Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals - RedsZone.com - Cincinnati Reds Fans' Home for Baseball Discussion

savafan · 03-02-2006, 01:05 PM

http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=5105

Ken Zampese is starting to see all kinds of backup quarterbacks in his dreams as free agency nears and the Bengals prepare for the possibility of life without Jon Kitna.

Young and inexperienced. Old and seasoned. Middle-aged and on the crossroads. But Zampese, the Bengals quarterbacks coach, is seeking the same traits of reliability and production from such a diverse pool.

With free-agency set to begin Friday and their radar on quarterbacks, the Bengals are on others’ radar. The agent for defensive tackle Sam Adams said Wednesday his client is interested in re-joining head coach Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati.

Adams, who turns 33 in June and has one Super Bowl title with Lewis under his belt, is interested enough that he called Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson on Wednesday to let him know he’d like to check out a club that Adams agent Angelo Wright calls “on the cusp of the Super Bowl.” That was hours after the Bills released him.

Zampese has been immersed in names he can’t reveal, but he knows what he and the Bengals want.

“You need a guy that can play to a level with which we can win,” Zampese said. “And a guy who understands he’s going to have to perform without many reps in practice. But you need a guy who is going to get better with more reps. It’s a unique ability.”

Kitna is clearly the best fit because of his knowledge of the system, but he has played better as the starter than he has since becoming Palmer’s backup two seasons ago. But Zampese emphasized that Kitna got better the more work he got. He played better in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh than he did in the loss in Kansas City the week before.

Kitna has told the club he seeks a spot where he can compete for a starting job rather than sit behind a Pro Bowler. Even as the dispute over the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners puts the worth of this year’s salary cap in doubt, Kitna on Wednesday remained unflappable.

“Everybody would like to make more money,” Kitna said. “But for me, it’s more about finding a job."

Compounding the problem is that no one knows when quarterback Carson Palmer is going to be healthy enough to start after his rehab from reconstructive knee surgery. Are the Bengals looking for a guy to start the opener? The first month? Until midseason?

“You have to prepare like Carson won’t be ready early in the season,” Zampese said. “Obviously the guy is going to be getting most of the work in the spring minicamps. There are certainly all kinds of quarterbacks and we’re going to have options.”

Young and inexperienced? Try Tim Hasselbeck and Sage Rosenfels. Both can get it down the field and have fans in personnel departments around the loop. But they’ve hardy played. Rosenfels does have a Bengals connection in wide receivers coach Hue Jackson, a member of the Washington staff in 2001 when the Redskins selected Rosenfels in the fourth round.

Old and seasoned? Try Tony Banks, Jeff Garcia and Jeff Blake. Among them they’ve started 263 NFL games, but Banks, 33 next month, is the youngest, and only Garcia started a game last year. (P>(Don’t hold your breath on Blake returning. There were a lot of bruised feelings both ways when he left at the end of the 1999 season.)

The Kitna clone? Try Jay Fiedler, 34, who has started most of his 60 games for the Dolphins. Kitna has 79 NFL starts. Like Kitna, 34 in September, Fiedler has gone back and forth between starting and backing up. Like Kitna, Fiedler has taken teams into the fire of playoff runs. Fiedler also has one more victory than Kitna (37-36) in their starts.

But Fiedler, cut by the Jets last week, successfully underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason. Agent Brian Levy said last week he had yet to hear from the Bengals.

A potpourri? How about Anthony Wright of the Ravens, who hasn’t bombed out yet as a starter or as a backup and is in the middle at 30 years old? Or Damon Huard and Todd Collins, who have been backups for years but don’t have a lot of snaps to show for it? You can put Jamie Martin in that group at age 36, a guy with just eight NFL starts said to be pondering retirement but a guy who also seems to put up good numbers no matter the rust. He’s also got a Bengals connection in Zampese from their days in St. Louis.

And then there are options not yet on the board. The Steelers are supposedly getting ready to cut Tommy Maddox. He has baggage, but he’s also got an arm that can get the ball downfield to the Bengals wide receivers. Like Kitna, he’s also an NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

“There are all sorts of ways you can go,” Zampese said. “The young guys are good because they offer stability, guys that can be with you for four, five years. But the older guys have that experience you may need right away against a tough schedule. It will be interesting.”

