Each Sunday, Bengals first-round draft pick Levi Jones talks about life as an NFL rookie.

I get Matt Schobel's brotherAaron in the last game. He has done a good job. He has 8.5 sacks, and my job is to keep it that way. He has been able to do a lot of things. He doesn't stop moving. He beats guys on his third or fourth move on one play. You just have to play to the whistle.

The season is coming to an end. It's hard to get through the end of this. It has been a tough year for every player who has been a part of it. The only thing you can do is put it behind you and look ahead.

But the season has me pretty fed up with football right now. It's an expected reaction. I want to get done and get my mind off it, at least for a few weeks. I want to come back in a few weeks, hit the training hard and make sure it doesn't happen again next year.

There have been a couple of highlights this year. Getting my first start at Indianapolis was one. My best performance was against Pittsburgh the second time. I graded out a 91 percent against them. Everything went well and clicked. That's the kind of performance I'm expecting to have back to back next year. That has to be the standard next year. The intensity has to be at least that good. That will be my frame of mind coming in.

The truest statement I've ever heard is that you don't know what an NFL season is like until you go through it. My coaches back home, everybody had tried to prepare me for what I was getting into, and they didn't even come close.

My mind is so exhausted right now. My mind is in a whirlwind with all the bad things that happened this year. I can't say what the low point was. I'm trying to keep things as positive as possible in my mind. It's hard times. The times right now, they can get to you emotionally.

I read in The Cincinnati Enquirer about Willie Anderson. He expressed what he had to endure for seven years. I can't see myself dealing with it for seven years. We're going to have to get it going. Things can't be like that.

My body still is sore. I'm still dealing with the shoulder. The worst thing I can do is get back home and get back at it. I have to let my body rest and heal, or I'm going to bring the same injuries back here with me.

I can believe it has been eight months since the draft. It did not go by fast. Any time you're losing like we have, time can't move fast enough.

My goal for today is to end it on a good note and give myself something positive to build on. You can't build on losing.

The New Orleans game was nice. It was good we could win that one. The best thing would still be to put this all behind us and move on.

As told to Mark Curnutte

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