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Cincinnati Bengals

Ochocinco happy, productive

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted November 4, 2009 5:01 PM ET

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis hasn't' heard much from his friend Chad Ochocinco of late.

A year ago, Lewis spoke about Ochocinco's calls for help and guidance through a tough time. Now, Ochocinco's not calling Lewis -- he'll Tweet about him -- but 513 isn't coming up on Lewis' caller ID that much lately.

"He'll (call) when he really is going through something or when he needs it or really something is in his spirit, you know? He ain't a person that just likes to be wasting folks' time, definitely mine," Lewis said on Wednesday. "He'll text me really when he needs me or something is going on wrong or something is going completely right."

Right now, things seem to be going just fine for Ochocinco - he's coming off back-to-back 100-yard games and is on pace to top 1,000 receiving yards for the season and 10,000 for his career.

"He's done a good job in the blocking stuff that we ask him to do in the running game, and that's something he's really improved on. He's gotten a lot better in his runs after the catch. He's broken some tackles, made some moves and gotten upfield. But he's playing as good as I've seen him," said quarterback Carson Palmer. "I'm not saying he's playing better than he's ever played, but he's playing as good as I've ever seen him. The good thing is we're not even really halfway through the year yet. We still have a lot of games to play. He gets better as the season goes on, pretty consistently throughout his career. The better he gets, the better I get and the better we get as an offense and the better we get as a team We just need to keep him focused and on the right path. He's done a great job of doing that himself."

Ochocinco had 10 catches for 118 yards and two scores against the Bears, five catches for 103 yards against the Texans and seven catches for 94 yards in the last game against the Ravens.

"It's a confidence level, he's playing good, he's stepping through the ball aggressively, he's playing good," offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski said. "There's not much you can say more than that."

But it's more than that, he's having fun. When the former Chad Johnson was at his best, he was doing it with a smile. In 2008 -- from the end of the 2007 season to the end of the disappointing 4-11-1 season -- the smile was often absent. Ochocinco had the contract dispute, missed OTAs, had a bizarre scene at minicamp with his agent Drew Rosenhaus and the team trading press releases and then struggled after having ankle surgery and was hampered by a season-long shoulder injury. Ochocinco managed just 540 yards receiving last season after leading the AFC in receiving yards for four consecutive seasons. He's currently sixth in the AFC in receiving yards (573) but his team is 5-2 and atop the AFC North standings, so life is good.

On Wednesday, he had his usual crowd of cameras, recorders and notebooks surrounding him as he talked about the Ravens, but he did provide too many headlines. He said, yeah, he'd celebrate if he scored (and give an homage to rapper Nicki Minaj), he still has his list, he sent a box to the Ravens secondary (he didn't disclose what was in it) and all that, but he said nothing that sent reporters to Twitter and blog. It was ho-hum, well-meaning stuff. It was, as Ochocinco himself stated, "politically correct." He claimed to have gotten a gag order from Marvin Lewis, but said that wasn't even true -- it was self-imposed.

"I think it's just the right week to be politically correct," Ochocinco said.

Palmer laughed at that thought -- but said he's noticed.

"It's a nice change, but it's also nice to hear the old Chad every once in a while, which I'm sure we'll get to that point sometime this year," Palmer said.

The thing is, people are getting the "old Chad." The old Chad made headlines with his play on the field instead of controversy off of it. The old Chad said everything with a smile. The old Chad worked harder than anyone else to be the best on the field. The old Chad was at Paul Brown Stadium hours after every other player had left to talk to Bratkowski and other coaches. That Chad was still there Tuesday night until 9.

"He comes in a little more, not as much as he did when he was young, but more than the last year or so," Bratkowski said on Wednesday. "We sat around and talked about some things."

Bratkowski was asked if Ochocinco could be -- as scary as it sounds -- maturing?

"I'd put it more as having fun, happiness, enjoying what you do for a living," Bratkowski said. "A football career is here for a minute and then gone. You're foolish if you let even a week go by, even a year, because the next thing you know it can be gone. I think he realizes he's got to have fun with this, because I've got to enjoy this and let everything take care of itself."

Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, News

Tags: Bob Bratkowski, Carson Palmer, Chad Ochocinco, Ray Lewis