2) The elephant in the room (that is, the one that's sitting next to the playoff elephant) is the number of players going into contract years. Among them: receivers A.J. Green, Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones, tackles Andrew Whitworth and Andre Smith, linebacker Emmanuel Lamur and defensive backs George Iloka, Leon Hall, Adam Jones and Reggie Nelson. Part of this, of course, is a tribute to the job the Bengals have done in drafting and developing talent. But it's there. "You could see this as an opportunity not just to win but for those guys to play their best football possible and get an opportunity either elsewhere or here," Whitworth told me. "Anytime you get guys, especially guys who have been here awhile, becoming free agents, there's a sense with the guys, 'Man, I can't believe this guy could possibly not be here.' And there's a sense from those guys that have been here that, 'Hey, I wanna go prove that I'm worth keeping, and if not, that another team would really want me.' I think everybody feels that, so there is a sense in this room that everyone needs to put their best thing on tape. That's the best way to handle it." Lewis, for his part, downplayed the effect, saying the Bengals went through a similar situation two years ago. And he doesn't think it'll make a big difference in their play. "I don't think the guys are deep enough thinkers for that," Lewis said. "That would really be deep thinking for most of these guys. I'm around them enough to know. I do think it's one of the things you have to address, because of outside influences, whether they're family, friends, agents, they talk too much about them, because there's nothing they can do. It'll all work out for all of them."