"I looked at the defense that they have here. It's a good group of young guys," Johnson said. "It's an opportunity for me to be successful as well as help other guys out."

Johnson, who spent the last two seasons in Dallas, is expected to vie for one of the starting tackle spots with Pat Sims and Domata Peko.

As far as his off-the-field incidents in Chicago, which got him released from the Bears in 2007, Johnson is focusing on the present and not the past.

"Tough times are going to come to everyone. The most important thing is how you come through it," Johnson said. "The further you get away and the more positive things you do the more it outweighs the negative. The negatives are in my rearview mirror. Now I'm free with a clear conscious to play this game with a tremendous amount of effort."

--Speaking of Sims, last year's third-round pick emerged as one of the more consistent contributors from last year's draft class.

He was inactive for the first five games last season before bouncing back. Sims played the last 11 games, with starts in six of the last seven, and finished tied for ninth on the team with 50 tackles with one sack.

Last season has served as a good motivator for Sims to be even better this year.

"I have a lot of confidence," Sims said. "I'm much better reading offenses and pre-snap reads. I learned from JT (John Thornton) last year how to predict what happens before the play starts."

--With no scheduled primetime appearances on this year's schedule for the first time since his rookie year of 2003, quarterback Carson Palmer saw it as a slight, but one that the Bengals earned by going 4-11-1 last year.

"Yeah, it is. But we deserve it," Palmer said. "It's not like guys are banging their heads against the wall and (ticked) off we didn't get a nationally televised game. We all understand why."

--As far as scheduling quirks, four of the Bengals' road destinations are places where they have not won -- Green Bay (0-4), Minnesota (0-4), the Meadowlands (0-10) and Oakland (0-9).

QUOTE OF NOTE: "It just depends on who is available and what the organization wants to do. ... I just hope we get the best player available. I can throw the football, but I'm not a draft expert, I'm not Mel Kiper Jr. I'll leave that to the scouts and people upstairs." -- Carson Palmer on who he would like the Bengals to take in the draft.