The Bengals found a new stand-in for Carson Palmer while The Franchise heals, signing the guy who used to be Mike Vick's backup -- Doug Johnson:

The Enquirer - Bengals add QB Johnson: "A lot of things appealed to me about Cincinnati. I can come in and immediately get a lot of reps in minicamp and training camp. They know I have started and come off the bench as a backup. They like my arm strength. They like to throw the ball downfield to their talented wide receivers."

One of the knocks on soon-to-be free agent Jon Kitna is he doesn't have the arm to throw downfield, thus constricting the Bengals offense. The Post reports that the Bengals will explore keeping him around though.

Kitna is due to become an unrestricted free agent March 2 and he has told the team that he wants to test the open market with the desire of competing for a starting position with another team.

That won't stop the team from trying to re-sign Kitna, who just completed his ninth season, the last five with the Bengals, and knows the offense of coordinator Bob Bratkowski as well as anyone. If Kitna signs elsewhere, the Bengals are expected to sign at least one other veteran free agent to compete with Johnson and [Craig] Krenzel for the backup spots.

Sadly, knowing the offense and being able to take advantage of all it can do seem to be two different things. Johnson might be better suited to taking over for Palmer, heaven forbid it ever becomes necessary again.