Smith was named second alternate to the 2010 Pro Bowl.

This year, Odom is hurt again. Which defensive end do you want Bengal fans?

Watch out Fui Vakapuna. Rookie Joe Tronzo might be the best fullback on the roster. Yes, Tronzo has looked rough at times but he has also opened up some holes with solid blocks. He has shown some receiving skills as well. Against the Bills, Tronzo started while the Bengals also had Jermaine Gresham in the backfield a bit.

The Bengals like Vakapuna but don't count out Tronzo. On the other hand, the Bengals don't seem to place a lot of value in the fullback position so they may keep Cedric Peerman instead.

Against the Bills, the Bengals went with the no-huddle offense and had some success. Bengal fans are now longing for the days of Boomer Esiason and the Super Bowl team.

The no-huddle allows for the offense to get personnel mismatches on the defense. It can be effective but it must be executed without a lot of mistakes. Jermaine Gresham could be a huge factor in this offense. He gives them a legitimate pass catching threat when they go with two tight ends and three wide receivers. Defenses might have trouble matching up with that.

Keep in mind that this was a preseason game against a defense that was not planning for it. Also, can the penalty prone Bengals run it without mistakes?

Here are some comments about the 18 game season that the NFL owners are currently discussing: