And I mean WIDE!

TO!

FAVRE!

TO!

TIGER WOODS!

LeBRON!

TO!

FAVRE!

Phew. Glad I got that out of my system. I did that so all of our readers wouldn't have to bother watching Sportscenter tonight.

I like that now that the Whiskey and I have our own Bengals blog, within the first month we will contribute two TO related articles. Our whole spiel here is that we will be different than the BS national and local media, and then we hypocritically are called to action when Buffalo announces that they will not be resigning a 37 year old wideout who had 5 touchdowns last year.

But, the nice thing is, that this will allow me to talk the Bengals' wide receiving situation and point out a few subtleties that the Whisk may have missed in his guffaw-inducing romp from this evening.

First of all, (and I'm going to use the bold feature here)

I support any move this offseason that prevents Cincinnati from blowing a first round pick on a wide receiver or tight end.

Wide receivers do not make an impact in their first year. Tight ends are not worth a first round pick in today's NFL. Cincinnati has spent high draft picks on both positions the last two years and have not developed either successfully. What else do I need to say?

Secondly, the Whisker was concerned about TO's salary. But he only had a one year 6.5 million dollar deal last season, and his numbers were way down. A one year player rental of 6 million bucks is worth it if he makes an impact. (We payed Shayne Graham 2.25 million last year.)

The Bourbon Barrel was also concerned with Laveranues Coles and Sam Adams burning the Cats in the past. Well, I have to agree that our scouts are about as talented at scouting as I am at knitting, but those two situations were pretty different. Sam Adams was an unwanted fat slob, the Bengals got for cheap, and Laveranues Coles was a productive wide out who was a horrible fit for the Bengals system. With TO we have a pretty good replica of TJ Houshmandzadeh (worse hands, better speed), and it gives Cincinnati more size at the receiver position (see previous article on Jones, Matt).

I agree that TO is not a top 15 catcher anymore, and that he will be a little overpaid this season. But he also scratches the Bengals right where they itch.

-Jim Lippincott's Shorts