Sifting through the PR, I found a few nuggets of interest:

– New defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer may be more liberal with rotations and substitutions than the prior regime, telling the assembled reporters that “[m]aybe we have 22 [players] who can make 11.”

– Rookie WR Andre Caldwell has a shot at taking the kick return job away from WR Glenn Holt. Caldwell had 752 yards on 37 kick returns in college, a 20.3 yard average. Holt averaged 24.3 yards a return last year, including one 100-yard romp for a score, but also fumbled three times.

– RBs Kenny Irons (knee) and DeDe Dorsey (groin) are the only players who aren’t expected to practice when camp opens next Monday.

– Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski promised to aim more passes at the tight ends, while “role-spotting” rookie wideouts Caldwell and Jerome Simpson

So, with the Chad Johnson sideshow promising to be just that, a sideshow, what are the big questions for the Bengals headed into camp? Glad you asked.

1. No Injuries. I’ve written before about how injuries decimated the Bengals last year. One point to add is that many of them occurred in — or before — training camp. The summer of ‘07 saw the Bengals limp into Georgetown. Both bookend tackles, Willie Anderson and Levi Jones were nursing knee injuries. Anderson would suffer further dings in the preseason, while Jones would miss the first several weeks. Starting CB Jonathan Joseph, coming off a solid rookie campaign, suffered a stress fracture in his foot during minicamp which hampered his play all year. RB Chris Perry and LB David Pollack were both still rehabbing from injuries in 2006. Both would miss all of last season, and Pollack has since retired. More guys would get hurt in camp and preseason games, the most prominent of which were second-round pick RB Kenny Irons — currently ticketed for the PUP list by most observers — and K Shayne Graham, whose hip pointer would lead to several weeks of poor kicking to start the ‘07 campaign.

This year is a welcome turnaround — so far. Most of the players who were hurt last year appear to be back and ready to go. The offseason hasn’t seen any new injuries of significance. Two players still to watch are Perry and LB Ahmad Brooks. Brooks, who tore his groin in week 1 of last year and missed the rest of the season, was limited in minicamp this year due to lingering soreness. Perry reports being almost but not quite 100%. If those two can complete their recoveries, and the Bengals can avoid another flood of camp and preseason injuries, the odds of the team making some noise this year rise dramatically. (And yes, Chad Johnson’s recently cleaned-out ankle bears watching too, but all indications are he’ll be ready to go by September.)

2. Run Rudi Run. RB Rudi Johnson was another injury casualty last season, suffering for much of the year from a pulled hamstring that limited him to just 497 yards on 170 carries, a sucktastic 2.9 yards per lug. The performance left Bengals fans wondering not just about his health, but whether Rudi had finally hit the wall. His straight-ahead, pounding style isn’t one that produces RBs with long careers, and from 2003 through 2006 he had carried the ball more than 1,250 times. Others wondered how much impact an apparently ill-considered attempt by Rudi prior to last season to drop some weight and develop his receiving skills had on his performance in 2007. Rudi’s defenders pointed to injuries on the offensive line as key to Rudi’s poor showing, but their case wasn’t helped by the fact that backup RB Kenny Watson (763 yards on 178 carries, a 4.3-yard average) ran much better behind the same line.

The Bengals need Rudi to return to his pre-2007 form. To date this offseason, signs have been good. Johnson spent the offseason working out, bulking back up, and has impressed observers ranging from Marvin Lewis to John Clayton. He’s still listed at No. 1 on the RB depth chart, ahead of Watson and Perry. If Rudi struggles in camp, look for the team to take a second look at still-unemployed ex-Seahawk Shaun Alexander.

Paging No. 3. Former WR Chris Henry’s off-field antics got him suspended for the first eight games of the 2007 season, depriving the Bengals of their No. 3 wide receiver during the most difficult part of their schedule. That wasn’t the only reason they floundered to 2-6 over that span, but it didn’t help. Initially, it was hoped that former Green Bay WR Antonio Chatman could fill the gap, but as has been his fate in Cincinnati, Chatman couldn’t stay healthy. He missed week 1 completely, failed to appear in weeks 2 and 7, and caught just 3 balls for 53 yards in the intervening weeks. In his absence, No. 3 duties were handed to WR Tab Perry, a late-round draft choice who had shown some promise as a role-player in 2005, but who had also been injury-prone, missing most of 2006 with a hip injury. The Bengals played Tab extensively in preseason and Carson Palmer threw every pass he could at him — and Tab couldn’t catch a thing. Their inability to connect continued into the regular season, but would quickly become a moot point when Tab re-aggravated his hip injury and was lost for the year following week 2.

