MAURICE CLARETT!!!!!!!!!

[Whur CHad At?]

I can't believe Denver picked him. Picked up in 3rd. Unbelievable!!!

[chrishcovga]

He was a third rounder at best last year, but Congratulations to him, if anyone can make a running back into a star it'll be Shanahan.

[AGrizzlyBaer]

HAHAHAHAHA Three cb's and maurice great draft denver HAHAHA

[membengal]

First Denver imports the entire DL from one of the worst D's in the league, and now this.

I think Shanahan has lost his mind.

[Turi]

First Denver imports the entire DL from one of the worst D's in the league, and now this.

I think Shanahan has lost his mind.

Yeah he's definately gone crackers. He'll definately be on the hotseat.

[StripesNTn]

I think he is trying to get fired ,that or shot

[bengalboomer7]

I bet Clarett starts nest year and runs for about 1,200 yards!

[Chad Johnson]

If Clarret starts he'll have 1500 yards and everyone will praise him... but he won't start...

[BengalszoneBilly]

He was a third rounder at best last year, but Congratulations to him, if anyone can make a running back into a star it'll be Shanahan.

Count on it! Denver's system creates good RB's!

[ArmyBengal]

As much as I think Clarett is a little whiney bitch, he couldn't have gone to a better place to run. If he gets playing time, he'll do well. Did anyone hear who he named as the person he stuck with and leaned on over the years when things got difficult ?? His f**king LAWYER !!! Unreal...

WHODEY !!!

[jditty47]

they only took him cuz they didnt have another pick till the 6th round. no way would they have taken him that early otherwise.

[Kirkendall]

Wouldn't be great if during a game, with Clarett in, someone came in and Tony Williams' his ass -- most notably from an OSU guy? Yes, I'm advocating the injury of a player.

[The_Next_Big_Thing]

Clarise will fit the system well, and I agree with the ESPN crew that Shanahan is trying to prove a point about his ability to rehab a player with Clarise. In Denver's running system, Rudi Johnson's grandmother could run for 1000+ yards, and Clarise fits the system with his experience. Had Clarise not been a total loser and continued his college career without all the drama queen stuff, he would have been a top pick in the draft, in shape, ready to play, superstar.

Shanahan wants to prove he can turn this complete jackass into a star. I'm betting the jackass wins, because Clarise is of the "why me" variety mentally. He may have a chip on his shoulder, but he won't use it to be productive, he will use it to whine.

[BengalByTheBay]

Even Leon used the chip on his shoulder to make him play better (albeit intermittantly, when he felt like it, and not against the Rats).

[ttilt]

You all know that the Bengals were interested in him. Us the Broncos (obviously) the Cowboys, and the Rams were interested in Clarrett. If the Broncos didn't pick him in the third round the Bengals just might have picked him up in the fourth or fifth.

[Kirkendall]

You all know that the Bengals were interested in him. Us the Broncos (obviously) the Cowboys, and the Rams were interested in Clarrett. If the Broncos didn't pick him in the third round the Bengals just might have picked him up in the fourth or fifth.

It may have been rumored before re-signing Rudi Johnson, but now we have four RB's on roster signed for about a month. Rudi, Chris Perry, Kenny Watson, and Quincy Wilson. No matter what happened this weekend, Clarett wouldn't be a Bengal.

Hopefully he works out for ya though. Personally, I hate the kid and hope for his utter failure (I'm an OSU fan), but maybe that's just me.

[jjakq27]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...010406/1082/SPT

Sunday, May 1, 2005

Shanahan just wants a chance for Clarett

NFL insider

By Mark Curnutte

Enquirer staff writer

Denver coach Mike Shanahan is happy with the team's third-round draft pick, former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett.

Why Clarett? "Here's a guy that's got his back to the wall and wants to prove to people that he wasn't a one-year wonder.

"He'd like to go out and play at a very high level. And we hope that he plays that at that level."

Clarett was forced to sit out a year (2004) after he was declared ineligible for the NFL draft. He played in 2002 for the Buckeyes and was suspended for 2003.

"Any time you wait for something for a couple years and you enjoy the competition, you enjoy playing the game and you're away from it, I think everybody would miss it," Shanahan said. "You talk to players who have been out for a couple years (and) that are retired (and) coaches, they do miss not only the game, but the camaraderie that goes with it."

STAYING HOME: Akron quarterback Charlie Frye, taken in the third round by the Browns, was a Browns fan growing up about 90 minutes from Cleveland in Willard, Ohio.

Frye still has a framed picture of Bernie Kosar hanging over the dresser in his bedroom.

"It's been there since he was in elementary school," said Frye's mom, Sally. "I painted the room and it went back up."

Frye once got Kosar's autograph on a napkin at kid's play-restaurant Chuck E. Cheese when he was 7 - and he still has it. Asked if he would wear Kosar's No. 19 with the Browns, Frye said, "No, that's Bernie's number. I'm sure you still see a lot of No. 19s in the stadium with Kosar on the back of them."

Actually, the Browns assigned No. 19 two years ago to Frisman Jackson, a non-descript wide receiver.

NEW FAVORITE: The Cleveland Dawg Pound will love this guy. Sixth-round nose tackle Andrew Hoffman was red-shirted his sophomore year at Virginia after he suffered a compound dislocation of his left toe when he dropped a keg of beer on it. Browns coach Romeo Crennel was asked about taking a player with a blemish on his character.

Crennel cracked, "I think it depends on the size of the blemish. If it's just a little, small blemish like a keg on a little toe. It happened when the guy was a sophomore, that's not too bad. Now if the blemish covers the whole face, we might have to do something about that."

NO FRED: The Jaguars draft was overshadowed by coach Jack Del Rio's admission that running back Fred Taylor still hasn't recovered from his January scope and won't be back by June at the earliest but supposedly will be ready for camp. It's apparently more serious than the club said at the time.

Without Taylor, the Jaguars would be in big trouble. They didn't get a running back in free agency and didn't draft one until the fourth round, in Alvin Pearman of Virginia.

Taylor missed the last two games last season against Houston and Oakland with a knee injury. The Jaguars, who only averaged 16.3 points a game last year, scored a total of six points without him in those two games.

Jacksonville has LaBrandon Toefield and Greg Jones, but neither is a force.

HOLDOUT: Thanks to agent Drew Rosenhaus, Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin is skipping all of the voluntary work so far this spring and might sit out the mini-camp.

Boldin, of course, is looking for a new contract, despite having two years left on his current deal, like other Rosenhaus clients such as Cleveland's Reuben Droughns and Philadelphia's Terrell Owens.

Rosenhaus has been pushing for a new contract, as opposed to a straight extension. Boldin's current contract had a signing bonus of $1.2 million and pays him salaries of $380,000 and $460,000 the next two seasons.

LATER? Rams free safety Aeneas Williams is contemplating retirement. He is 37 and ended last season on the injured reserve list with an arthritic condition in the neck and shoulder area.