Cincinnati Bengals
Long odds for minicamp participants
By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted April 30, 2010 6:29 PM ET
When Curtis Young grabbed the top of his locker, he could feel it shake a little bit and noticed quickly it wasn't a permanent structure. No, the defensive end from the University of Cincinnati knows his place in the Bengals locker room isn't quite the same as the one of say, Andrew Whitworth, whose wooden locker sits across from Young's mental locker that sits in the middle of the Bengal locker room at Paul Brown Stadium.
Young and 47 other rookie and first-year players started the Bengals' rookie minicamp on Friday morning. For the vast majority of them, it may be the only time they put on an NFL uniform -- or helmet, at least, as the players work out on the practice fields adjacent to Paul Brown Stadium.
In addition to the four first-year players (those players with fewer than six games on an active roster), there are the team's nine drafted players, nine signed undrafted free agents and 25 unsigned players, like Young, who are trying out with a hope of something beyond this weekend.
"I just need to get in someone's camp, it's an opportunity and I'm grateful for it," said Young, who missed just four weeks after undergoing knee surgery during the season. "I'll work for the best of my ability to shine. I'm going to put my best foot forward and whatever happens, happens."
College free agents have their choice of teams, and some field more calls than others. Young heard from just two teams, the Bengals and the Browns, while safety Bryan Evans out of Georgia heard from several teams.
Evans looked at the Bengals' roster and their needs and decided it was the best chance for him to stick. When he got here, he did his homework and noticed that last year five undrafted players from the 2009 draft played for the Bengals last year -- Rico Murray, Quan Cosby, Tom Nelson, Darrius Hill and Dan Skuta.
"That also gives me the reason that I have an opportunity to make the team. They give players a chance if they can play, that's how I'm going into it right now," Evans said.
Last season's number, though, was unusual. Before then, only one undrafted free agent made the team per year.
Hill, like Young and most of the others at the minicamp, was invited for a tryout. Last year, the Bengals signed three tryout players after minicamp -- Hill, defensive tackle Pernell Phillips and long snapper James Smith. Smith didn't make it to training camp and Phillips was cut during training camp, so the odds are long that a tryout player can hang on.
But those dreams are still there, even though they must be tempered with reality.
Quarterback Daniel Raudabaugh is throwing this weekend to first-round pick Jermaine Gresham, a man who will be a millionaire in a matter of months. After his weekend of work training, Raudabaugh will be headed back to Oxford, Ohio, where the Miami University senior is ready for a week of exams and hopefully graduation.
"I take it day-by-day right now," Raudabaugh said. "I'm not as fortunate as some of these guys who were drafted or signed as free agents, but I've got the opportunity to show what I can do, so I'm going to take it for all I can."
That's what a guy like UC running back Jacob Ramsey's doing, living his dream another weekend and hopefully beyond.
"Competing every chance you get -- if you have one rep a day, you have to make that one rep count and make it equivalent to someone else getting ten reps, you have to seize the moment and opportunity and make the most of it," said Ramsey, who is still enrolled in school and hopes to graduate after the summer quarter. "Hopefully I get picked up and invited to camp, just live to fight another day -- that's my motto right now."
Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories
Tags: Bryan Evans, Curtis Young, Dan Skuta, Daniel Raudabaugh, Darrius Hill, Jacob Ramsey, Jermaine Gresham, Quan Cosby, Rico Murray, Tom Nelson
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