Without a No. 3 and with Rudi slowed, the Bengals offense faltered. Teams didn’t need to commit extra to stopping the run and could focus on Chad and T.J. Houshmanzadeh. While what looks like the return of receiving back Chris Perry, as well as the addition of TE Ben Utecht, should give Palmer options that weren’t there last year, the Bengals need either a healthy Chatman (which they have at the moment, knock on wood) or one of the many young wide receivers they drafted to emerge in the No. 3 spot. The early favorite among the rooks seems to be third-round pick Andre Caldwell.

“It’s not productive for our football team,” Lewis said when he met the media before the annual training camp luncheon at Paul Brown Stadium. “You have to be a productive part to be a NFL player.There is a responsibility to be a NFL player. It’s a privilege, not a right.”

Bengals president Mike Brown, in his only scheduled media appearance of the season, said he hopes the club has turned the corner on the character issue.

“We don’t want that kind of behavior. We’re trying to be more concientous of guys we bring in,” Brown said. “We’re trying to go forward with guys who are relaible and guys who are not only good players, but good citizens.”

Good for them. The idea of bringing Henry back was stupid when first floated last week and it’s still dumb now. Stripe Hype continues to wish Chris the best of luck…just someplace else.

Long snapper Brad St. Louis’ father was killed earlier this month in a bicycling accident. He was 64. Condolences to Brad and all his family.

Whodeyfans believes Chad will play hard this season.

Ex-Bengal Pete Johnson was sentenced to 60 hours community service for passing bad checks.

AFC North Watch: The QB competition in Baltimore kicks off today.

The Bengals are at 24 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings.

CHFF says that all the head coaches in the AFC North kinda, well, suck.

The Detroit Lions are eyeing former Bengals LB Takeo Spikes.

The Chickster says that the Cleveland Browns will be the first team in the AFCN to fall apart this year.

Kirkendall tosses in his $0.02 on the continuing Stacy Andrews controversy.

The Bengals Blitz happily eats some crow on the subject of Chinedum Ndukwe.

Whodeyfans believes that the Bengals have a shot at the playoffs despite Mike Brown’s continued presence.

Bengals training camp, part deux.

This is part of Reebok’s new NFL campaign, breaking tomorrow. It features 20 players from 8 NFL squads, including Peyton Manning and Greg Ellis

Update: Only a former Cleveland Browns sportswriter could be this fucking dumb. The Bengals went 2-6 without Henry and 5-3 with him last year? Shoot, James, that only proves the point they shouldn’t bring him back. Why would you want to go back to relying on a guy who has shown time and time again that he can’t clean up his act and invite a repeat of 2007? No no no no no.

The Bengals have signed seventh round pick Angelo Craig, a defensive end out of the University of Cincinnati.

AFC North Watch: The Ravens have just three days left until camp opens — and 8 unsigned draft picks.

It looks like Browns No. 3 WR Joe Jurevicius will start the season on the PUP list.

WDR hopes that ESPN’s John Clayton is right. You and me both, Steve.

Bengals Stripes examines the secondary.

AFC North Watch: The Ravens have signed first-round pick QB Joe Flacco to a five-year, $30 million deal.

Cincy Jungle has some details on the signings of Mario Urrutia and Matt Sherry.

WDR wants LB Dhani Jones to include an orange-and-black bowtie in his line of neckwear. Hey, I’d buy one.

ESPN’s James Walker looks back at the 2005 draft and gives the Bengals an F. Yup.

AFC North Watch: Muckraker Mike says the Ravens are closing in on QB Joe Flacco. And like the Bengals, June 15 came and went in Baltimore without a long-term deal for their franchise player, Terrell Suggs.

Pittsburgh billionaire Stanley Drunkenmiller wants a majority interest or nothing in the Steelers.

4 p.m. today is the deadline for reaching a deal with franchise player G/T Stacy Andrews. Nothing appears imminent, so it looks like Andrews will play 2008 under the $7.455 million franchise designation. The Bengal Blitz is disappointed. I would have rather had Andrews in the fold long-term as well, but I disagree with Chris when he says:

In the end, the biggest problem with not getting a deal done is it limits the team’s ability to sign its pending free agents (TJ being the biggest name).

Franchising Stacy didn’t stop them from spending on DT Domata Peko or opening discussions on an extension with OT Andrew Whitworth. As to WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, it seems pretty clear that that there is a strong disinterest in doing a deal on one — or perhaps both — sides.

Bengals.com finally catches up with Bjork.

Doc weighs in on Brett Favre. The Chickster thinks Favre’s best potential landing spot is Seattle.