Adams, the talented 340-pound run-stopper at the heart of Lewis’s record-setting defense in Baltimore that won a Super Bowl in 2000, got the word Wednesday from the Bills. He has made no bones about his desire to play for Lewis again, a guy with whom he has stayed in touch.

Adams's playing time in Buffalo dipped sharply under former head coach Mike Mularkey this past season in what has been described as a personality conflict. But Mularkey didn't survive, and neither did Adams in the new regime, and now he seeks a fresh start.

“He’s the kind of guy that can get you over the hump,” Wright said. “ A guy you can put in a big game and he’s going to respond. There wasn’t much direction in Buffalo, but I think he’d like to be around people like him and where they have a direction that is going up.”

Anderson, who worked out Wednesday with Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes in Atlanta, was pleased to get the phone call.

"You put him with the guys we already have there, and that would really help us," Anderson said. "Look at how he helped Takeo run around in Buffalo and look at the young linebackers we have."

Even though the CBA is still in doubt Wednesday, it’s pretty clear the Bengals want to first address the backup quarterback need and go from there as the labor situation unfolds.

redsfan30 · 03-02-2006, 01:10 PM

I'd love to have that 340 pound monster in the middle of the defensive line.

WMR · 03-02-2006, 01:15 PM

Just make sure that whoever we get as back-up QB can throw the deep ball confidently.

Jeff Blake part deux???

savafan · 03-02-2006, 01:23 PM

Shake and Blake baby!

smith288 · 03-02-2006, 01:30 PM

max venable · 03-02-2006, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Adams, who turns 33 in June and has one Super Bowl title with Lewis under his belt, is interested enough that he called Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson on Wednesday to let him know he’d like to check out a club that Adams agent Angelo Wright calls “on the cusp of the Super Bowl.” That was hours after the Bills released him.

Remember the reverse of this senario when Takeo Spikes couldn't wait to get out of Cincinnati and go to a winning team? He ends up in Buffalo--a mess now. And here we are a couple of years later and guys from Buffalo are begging to come play for a team "on the cusp of the Super Bowl." How cool is that?

smith288 · 03-02-2006, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by max venable

Remember the reverse of this senario when Takeo Spikes couldn't wait to get out of Cincinnati and go to a winning team? He ends up in Buffalo--a mess now. And here we are a couple of years later and guys from Buffalo are begging to come play for a team "on the cusp of the Super Bowl." How cool is that?

We should ask Sapp if he would like to play for us and if he says yes, we go "Psyyyyyyyche" and run away

WVRed · 03-02-2006, 02:38 PM

http://www.bengaldom.com/index.php?topic=77.0

SeeinRed · 03-02-2006, 03:08 PM

Is there a free agent who would fit in here more? A former Marvin guy, and a veteran on defense, plus he wants to play here! Everything that Marvin is looking for... well almost. I can see the Bengals looking over him because of their needs in the secondary, but they can address secondry needs in the draft. I would love to see Adams in stripes.

redsfan30 · 03-02-2006, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeeinRed

Is there a free agent who would fit in here more? A former Marvin guy, and a veteran on defense, plus he wants to play here! Everything that Marvin is looking for... well almost. I can see the Bengals looking over him because of their needs in the secondary, but they can address secondry needs in the draft. I would love to see Adams in stripes.

You're not going to find a 340 pound run stopper who can come in and play right away with the experience of Adams through the draft. If he wants to come here, make it happen!

Everyone knows that the secondary was a problem last year, but don't forget Madieu Williams and Kim Herring will be back next year so that automatically upgrades that area. But run defense continued to be a major problem and Sam Adams would go a long way to sealing that up.

max venable · 03-02-2006, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redsfan30

You're not going to find a 340 pound run stopper who can come in and play right away with the experience of Adams through the draft. If he wants to come here, make it happen!

Everyone knows that the secondary was a problem last year, but don't forget Madieu Williams and Kim Herring will be back next year so that automatically upgrades that area. But run defense continued to be a major problem and Sam Adams would go a long way to sealing that up.

Here, here!

Danny Serafini · 03-02-2006, 04:10 PM

Considering Herring's injury history I'm not really counting on him, but getting Williams back will be big.

WMR · 03-02-2006, 04:58 PM

1st rd. / 2nd rd. : DT & SS : Whichever one we draft first should be dictated by who is still on the board.

