The Cincinnati Bengals are not interested in signing any veteran free agent wide receivers. On Sunday, Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer urged the team to stop sitting on its hands and be more active in free agency. In particular, he said the Bengals need to bring in a veteran receiver presence rather than stick with Mohamed Sanu as the team’s No. 2 receiver behind AJ Green.
Head coach Marvin Lewis disagrees with that notion, to say that least. Lewis defended Sanu while using Chad Johnson and Randy Moss as examples of why bringing in a veteran free agent would accomplish nothing for the team.
“Mo Sanu (is) way ahead of where one certain receiver (Johnson) was in his second year playing in the National Football League. I’ll go on record saying that,” Lewis told the Enquirer’s Joe Reedy. “That’s the uneducated putting dumb thoughts in people’s minds. It’s why you have an opportunity to go after these guys and go get these guys. So you continue to make your team better.
“You are not a positive in making your team better when you keep adding old guys. What did Randy Moss do for those guys last year? He did nothing. He got in the way of a younger player performing.”
Moss’ numbers in 2012 were nothing to get excited about, but he did catch seven passes in the postseason, where every play counts a little more. Some would argue that he helped stretch the field and provided leadership for the team’s young receiving corps, but we have no way of measuring such things.
During his rookie season with the Bengals, Johnson caught 28 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown. He burst onto the scene in his second year with 69 catches for 1,166 yards and five touchdowns and was one of the most productive receivers in the league for the next five seasons. Sanu caught 16 passes for 154 yards and 4 touchdowns with Cincinnati last season, so their rookie production was similar. Plays like this remind us that Sanu is a tremendous athlete, so he is certainly capable of making the type of jump Johnson made in his sophomore season.
Obviously, Lewis would rather develop his younger guys than try to to incorporate a veteran into his offense. Coaches all have their own methods, but Lewis’ have resulted in zero playoff wins in his 10 seasons as coach of the Bengals. Just saying…
