Hi Folks, yours truly yesterday went to experience the awesome spectacle that is the 2011 Bengals. Here are some of my observations.

1. A.J. Green is the real deal.

A.J. Green makes another catch over a DB.

Every other analyst has said it, and I will just reiterate this sentiment in case anyone thought other writers were blowing smoke up your bum. But really, Green is pretty awesome. The ball is thrown, and he catches it. Other players may try to prevent him, but he catches it. I think this is a fundamental attribute for a good passing game.

The one thing about Green is that the dude is thin as hell. He looks like Slim Henry 2.0, except you can tell that the due is ripped, like Bruce Lee style. Slim Henry, however, just looked thin. But both of them seem to have an uncanny ability to 1) Jump and 2) Catch. Green can adjust on the fly and he made some nice catches on some bad balls. Which, whether or not we have Carson Palmer starting this year or not (oh yeah, holding my breath… speaking of Palmer, I saw a dude wearing a “Free Carson” shirt.  Ha!  Like that’ll happen.), it looks like we’ll have some poorly thrown balls this year. More on Andy Dalton later.

2. Other receivers are fine, too.

I was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t see many spectacular catches by other receivers, namely Simpson, Jerome. But other dudes, like Jermaine Gresham and Andre Caldwell, caught balls thrown in their general direction. We have receivers that catch balls! Nice. I was worried about this season, too.

3. Andy Dalton is…

A nice guy. He went to Texas Christian. He’s a devout dude. He can throw the football. I saw him throw it several times. The footballs had spirals…

Super Bowl!

4. New Flash: Mike Zimmer likes to cuss.

If you go to camp, and you are a father like yours truly, don’t bring kids who pay attention to the action and are not deaf. Okay, it’s not extremely bad. The f-bombs are only peppered in every 10-15 minutes or so.

5. If you go bring the following:

- Bottled water.
- A roster that goes by jersey numbers.
- Shades, hat, sunscreen.
- Football or other things for players to sign, along with a sharpie.

6. Never underrate an underrated Bengals team.

It’s impossible to declare that a team will be either awesome or awesomely bad after watching the third day of training camp. Having a rookie QB is also not the best harbinger of things to come. But the coaches like him and he seems to know the offense pretty well already. I think the mental part may be easier for Dalton than the physical. By mental part I mean learning the playbook. The physical would be applying those plays under pressure, and not necessarily the “arm strength” that people are complaining about.

It’s been well documented that the number one difference between college and the NFL is the speed of the game. It’ll take time for Dalton to adjust to it, but I think starting Dalton is the right decision for the team. It won’t be pretty at times, but I believe that people learn better by doing rather than watching on the sidelines.

The Bengals are also doing what’s necessary to repair their defense after getting ransacked by free agency/injuries/stupidity. I like all the additions of Nate Celements, Thomas Howard, and Manny Lawson. Thank you, Bay Area teams (Oakland and San Fran) for your castoffs. If the Bengals can get safety Donte Whitner from the Bills, I’d feel even better about the defense.

And then you look at the Bengals schedule. The first five games are against the Browns, Broncos, 49ers, Bills, and Jaguars. No one on there is a juggernaut (except the Bills, and only when they play the Bengals). I’d be a fool to count any of those games a W, but a 2-3 start is not out of the question. If they can get the run game going, the defense is back to being decent, and the passing game doesn’t screw up too much, who knows.

The best thing about this team is low expectations. Everyone on the roster should have a chip on his shoulder. I think the Bengals should “easily” surpass 4-12 this year. Oh yeah, nothing like Bengals optimism: We’re going to be better than 4-12! Yeah!

If you have an questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, you can email David Jacob at djacob@gearupforsports.com. You can also join his facebook group, and/or follow him at http://twitter.com/HoldenCarraway.