Sam Adams would be an awesome addition.

ALSO: There is a plethora of QUALITY CBs now available... I'd love to see a Sam Madison pick-up! Bump Tory down to 3rd/4th.

BoydsOfSummer · 03-02-2006, 07:54 PM

Sam is a 2-gap DT, don't the Gals run a 1-Gap 4-3? I'd like to see that big butt plugged into the middle of the Browns 3-4.Or someone of his caliber at least. He's getting a little long in the tooth but he can still eat up a bunch of space. He's been a good'un.

WVRed · 03-03-2006, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoydsOfSummer

Sam is a 2-gap DT, don't the Gals run a 1-Gap 4-3? I'd like to see that big butt plugged into the middle of the Browns 3-4.Or someone of his caliber at least. He's getting a little long in the tooth but he can still eat up a bunch of space. He's been a good'un.

I posted this on Bengaldom, but here goes.

I'd like to see Bryan Robinson and John Thornton cut as well. Then sign Sam Adams and run a 3-4.

LE-Duane Clemons
RE-Justin Smith
DT-Sam Adams
LOLB-David Pollack
LILB-Odell Thurman
RILB-Brian Simmons
ROLB-Landon Johnson

03-02-2006, 01:05 PM	#1
savafan Maple SERP Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 17,485	Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=5105 Ken Zampese is starting to see all kinds of backup quarterbacks in his dreams as free agency nears and the Bengals prepare for the possibility of life without Jon Kitna. Young and inexperienced. Old and seasoned. Middle-aged and on the crossroads. But Zampese, the Bengals quarterbacks coach, is seeking the same traits of reliability and production from such a diverse pool. With free-agency set to begin Friday and their radar on quarterbacks, the Bengals are on others’ radar. The agent for defensive tackle Sam Adams said Wednesday his client is interested in re-joining head coach Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Adams, who turns 33 in June and has one Super Bowl title with Lewis under his belt, is interested enough that he called Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson on Wednesday to let him know he’d like to check out a club that Adams agent Angelo Wright calls “on the cusp of the Super Bowl.” That was hours after the Bills released him. Zampese has been immersed in names he can’t reveal, but he knows what he and the Bengals want. “You need a guy that can play to a level with which we can win,” Zampese said. “And a guy who understands he’s going to have to perform without many reps in practice. But you need a guy who is going to get better with more reps. It’s a unique ability.” Kitna is clearly the best fit because of his knowledge of the system, but he has played better as the starter than he has since becoming Palmer’s backup two seasons ago. But Zampese emphasized that Kitna got better the more work he got. He played better in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh than he did in the loss in Kansas City the week before. Kitna has told the club he seeks a spot where he can compete for a starting job rather than sit behind a Pro Bowler. Even as the dispute over the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners puts the worth of this year’s salary cap in doubt, Kitna on Wednesday remained unflappable. “Everybody would like to make more money,” Kitna said. “But for me, it’s more about finding a job." Compounding the problem is that no one knows when quarterback Carson Palmer is going to be healthy enough to start after his rehab from reconstructive knee surgery. Are the Bengals looking for a guy to start the opener? The first month? Until midseason? “You have to prepare like Carson won’t be ready early in the season,” Zampese said. “Obviously the guy is going to be getting most of the work in the spring minicamps. There are certainly all kinds of quarterbacks and we’re going to have options.” Young and inexperienced? Try Tim Hasselbeck and Sage Rosenfels. Both can get it down the field and have fans in personnel departments around the loop. But they’ve hardy played. Rosenfels does have a Bengals connection in wide receivers coach Hue Jackson, a member of the Washington staff in 2001 when the Redskins selected Rosenfels in the fourth round. Old and seasoned? Try Tony Banks, Jeff Garcia and Jeff Blake. Among them they’ve started 263 NFL games, but Banks, 33 next month, is the youngest, and only Garcia started a game last year. (P>(Don’t hold your breath on Blake returning. There were a lot of bruised feelings both ways when he left at the end of the 1999 season.) The Kitna clone? Try Jay Fiedler, 34, who has started most of his 60 games for the Dolphins. Kitna has 79 NFL starts. Like Kitna, 34 in September, Fiedler has gone back and forth between starting and backing up. Like Kitna, Fiedler has taken teams into the fire of playoff runs. Fiedler also has one more victory than Kitna (37-36) in their starts. But Fiedler, cut by the Jets last week, successfully underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason. Agent Brian Levy said last week he had yet to hear from the Bengals. A potpourri? How about Anthony Wright of the Ravens, who hasn’t bombed out yet as a starter or as a backup and is in the middle at 30 years old? Or Damon Huard and Todd Collins, who have been backups for years but don’t have a lot of snaps to show for it? You can put Jamie Martin in that group at age 36, a guy with just eight NFL starts said to be pondering retirement but a guy who also seems to put up good numbers no matter the rust. He’s also got a Bengals connection in Zampese from their days in St. Louis. And then there are options not yet on the board. The Steelers are supposedly getting ready to cut Tommy Maddox. He has baggage, but he’s also got an arm that can get the ball downfield to the Bengals wide receivers. Like Kitna, he’s also an NFL Comeback Player of the Year. “There are all sorts of ways you can go,” Zampese said. “The young guys are good because they offer stability, guys that can be with you for four, five years. But the older guys have that experience you may need right away against a tough schedule. It will be interesting.” Adams, the talented 340-pound run-stopper at the heart of Lewis’s record-setting defense in Baltimore that won a Super Bowl in 2000, got the word Wednesday from the Bills. He has made no bones about his desire to play for Lewis again, a guy with whom he has stayed in touch. Adams's playing time in Buffalo dipped sharply under former head coach Mike Mularkey this past season in what has been described as a personality conflict. But Mularkey didn't survive, and neither did Adams in the new regime, and now he seeks a fresh start. “He’s the kind of guy that can get you over the hump,” Wright said. “ A guy you can put in a big game and he’s going to respond. There wasn’t much direction in Buffalo, but I think he’d like to be around people like him and where they have a direction that is going up.” Anderson, who worked out Wednesday with Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes in Atlanta, was pleased to get the phone call. "You put him with the guys we already have there, and that would really help us," Anderson said. "Look at how he helped Takeo run around in Buffalo and look at the young linebackers we have." Even though the CBA is still in doubt Wednesday, it’s pretty clear the Bengals want to first address the backup quarterback need and go from there as the labor situation unfolds. __________________ This is the Cal Ripkin Jr. of typos. If you ask me to join your fantasy baseball league and I select Legolas in the first round, don't be angry at me. It's not my fault I've read up on the players and you haven't.

