Sunday, March 05, 2000
BENGALS INSIDER
Williams lets Bengals out of corner
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The signing of former Seattle free safety Darryl Williams becomes official Monday and will take some heat off the Bengals next month when the time comes to make their third-round pick in the NFL Draft.
It's bad enough they have to take a cornerback in the second round for the third straight season. But with Williams now entrenched at free safety, they don't have to repeat last year's move and take a third-round safety.
That means they instead can use the selection on a wide receiver, who could contribute in some form this season because it doesn't look like Michigan State wideout Plaxico Burress is coming here with the fourth pick in the first round.
In fact, the way the Bengals and the rest of the NFL are starting to view the first four picks, any one of the four guys can help right now. Florida State wide receiver Peter Warrick, Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington and Alabama left tackle Chris Samuels fit the Bengals snuggly enough that they can't pass them up.
But what about Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown, the player most likely to slide to Cincinnati at No.4?
Some in the Bengals' draft room see him as the big pass-rush guy the Bengals haven't had — the guy other teams always seem to have. He's a no-brainer if he's available with the fourth pick.
But no one is saying he's Jevon Kearse or Tony Brackens just yet, and if Brown isn't going to make that big of an impact, do you pay him $10 million up front to be just another solid guy like John Copeland or Vaughn Booker?
Some in the Bengals' draft room wonder.
But maybe some other team might find Brown intriguing, which is why that No.4 pick gets, as Joe Willie Namath used to say about himself, better looking every day.
Word out of New York is the Jets find Brown enticing. Their 26 sacks last season were the second-fewest in the NFL, behind Cleveland. Thanks to the Bill Belichick sweepstakes, the Jets have an extra first-round pick, which means they could offer the Bengals the 16th and 18th picks in order to move up to No.4.
At that point, the Bengals would have to break out the bubbly. They could take the draft's two best cornerbacks, or take the best corner and the second- or third-best receiver.
In a much quieter way, the signing of offensive lineman Scott Rehberg also impacted the Bengals' draft. The club was buoyed by the play of Mike Goff in last season's finale and with the addition of Rehberg, a veteran who can back up four positions, it doesn't have to draft a lineman.
LIPPINCOTT HITS: Jim Lippincott, the Bengals' director of college/pro personnel, spent a lot of time around The Cincinnati Kid when Ken Griffey Jr. was a student at Moeller High School and Lippincott was the school's athletic director.
On Friday, Lippincott quietly brought another athlete back to his roots — at least to his professional roots — when he secured a three-year, $4 million deal with Williams.
It was Lippincott's first draft with the Bengals in 1992 when they swapped first-round draft picks with the Washington Redskins to move down one position to take quarterback David Klingler with the sixth pick and Williams with Washington's extra pick at No.28.
After Williams left for free agency four years later because the Bengals defensive coaches didn't want to re-sign him because of his tackling, Lippincott never forgot his anger at what some in the organization thought was a mistake.
So when Lippincott confirmed Williams was on the waiver wire Thursday morning, he called agent David Levine at 7:30 a.m. after Bengals president Mike Brown gave his approval to make a deal.
Levine has always worked well with the Bengals. So well that five of his clients could be playing on Cincinnati's passing-down package next season: Williams, nose tackle Oliver Gibson, right end Reinard Wilson, cornerback Rodney Heath and safety Tremain Mack.
1992 REDUX: Remember that '92 Draft? The Bengals drafted Williams out of Miami (Fla.) with the 28th pick.
When it came time for Cincinnati to select with the 31st pick, Tennessee receiver Carl Pickens somehow was available, so Cincinnati took him. Pickens became the team's all-time leading receiver, as well as one of the most controversial players in its history.
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