With fans already steaming and suspicious over the catch-and-release of WR Antonio Bryant, the Cincinnati Bengals' beleaguered medical staff took another blow today when the agent for LB Rashad Jeanty, released this afternoon, blamed the situation on a poor diagnosis by the Bengals.

On the opening kickoff of the Bengals Jan. 9 playoff loss to Jets, Jeanty fractured his left fibula in a freak play. The team’s medical staff told Jeanty that he would not have to have surgery. Two months later, when Jeanty, who was a restricted free agent, visited the Miami Dolphins he failed a physical and was told by that team’s medical staff he needed significant ankle surgery to stabilize the leg. There was also ligament damage in the leg.

Jeanty signed his one-year tender worth $1.176 million from the Bengals shortly thereafter and had surgery on March 31.

"It’s tremendously disappointing on the way this has been handled," [Jeanty’s agent, David] Canter said. "We don’t see how the Cincinnati Bengals can do this without any inclination that this was even a possibility. It’s a tad shocking how he was released and was done in a disheartening, callous and unfair manner. The only reason why he isn’t healthy and wasn’t able to pass the physical is because they failed to fully diagnose and mistreated the injury."

The Bengals medical staff has come under fire before. RB Chris Perry missed most of his rookie season after a sports hernia was initially misdiagnosed as an abdominal strain.