Mark Curnutte

While some of the fashionable talk nationally is to criticize the Bengals for likely handing the Patriots their third Super Bowl trophy in four years, the Bengals also helped themselves Monday.

The organization did not back down from its asking price of a second-round draft pick. The Bengals received the 56th overall pick from New England. The Bengals did better than the 2004 third-rounder and 2005 fifth-rounder that sources said Oakland was offering for Dillon.

That No. 56 player this year should be a contributor as a rookie and a likely starter soon after.

The Bengals also unloaded a player in Dillon who had become a distraction. Dillon's comments on national TV in March - Willie Anderson is a "bum," Dillon and coach Marvin Lewis engaged in a "power struggle" - made it almost impossible for Dillon to return.

If the Bengals had not traded Dillon, they probably would have had to release him after June 1 and had nothing to show for it - except about $4 million to amortize on the salary cap.

The job of featured back now becomes property of team-oriented Rudi Johnson, and it should be fun to watch what he can do in a full season of carries.

Dillon's success often outshone the rest of the team. He owns two of the top nine single-game rushing efforts in NFL history, and he became bigger than the Bengals. He had trouble transitioning to Lewis' team concept.

Still, the team won just 34 of 112 games with Dillon in its employ. It never made the postseason. And in the one season the Bengals challenged for a playoff berth, 2003 under Lewis, Dillon behaved mostly selfishly.

There were 52 players marching in step with Lewis last year. One, Dillon, always seemed to be a half-step out of rhythm. Managing Dillon occupied a great deal of Lewis' considerable energy.

Dillon's departure leaves just 12 draft picks remaining from the 1996-02 drafts. He was the last member of the Class of 1997 left, and there are none left from 1999.

All nine of Lewis' picks last season figure to return, and 10 more picks from this weekend's draft are likely to join them on the season-opening roster.

This team is now Lewis' - and he continues to build it in his tough, intelligent, old school-new school likeness.

The 2004 draft, in which the Bengals have seven selections in the first 117 picks, could turn around the previously moribund franchise. (Remember 1999? That's the year the Bengals turned down New Orleans' trade offer of eight draft picks in order to take quarterback Akili Smith with the third overall pick. Smith is now out of the NFL.)

It's almost impossible to figure because of multiple variables - plus, Lewis isn't tipping his hand - but the Bengals could set themselves up for the next five years on Saturday.

With five of the first 96 picks, here's an idea of what the Bengals could do:

• Round 1 (24 overall), Randy Starks, defensive tackle, Maryland;
• Round 2 (49), Jake Grove, center, Virginia Tech;
• Round 2 (56), Devery Henderson, wide receiver, LSU;
• Round 3 (80), Keiwan Ratliff, cornerback, Florida; and
• Round 3 (96), Julius Jones, running back, Notre Dame.

Then the Bengals will come back with two of the first 21 picks Sunday.

Meanwhile, Dillon is in a place where he's likely to land in the playoffs. He restructured the fourth year of his existing five-year contract, taking an estimated $1.6 million hit from his $3.3 million 2004 base salary.

Dillon says he's happy now.

Bengals fans should be, too.

---

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Return to Bengals front page...