It Wouldn’t Be a Bengals Draft Without a Few Ex-Cons

By most accounts, the Bengals are getting high grades for their draft this weekend. In the first round, they bit on Alabama OT Andre Smith who bounced out of the scouting combine early, causing scouts to be concerned that he was irresponsible. Sure, he may be dumb for doing that, but he’s still a good football player. Rather, he’s a good run blocker — in the footage NFL Network showed when he got drafted, Smith was burnt on almost every passing play. Anyway, with Rey Maualuga shockingly still around in the second round, the Bengals snatched him up making it the second straight year they drafted a top USC linebacker (Keith Rivers was the other). Maualuga may have fallen because of questions regarding his character — in 2005, he initiated an off-campus fight, and in 2006 he was disciplined by Pete Carroll for “unruly behavior” at a party.

While Maualuga and Smith had “character concerns,” nobody compared to the team’s sixth round pick, Bernard Scott, who truly would fit the ex-con billing. Scott is a running back out of D-II Abilene Christian, by way of about three other colleges. He’s had a theft problem at one school, supposedly struck a coach at another school, and he didn’t play his senior season because of an off-field fight. He has been arrested five times and is finishing up his 18 month term of probation for giving false information to an officer during a traffic stop. But the guy supposedly is a talented running back and the Bengals are convinced the problems are in his past. Whatever. I’m guessing they’re just looking to pad their all-arrest team. What else would make sense?