The word on Brooks

[Dadraftnick]

July 13, 2006

Posted: 2:10 p.m.

University of Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks joins the Bengals in the supplemental draft. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The Bengals today selected Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the NFL Supplemental Draft. They used the 22nd pick in the third round to select Brooks, meaning they will lose a corresponding third round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Brooks played in just seven games last season for the Cavaliers due to a knee injury. He held a workout for pro scouts on June 22 that was conducted by Bengals linebackers coach Ricky Hunley. NFL.com's Gil Brandt says Brooks might project as a Julius Peppers-type defensive end in the pros.

Brooks has obvious red flags for a Bengals club hurting with the character issue as published reports say he failed multiple drug tests for marijuana that led to his ouster from the Cavaliers.

The Miami Herald reported Brooks's agent, Greg Williams presented information at the workout showing Brooks has passed drug tests taken on a regular basis over the past two months. About two weeks ago, Williams admitted taking Brooks would be a tough pick for the Bengals.

“He’s not a troublemaker," he said at the time. "He’s a good kid, but he’s made bad decisions because of immaturity. But how hard he has worked the last 10 weeks shows how far he has come with his maturity.

“I think there are two categories of teams. There are teams that have an immediate, major need at linebacker, and there are others who recognize his talent and realize that they may be able to get a value pick if he slips. I think (the Bengals) are in that category.”

Hunley is the Bengals man to get the answers about Brooks, a fellow Virginian.

“I recruited him when he was coming out of high school and I know his dad,” said Hunley of his days at the University of Florida. “He’s a big kid that’s fast.”

The scouts, reportedly, aren’t so much concerned about the knee, but the weight he put on coming back. Williams said his client had “a solid workout,” and it could have been better, in part, because he dropped from 290 to 260 pounds in just 10 weeks.

There you have it the Bengals are projecting him at DE?

Then it says that Hunley worked him out Hunley is the LB coach?

Apparently if one of the coaches knows your dad that is all you need to pass the character test for the Bengals?

[MacD BengalFan]

Brooks has obvious red flags for a Bengals club hurting with the character issue as published reports say he failed multiple drug tests for marijuana that led to his ouster from the Cavaliers.

The Miami Herald reported Brooks's agent, Greg Williams presented information at the workout showing Brooks has passed drug tests taken on a regular basis over the past two months. About two weeks ago, Williams admitted taking Brooks would be a tough pick for the Bengals.

The hope is that the current trend of passing the drug tests will continue and the character issue will not become an issue.

[Dadraftnick]

Updated version

July 13, 2006

Updated: 4:50 p.m.

University of Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks joins the Bengals in the supplemental draft. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

While the Bengals are now under heavy scrutiny for selecting Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks in Thursday’s NFL supplemental draft, they are banking on him recapturing the form that would have made him one of the top five picks in the 2004 NFL Draft.

Reports say before 2006 spring drills, Brooks was dismissed from the Cavaliers after failing a drug test, which made him available in Thursday’s draft and where the Bengals stunned the NFL world when they took him in the third round.

They hope one day he’ll end up as the Cincinnati version of A.J. Hawk, and they see him as an athletically gifted guy who can play all three linebacker spots as well as occasionally coming off the edge as a pass rusher.

But for the moment, he’s fighting comparisons with Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson, as well as USC defensive end Frostee Rucker, two rookies with character issues the Bengals selected despite baggage during the April draft.

If the 6-4, 260-pound Brooks is seen as a risk, he’s a blue-chip risk, drawing athletic comparisons to Panthers Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers from NFL.com’s Gil Brandt. As a sophomore, Brooks became Virginia’s only second All-American linebacker with a hellacious season in 2004 with 90 hits, eight sacks, 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage and two interceptions. He also tipped four balls and caused a fumble in leaping to the top of his class with an intense playmaking brew of speed and power.

(Word on Thursday was that Brooks wouldn’t have been available for the Bengals in the fourth round, with the Niners the leading candidate to grab him.)

But Brooks hasn’t been the same since he underwent knee surgery during that offseason, wiping out the first three games of the 2005 season. He also suffered ankle and back injuries and finished with just 27 tackles before head coach Al Groh dismissed him from the Cavaliers with “It is a privilege, and not a right, to wear a Cavalier jersey and to represent our university community," after Brooks failed a drug test, according to reports.

In 2003, Brooks was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Prince William County, Virginia, according to reports.

That’s not lost on a Bengals team taking heat in a horrendous stretch in which three of their players (Nicholson, Rucker, and wide receiver Chris Henry) have been charged in six incidents.

The Miami Herald reported that Brooks's agent, Greg Williams, presented information at his NFL workout in late June that showed Brooks had passed drug tests taken on a regular basis over the past two months.

Bengals linebackers coach Ricky Hunley, the only position coach at Brooks’ workout, ran the drills for a guy he recruited out of high school while Hunley was at the University of Florida. Hunley, like Brooks, is a Virginia native, and also knows Brooks’s father, former Washington Redskin Larry Brooks.

“I’ve known Ahmad since he was in high school and there’s no denying he has behaved as a very immature individual for much of his career,” said Hunley in a statement from the Bengals. “But I believe he’s a young man who can learn to do things the right way and he has exceptional talent as a player. He’ll get the chance to show he can use that talent to help our team. What he does with it is up to him in the end.”

Where he fits on the team right now is unclear. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and his staff, as well as Brooks, aren’t being made available for comment until Brooks meets with the coaches.

Brooks’s selection is also fueling more speculation about Bengals middle linebacker Odell Thurman for training camp. The club hasn’t commented since saying he missed last month’s minicamp “for personal reasons,” and hasn’t responded to an avalanche of Internet rumors speculating on his status.

At 255 to 260 pounds, Brooks can play all three backer spots and he was at about 260 pounds for his NFL workout. But he’ll have to be better than that after a session that didn’t impress some scouts.

Williams, the agent, has been up front about his client’s struggles off the field and his ability to rehab after he got as big as 290 pounds while grappling with his injuries. Williams believes Brooks is getting better and better physically, and that losing 30 pounds in 10 weeks didn’t help his cause in the workout.

“He’s not a troublemaker," Williams told Bengals.com last month. "He’s a good kid, but he’s made bad decisions because of immaturity. But how hard he has worked the last 10 weeks shows how far he has come with his maturity.

“I think there are two categories of teams. There are teams that have an immediate, major need at linebacker, and there are others who recognize his talent and realize that they may be able to get a value pick if he slips. I think (the Bengals) are in that category.”

Now that the Bengals don’t have a third-round pick in the ’07 draft, Brooks is a tough guy to cut in a competitive field of backers. The Bengals figure to keep seven. With the most prominent backups behind the starting three backers being Landon Johnson, Caleb Miller, Marcus Wilkins, Hannibal Navies, as well as Nicholson, let the competition begin.

Moore

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