Chris Baker expected to sign with Bengals

[*ochocincos*]

(03-08-2018, 12:40 PM)Synric Wrote: Chris Baker is genuinely excited about putting on the orange and black so that makes me excited about having him in Cincy.

Hope you have a career year or 3 in Cincy, Chris.

Who Dey.

Yep. He definitely seems excited.

Also, here's some context for the game in which he jumped offsides last year on 4th down and subsequently got the team pissed at him...

TB was playing Carolina in Week 16.
45 seconds left in the game, 4th and 3 on the TB 5. Carolina down 15-19.
Baker flagged for neutral zone infraction, half-the-distance penalty so 4th and 1 at the TB 3.
Carolina gets the 1 yard and then scores a TD on the next play to win the game 22-19.
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2017122400/2017/REG16/buccaneers@panthers?icampaign=GC_schedule_rr#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000897854&tab=analyze&analyze=playbyplay

Here's also a report on ESPN that Cam Newton had been working on drawing opponents offside last year, evidenced by 10 neutral zone infractions against his opponents in 2017 through Week 16, which was more than double the total for Carolina opponents the year before (4).
http://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/264228/drawing-teams-offside-one-of-cam-newtons-new-tricks-of-the-trade

TB was 4-10 at that point, season was already over, so winning the game really wasn't going to make a difference for TB except push them down the draft order.
Also, people didn't like that Baker smiled after getting the penalty, but it could have been that he was acknowledging Cam got him to jump offsides and he was smiling to admit "he got me." Other players do this from time to time and people don't make anything of it.

What I think/hope: Chris Baker isn't the "cancer" that some are portraying him as. His team had a terrible year and Cam was able to draw him offsides. He may not have been a locker room fit with TB last season either before or after this incident. But he seems excited to be a Bengal and I think his attitude improves, especially because he has familiarity with Burney and Haslett.