At a time of year when 90-man rosters allow teams plenty of space to look at projects, and rookie minicamps offer plenty of space for tryout players, sometimes it’s worth a look at an unknown commodity.
But the Bengals have taken it to a new level, by signing a guy who never did the thing in college which they’ll ask him to do professionally.
We noted over the weekend the Bengals signed Louisville kicker Jon Brown as part of a group of four players who tried out last week. But Brown has never kicked for a single football point in college.
As pointed out by Geoff Hobson of the team’s official website, Brown was given a tryout despite the fact they had never seen him kick a field goal on tape.
“There’s something there and you can work with him or else he wouldn’t be here,” special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons said.
Brown played soccer at Louisville, and was a backup kicker, but they had a guy in John Wallace to handle field goals and extra points. Louisville’s website shows that he kicked off 10 times, but didn’t attempt a kick which would result in a point.
Brown has been kicking pointy balls for two years, so there’s obviously some raw material to work with. But the Bengals also have the opportunity to take a flier on a player such as Brown, considering they have a dependable kicker in Mike Nugent.
