Kelly expected to sign contract today

Free agent tight end Reggie Kelly, who agreed to terms on a three-year contract Tuesday night to return to the Bengals, is expected to drive to the team's Paul Brown Stadium office this afternoon to sign the deal.

I have to admit that I was in the camp of criticizing, or at least noting, that Bengals tight ends didn't catch the ball. Then Kelly and backup Tony Stewart stepped up that part of their games last season and made some fine runs after the catch.

My admiration for Kelly as a player grew immensely when the Bengals started using the no-huddle offense after the 2005 bye. Remember that magnificent, street-ball game against the Colts?

I saw how Kelly moved almost effortlessly from down tight end to standing H-back, primarily on Carson Palmer's left (back) side. If someone got through the line, Kelly was there to keep Palmer off the ground. No wonder the quarterback lobbied so hard for the Bengals to re-sign him. Next to Palmer, Kelly appeared to know the offense better than any player on the field.

Kelly also is a top-flight human being. He is an evangelical Christian who lives his life eloquently. He is one of those type of people, in spite of being more than 10 years younger than me, I feel like I am talking to someone my own age with the same depth of life experiences that normally only time can produce.

When you look around the Bengals offense, which is filled with stat-driven playmakers, you have to have a player like Kelly. He only cares about one stat -- victories. Correction: He cares about the stats of his famous teammates, such as Palmer, Chad Johnson, Rudi Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Kelly brings an offensive lineman's mentality to the job. The offensive linemen, in fact, have a great amount of respect for Kelly.

Selfishly, as someone who works that locker room every day during the season, I'm glad Reggie's coming back. He is a pleasure to deal with. I actually went up to him last season and apologized for not fully understanding his role in the offense and asked him to explain it more fully to me. He was his typical gracious self in telling me not to worry about it and admitted he'd like to get more passes thrown to him, too, but that the needs of the offense came before his personal goals. Then we talked in detail for about 15 minutes.

I'll miss Eric Steinbach, though. We were always able to talk about home (the Chicago area) and the building he owned near Wrigley Field. I'll have to call him now that the dust has settled on his free agency search and ask if he's been asked to buy a share of the Cubs with his new Browns contract.

I've made this comment on the radio many times, but for all of the players who've made mistakes with the law in the past couple years, the Bengals locker room is filled with men you'd like to have as a next-door neighbor.

But, again, and I almost have to include this disclaimer, the players who've run afoul of the law have to be held accountable. Not more. Not less. The same as everybody else.