As it turns out, the folks who assign the rooms at Bengals camp aren’t the only ones who thought that cornerback Johnathan Joseph would be returning to the team. Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer thought so, too.
“I was under the assumption in the conversations I’ve had since before the lockout that we were going to get him back. I was pretty much told we were going to get him back,” Zimmer said Friday, via the team’s official website.
As a result, Zimmer isn’t happy about the fact that Joseph is a Texan. “I’m upset, disappointed, frustrated,” Zimmer said. “It’s disappointing. You get good guys off the field, they work hard in the weight room and on the practice field and you kind of mold them what you want them to look like and they get out of here.”
So what’s the plan for replacing Joseph? Um, we’re not sure there is one.
“It will be interesting to see what the next guy is,” Zimmer said. “Whether he’s here, or at training camp, or on the street somewhere, or if he’s on another team, or Canada. Who knows? You have to find somebody out there and play and if we can’t find a guy exactly what we’re looking for, we’ll have to alter some of the things we’re looking to do.”
It’s unknown what the Bengals did to try to keep Joseph. Though no exclusive negotiating window existed, they had the ability to sit down with Joseph or bring him to town from Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. ET through Friday at 6:00 p.m. ET.
Instead, all that’s left is a piece of paper with Joseph’s name on it.
