In the only pick of the NFL’s supplemental draft, the Bengals made a bit of a surprise move and picked up Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks. He’s a talented player, but he’s got some issues. He started for three seasons at Virginia, but he got hurt, and played only six games last year, before being kicked off the team completely. Virginia coach Al Groh never did specify the reasons for his dismissal. And then, with some time on his hands, Brooks let himself go a bit and was tipping the scaled at 290, before getting back into decent shape for some NFL workouts.
Hard to figure out what the Bengals are doing here. It’s like they’re thinking, “Okay, everything’s fixed now, so we’ll just sign all these guys, and it will work out perfectly, because everything’s all better.” They’ve finally finally got things on track. And now Chris Henry is getting arrested every week, draft pick A.J. Nicholson is arrested for all kinds of craziness, another draft pick named Frostee Rucker is charged with beating his wife, and now, they’re rolling the dice on another guy with character issues. This is not the California Penal League, Vaughn.
Now, I’m not making any judgements about Ahmad Brooks here. To my knowledge, he’s never been arrested, and I’m not saying he’s the next O.J. or something. I have no idea about his actual character, but… the red flags are in place. There are questions about him. And for the Bengals, it just seems like an odd direction to go. Why, when things are finally going your way, when you’re finally earning some respect around the league, roll the dice on so many character cases?
Update: Bengals LB O’Dell Thurman will be suspended for the first four games of the season for a failed or missed drug test.
jerloma Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I can’t criticize the pick because if Brooks pans out, they’ll have themselves a nice young LB corps but after all that shit that Marvin Lewis said when he came in and people thinking he was some kind of hero for getting rid of Dillon for character issues and he was gonna be the guy that didn’t put up with any of that stuff…is there a bigger hypocrite in the NFL than Marvin Lewis?
jerloma Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Update: Bengals LB O’Dell Thurman will be suspended for the first four games of the season for a failed or missed drug test.
Well…that Brooks pick looks even better now, doesn’t it? Brilliant!
unc_samurai Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Between Brooks, Thurman, and Chris Henry, the Bengals are becoming the new Ravens.
Guy Ernest Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Look, who cares about character? That’s like girls when they say they want a guy who’s got a nice personality. They want a guy who knows how to score and can handle the ball. This Ahmad Brooks should take the Bengals to the Bowl. But, who cares about the Bengals. I love the Jets. TIll I Dye!
Taylor Says:
July 14th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Even in college, Odell never was eligible to play the first 2 or 3 games each year. I guess he just gives himself more time to rest for the playoffs….
CincyMan Says:
July 14th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Marvin Lewis got rid of Dillon because on the final game of the previous season Dillon took his pads off and said “I don’t want to play here anymore”. Lewis said that he didn’t want anyone on the roster that wasn’t committed to the team and traded him. After turning around the worst franchise in the NFL in 3-years Lewis gets the benefit of the doubt in his player moves. He got a projected first-rounder with a third-round pick…Lewis for Mayor!
unc_samurai Says:
July 14th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Corey Dillon had become fed up with years of Cincy wallowing in the cellar, and I’m sure that Marvin Lewis’ plans to turn things around didn’t exactly resonate with Dillon.
They had just ended the Dave Shula era (19-52, .268) the year before he was drafted.
Bruce Coslet looked like he was “turning things around” when he coached the Bengals to a 14-11 record in his first season-and-a-half. Coslet would be fired after dropping the first 3 games of the 2000 season - an illustrious career in Cincy of 21-39 (.350).
Dick LeBeau looked like he could “turn things around” ™ before getting fired after the 2002 season (12-33, .267).
I can imagine that Dillon was jaded enough during the 2003 season to think that Marvin Lewis was another mediocre coach in the illustrious franchise history.