Bengals young players being counted on quickly
By "Porsche Lynn Commode"

Off-Season 2252 (Cincinnati ) - The Cincinnati Bengals have looked at a lot of change this off-season as the team has made a bushel of trades in order to reshape the roster to a younger demographic. While that leaves their fans rather depressed in the short term, the team's management is expecting their draft picks and waiver wire pickups to perform.

'We expect these kids to grow up fast,' Bengals GM 'Trader' Lee Remley said at OTAs. The Cincinnati Bengals leader has definitely lived up to that nickname this off-season. 'We usually give them a while to learn the system, but we no longer have that luxury.

The Bengals made some free agent offers that were rebuffed, and they refused to match an offer to their own player, OL Bill Marshall.

'Those guys didn't want to be in a rebuilding situation and I get it,' Remley said. 'And we didn't think Marshall was worth $9 million a year for 5 years like my friend in Tampa did.'

Outspoken even in a rebuilding year, the Bengals GM has been there, done that. He even had black training camp shirts printed up with the words in orange 'Excuse our mess. Construction in progress.' The veterans got a good laugh out of that as the rookies looked confused at the humor.

All in all, the rebuilding of the team will be painful, but long time observers and even some of those young players know the possible results.

'They have won several Sundbys here, so we know it's all gonna be good,' one of the first round picks, tackle Elbert Conley said. 'I'm looking forward to hoisting that trophy in a few years.'

As are the team's fans.