Saturday's final day of Bengals minicamp was odd in its normalcy.
Not only did Chad Johnson practice, besides his choice of long pants over shorts, he appeared no different than any of his teammates, going through all the team's drills.
"He came out and worked the last two days and I think it's been good for him to get back into the
flow of things," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "We still have to get some clarity on the ankle and being able to deal with that because it is something we dealt with a year ago. He always wants
to play and do things but we have to make sure… He has some time in his career so he needs to make sure that he makes good decision that way."
Johnson, as per his wont, didn't have much to say to the media. He did, however, tell Channel 19's Ron Millenor that he was endorsing Barack Obama. I don't know if that would help or hurt Obama's chances in Ohio.
Johnson did sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans waiting outside the team's practice fields across the street from Paul Brown Stadium.
Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski characterized Johnson's performance as "rusty" and noted that Johnson had been scheduled to participate fully in Friday's afternoon practice that was shortened due to weather.
"He worked very hard. He's rusty, rusty," Bratkowski said. "I told him he looked rusty. Nobody likes to hear that."
Bratkowski also noted the ankle that was the center of much controversy on Thursday, looked to be bothering Johnson during Saturday's practice.
"He's got that ankle issue at the end of season they were trying to get taken care of. It hasn't gotten taken care of and needs to get taken care of," Bratkowski said. "He's going against guys who have been out here for 14, 16 practices, you know? You're going to look that way. T.J. looked that way first day."
Johnson also seemed to play nice with quarterback Carson Palmer and the rest of his teammates. The defensive players didn't seem to miss too many opportunities to give him an extra shove and he took them without complaint.
* Bobbie Williams took some snaps at center -- something he said he'd never done before and something Lewis said he'd done quite a bit -- but don't look for Williams to move to center.
"That would be a big group of men, but he’s always been in a position to do that and has always worked at that," Lewis said. "He gets the chance to occasionally enjoy the day and be down in pass skeleton and do some things with the quarterbacks while they’re over there banging their heads against dummies, so I think he looks forward to that. But it is a serious situation based on when you’ve got guys when we put up the active roster and if you can have guy that can be a backup center and play another position like we were fortunate enough when we had Eric (Steinbach) here. It helps on how many guys you have to put up if those backup players can back up two or three spots."
When asked directly if it could be considered a permanent move, Lewis and Bratkowski both quickly shot down the notion.
"The other two centers have had exchange problems; the ball has been on the ground. We can't do that. We're getting Bobbie ready in the event he has to be the backup center," Bratkowski said referring to backup centers Dan Santucci and Kyle Cook.
The line at the end of practice had, from left tackle to right tackle, Levi Jones (307 pounds), Andrew Whitworth (330 pounds), Williams (345 pounds), Stacy Andrews (342 pounds) and Willie Anderson (340 pounds), an average weight of "biiiig," Williams said. Actually, it would be (a roster weight of) 332.8 pounds per man.
That's not going to happen, says Bratkowski said.
"Bobbie is the backup only, emergency type of thing," Bratkowski said. "We're training him to see if he can be the backup center. He is competing with the other two."
Williams said he was just trying to diversify himself, perhaps to step into the role that Eric Steinbach occupied two years ago as the backup center.
"If it ever came down to it, I’d rather be prepared and go out there and knowing everything going on," Williams said. "It’s just getting the ball to the quarterback is the biggest thing."
And getting used to the tender touch of Carson Palmer, I asked.
"I told him I was married already," Williams said with a laugh.
* I asked Lewis if there were any pleasant surprises during the minicamp.
"Our running back Johnson is somebody has done a nice job," Lewis said. "He -- the running back from Kansas State Johnson..."
"Yeah, 'the running back Johnson didn't exactly narrow it down,'" a certain smart aleck blogger responded.
"The littlest of the Johnsons -- that’s kind of all we need, another Johnson, huh? More fun," Lewis said. "But I think he is one who has done a nice job and that kind of stands out. I think it’s been great for David Jones defensively to have all this time because we acquired him so late on waivers last year. We got a chance to see him in practice here when we practiced against the Saints but when you grab a guy during the season you really don’t have enough time to spend working with him. You see certain skills, certain things but we never really got him out there to play any real football, so that’s been good.
"I think Marcus Maxwell, to me, has done a nice job, and Brandon Johnson is another new guy who has impressed me a lot. I’ve been pleased with those guys. I’m excited for when we put some pads on and we’ll get a chance to do that, which we’ll do occasionally."
* The play of the day came from rookie receiver Jerome Simpson. Following an interception by Jonathan Joseph, Simpson knocked the ball out of his hands during the return and got the ball right back for the offense.
