A Look Back: The Bengals 2007 Roster Of Injured Linebackers

Here's a bold statement. It was a rough year for linebackers in 2007. Aside from David Pollack being out for the year with an injured neck (and Odell Thurman being suspended indefinitely), the Bengals final roster of seven linebackers during the first week of the 2007 regular season went like this: Rashad Jeanty, Ahmad Brooks, Landon Johnson, Caleb Miller, Lemar Marshall, Andre Frazier and Anthony Schlegel. Injuries quickly wiped out the roster. Marshall suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture early in the season against the New England Patriots and Miller was placed on Injured Reserve by mid-November. Ahmad Brooks only played two games before a groin injury kept him out the rest of the season.

Since the epic season of the injured linebacker (2007), three of the seven linebackers never caught on with another team, starting their post-NFL careers in various fields. Miller is out of football, working as a personal trainer for Silverlake Fitness in Northern Kentucky (per Wikipedia). Marshall, a native Cincinnatian, hasn't reentered the league since his injury in 2007. After being released by the Bengals in 2008, Anthony Schlegel found a home for two seasons a Florida Tuskers' linebacker until this past weekend, where he was announced as The Ohio State Buckeye's assistant strength and conditioning coach. Schlegel was Ohio State's middle linebacker sandwiched between A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter.

Some of the team's 2007 linebackers did find homes elsewhere.

Andre Frazier returned to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009 and played 14 games and suffered season-ending knee injury during the preseason in 2010. Landon Johnson played two seasons with the Panthers between 2008-2009 (25 games but only three starts) before signing with the Lions for the 2010 season, playing 12 games before he was carted off with a neck injury, hospitalized but alright. Frazier and Johnson will be free agents.

Rashad Jeanty signed with the Philadelphia Eagles over the weekend.

After playing only two games in 2007 with Cincinnati, Ahmad Brooks was waived by the Bengals in late August the following year during final cuts. The San Francisco 49ers picked him up, where he's registered 11 quarterback sacks in 29 games with the 49ers during the past two seasons.

As for the Bengals, they've rebounded.. Dhani Jones was signed off the street on September 19, 2007 and signed a three-year contract during the following offseason and leading the Bengals in tackles every year since. The team drafted Keith Rivers and Rey Maualuga while signing Brandon Johnson as a restricted free agent.