I've gotten some flack for my post about Rudi Johnson's job being in jeopardy. Not too popular with the Bengals Nation. The Bengals Brigade disagrees with me, even pointing to one of my commentors saying that I should worry about my own job. Well, apparantly, so should The Sporting News' Chick Ludwig ... as he also thinks Kenny Irons could be a threat to Rudi:

RB Rudi Johnson's starting job could be threatened by rookie Kenny Irons. Johnson is a durable workhorse, but his 3.8 per-carry average in '06 slowed the offense down. The quick, slashing Kenny Irons makes defenders miss with sharp cuts inside and outside. He gives the offense a scary downfield threat because of his breakaway speed.

Again, I don't think this means that Kenny Irons will win the starting job come Week 1 ... but to believe that drafting Kenny Irons was just to give the Bengals a change of pace back? Not too sure about that.

I was discussing this whole thing with a Bengals fan today [shout out to Tom Otten] who, essentially, agreed with me. While the Bengals have one of the most explosive offenses in football, they can seem muddied at times. As Tom and I discussed, the fact that defenses aren't worried about keeping big plays from occuring from the running game contributes to this. After all, Rudi's longest run was 22 yards last year. Sure, up front, Kenny Irons will be that 3rd down back who can be used to shake things up. But ... eventually ... Kenny Irons may end up being the guy who works better for the flow of the entire offense and phasing Rudi out into more of a redzone back similar to the effect Maurice Jones-Drew had in Jacksonville [though Fred Taylor was still an intregal part of what the Jags were doing].

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