After going 0-for-March shopping for a veteran quarterback, and passing on drafting one last weekend, the Bengals find themselves back in the market for a backup for starter Jon Kitna. But the shelves have been picked over and the stock is thin.

        Even the name of Elvis Grbac, who turned down the Bengals' $10 million offer in March in favor of retirement, surfaced at Paul Brown Stadium.

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        On Monday, Grbac's agent Jim Steiner laid that rumor to rest. “Elvis is dead,” Steiner said. “Elvis is permanently retired. He is happy with his family.”

        After the Bengals had finished their draft, club president Mike Brown declared Kitna the starter. “Jon is going to get the shot,” he said.

        But there is the need for a backup, and Brown is going to look at the remaining unrestricted free agents on the market.

        “There are three or four of them that could come in and help, but that's something well be looking to do in the next week or two,” he said. “One of these guys should be better able to (help) than almost any of the rookies that we would have had access to.”

        The name most mentioned in former Denver backup Gus Frerotte. Other possibilities are Jonathan Quinn, Dave Brown, Tony Banks and Jason Garrett, brother of Bengals tight ends coach John Garrett.

        Jeff Blake will not be a Bengal again. There appears to be no interest in the former Bengals starter, an unrestricted free agent who has talked to Buffalo and is now talking to Baltimore.

        Frerotte, like Grbac, negotiated with the Bengals last year.

        Before reaching an agreement with Kitna in March 2001, the Bengals had an identical offer extended to Frerotte an incentive-heavy deal that ranged from a total value of $7 million to $12 million.

        Frerotte wanted to be named the Bengals' starter, a guarantee they would not give. He re-signed for one year with Denver, where he made one start and was 30-for-48 passing for 308 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He separated his shoulder in December and was placed on the injured reserve list.

        Brown said Monday the Bengals were going to talk with Frerotte.

        The Bengals did not draft a quarterback over the weekend. They would have taken Oregon's Joey Harrington if he would have been available with the 10th pick Saturday, but the Lions took him at No.3.

        The Bengals talked about taking a quarterback — Tulane's Patrick Ramsey or Illinois' Kurt Kittner — in the middle rounds. But Ramsey went to Washington at the end of the first round, and the Bengals passed on Kittner in the fourth round. He was taken by Atlanta in the fifth.

        Being named a starter before training camp is a new experience for Kitna, a former undrafted free agent who began his career with the Seahawks.

        Kitna, reached Monday at his home in Washington state, said he is enthused about the opportunity to not be looking over his shoulder.

        “I know people in Cincinnati don't want to hear it, and I understand their frustration after 12 or 13 years, but we were close,” said Kitna, who threw 12 touchdowns but 22 interceptions in 15 starts and one extended relief performance last season. “I'm a guy who was there all last year and wants to be there.

        “I think it's the best thing for the team. We don't have to get to know each other this season. All we have to think about this season is getting better.”

        Brown's endorsement of Kitna is tepid.

        Kitna was given the job only after the Bengals failed to sign Grbac and Trent Dilfer, who re-signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Seahawks, and only after efforts to trade for former New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe fell apart. Bledsoe was traded Sunday to Buffalo for a first-round draft pick in 2003.

        Besides Kitna, the Bengals have two other quarterbacks under contract, Akili Smith and Scott Covington.

        “I was saying, "Please draft Joey,'” Smith said late Monday. “I just didn't see them bringing in a rookie and having him play right away. Drew would have been different. They would have handed him the job. He's a Pro Bowler.”

        Coach Dick LeBeau said he is pleased by the pace of Smith's rehabilitation from December surgery to repair a torn hamstring. Smith is a month ahead of schedule.

        “If he continues to progress like he looks, I think we're in great shape at quarterback,” LeBeau said of Smith.

        Smith said he will be ready to go full speed in training camp. “I understand Mike (Brown) saying he has to get a backup; I won't be out there for workouts next month,” Smith said. “But I will have four preseason games to get on the field and show them how much I have improved.”

        Covington, the Bengals' seventh-round pick from Miami (Fla.) in 1999, was released, re-signed, released and re-signed again in 2001. He has appeared in three career games and gone 4-for-5 passing.

        Now, it appears, he will finally get his first serious look.

        “A couple of years ago, I should have gotten Scott in the game a little bit,” LeBeau said. “We would have a better reading, and Scott would have had a better chance to show us what he can do in a game situation. Much of his play for us has come in the preseason.

        “And many times, the surrounding cast has not been guys who are going to make the team. It's tough for a quarterback to perform with that kind of a team around him. I would very much like to give Scott a chance to show us what he can do with our better guys around him.”

        Covington was working out with Bengals wide receiver Danny Farmer over the weekend at the stadium. Covington has added 12 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-2 frame and said he plans to make the most of the opportunity.

        “Good weekend for me,” he said after the Bengals chose not to draft a quarterback.

        Covington's pitch is similar to Kitna's: Familiarity is good.

        “These guys,” he said of the receivers, “know me. I know the offense.”

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