03-02-2006, 01:10 PM	#2
redsfan30 Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 7,545	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals I'd love to have that 340 pound monster in the middle of the defensive line. __________________ "Strickland Propane... Taste the meat, not the heat." - Hank Hill

03-02-2006, 01:23 PM	#4
savafan Maple SERP Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 17,485	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals Shake and Blake baby! __________________ This is the Cal Ripkin Jr. of typos. If you ask me to join your fantasy baseball league and I select Legolas in the first round, don't be angry at me. It's not my fault I've read up on the players and you haven't.

03-02-2006, 01:30 PM	#5
smith288 Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: New Albany, OH Posts: 7,200	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals __________________ Did you like that?

03-02-2006, 03:08 PM	#9
SeeinRed Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 1,182	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals Is there a free agent who would fit in here more? A former Marvin guy, and a veteran on defense, plus he wants to play here! Everything that Marvin is looking for... well almost. I can see the Bengals looking over him because of their needs in the secondary, but they can address secondry needs in the draft. I would love to see Adams in stripes.

03-02-2006, 04:10 PM	#12
Danny Serafini 15 game winner Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Sultanes de Monterrey Posts: 4,172	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals Considering Herring's injury history I'm not really counting on him, but getting Williams back will be big.

03-02-2006, 07:54 PM	#14
BoydsOfSummer So Long Uncle Joe Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Hamilton,Ohio Posts: 3,849	Re: Sam Adams wants to play for Bengals Sam is a 2-gap DT, don't the Gals run a 1-Gap 4-3? I'd like to see that big butt plugged into the middle of the Browns 3-4.Or someone of his caliber at least. He's getting a little long in the tooth but he can still eat up a bunch of space. He's been a good'un. __________________ 0 Value Over Replacement Poster "Sit over here next to Johnathan (Bench)...sit right here, he's smart."--Sparky Anderson

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