And while a lot of work was done in the 12 full-squad practices, they still were just drills held without pads or contact. Plenty of issues remain unsettled as the team readies itself for the July 27 opening of training camp at Paul Brown Stadium.
Here is a list of five questions coming out of minicamp:
1. Who is the leading candidate for the No. 2 receiver spot?
Based on coaches’ comments and the rotations at practice, there are four: Brandon Tate, Armon Binns, Ryan Whalen and rookie Mohamed Sanu.
Tate, who joined the Bengals last offseason following two years in New England, appeared in all 16 regular-season games and the playoff game last year, primarily on special teams where he set the club record for punt returns in a season (51). He did not catch a single pass, but he has been impressive in camp and has to be considered the leader heading into camp.
Binns spent most of 2011 on the practice squad, where he impressed coaches every week. This offseason has given the University of Cincinnati graduate a chance to study the Bengals playbook more than the opponents’, and the results have been impressive.
Whalen is a second-year player from Stanford who made appearances in the final two regular-season games and playoff contest. And Sanu is a rookie third-round pick from Rutgers who has shown flashes of both greatness and inexperience this spring.
2. What are some other position battles to watch?
Cornerback should be especially interesting and competitive with six first-round picks on the roster.
Leon Hall started the first nine games last year before tearing his Achilles. He remains confident he will be on the field at 3 p.m. July 27 when the Bengals begin their first practice, which would be a little more than nine months since the Nov. 13 injury.
Even if Hall is ready, he may be eased back into things, leaving Adam Jones, Nate Clements, Jason Allen, Terence Newman and rookie first-round pick Dre Kirkpatrick in the mix at the start of camp.
Clements, who enters his 12th season, started 15 games for the Bengals last year, but missed most of the spring practices with a muscle pull. If he’s healthy, and by all indications he should be, he will enter camp as the frontrunner for one of the two starting spots.
Allen (eighth season) and Newman (10th) are experienced veterans who signed as free agents this offseason, while Jones has been with the Bengals for the last two seasons. But he has a history of legal trouble that continues to follow him as earlier this week he was ordered to pay $11.7 million to a pair of men injured in a Las Vegas strip club shooting in 2007.
Kirkpatrick should see action in 2012, but a starting job might be a longshot. He still has a lot to learn despite coming from one of the top college programs in the country at Alabama.
The battle for the safety spot opposite Reggie Nelson should be competitive as well, and it will be interesting to see how the carries are split at running back between newcomer Benjarvus Green-Ellis and Bernard Scott. The Bengals also had hoped Dan Herron, the rookie sixth-round pick from Ohio State, could be in that mix. He may be eventually, but he was injured most of the spring, putting him way behind.
3. Which undrafted college free agents have a chance to make the squad?
According to Lewis, all of them.
“I’ve been as impressed with this group of undrafted players as I think I have ever been in my 21 years in the NFL,” Lewis said Tuesday on the opening day of minicamp. “It’s going to be a group that really has an opportunity where guys have legitimate shots to make the football team. And, if they don’t make the football team, we know they’ll make the team better and they’ll have chances to play on other people’s teams.”
Realistically the leading candidate, based on his collegiate track record and minicamp rotations, is middle linebacker Vontaze Burfict.
Once projected as a first-round pick, he slid all the way through the draft due to some character issues. The Bengals were willing to take a chance on him, and he seems intent on rewarding them for it.
Starting middle linebacker Rey Maulauga is in the final year of his contract, as are the other starting linebackers in Thomas Howard and Manny Lawson, so Burfict is in a good situation to make an impact and have his Bengals career last longer than the summer.
Various reports show anywhere from 15 to 18 percent of NFL rosters are filled by undrafted college free agents, so it’s not out of the question that a handful of others could be on the roster when the Bengals kick off the season Sept. 10 on “Monday Night Football” in Baltimore.
4. How will training camp at PBS be different from the ones at Georgetown?
As is the case with any first-year endeavor, a lot of that remains to be seen.
The club is still finalizing the logistics, but it is hoping the closer proximity to the bulk of its fan base combined with last year’s playoff run will lead to big crowds.
The plan is to hold the practices on the field adjacent to PBS, just across Central Avenue. Bleachers will be erected to make it more comfortable for the fans to watch practices.
There will be one major difference, but it has nothing to do with the change in locale. The new collective bargaining agreement that ended last year’s lockout put an end to two-a-day practices. The double sessions in the past may have been taxing on the players, but they provided great flexibility for fans who wanted to watch.
The team has yet to release its camp schedule, but 3 p.m. practices could be the norm, which would make it hard for 9-to-5 workers to attend.
And fans attending some of the earlier sessions in camp should plan on arriving early with a healthy dose of patience as parking could be a challenge, especially for night practices when the Reds are in town.
5. Will Marvin Lewis be offered an extension?
Lewis, who is the winningest and longest-tenured coach in club history, is entering the final year of his contract, and given the fierce loyalty Bengals owner Mike Brown is known for, an extension seems likely.
Whether there has been any movement in that direction is unclear.
When the subject was mentioned at the final minicamp practice Thursday, Lewis said, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
Lewis then was asked if he and Brown had been talking about it, to which he replied, “Not in a while.”
But Lewis and Brown will have more free time in the next six weeks than they will have at any time the rest of the year.
The Bengals have had trouble following up playoff appearances under Lewis, going 8-8 in 2006 after the division title in 2005, and 4-12 in 2010 on the heels of the 2009 wild-card appearance.
But the 2012 Bengals appear to be more stable and better prepared to make another run at the postseason.
Brown may not have the luxury of waiting to see if they make it, because if they do, Lewis would have one heck of resume to offer other NFL owners after leading a once moribund Cincinnati franchise to the playoffs four times in eight years.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jay.morrison@coxinc.com.
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