I'll admit it right now, I'm a big Da'Quan Bowers proponent. Here's a guy who stands 6'3, weighs 280 lbs, and makes 300 lbs offensive tackles weep like T.O. talking about his (other) quarterback. In his senior season at Clemson, Bowers made a total of 40.5 plays behind the line of scrimmage: 15.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss (not counting the all the QB pressures). However, he's not a guy who comes into the league without question marks - the biggest one being his knee which he had surgically repaired this offseason. His knee issues have caused some speculation that he may have fallen outside the top five on some teams draft boards.

However, according to him and his agent, the whole ordeal has been over exaggerated in the media (imagine that).

Says Bowers,

The whole situation with my knee has been overblown — it wasn't as serious as everybody made it out to be. I had a slight meniscus tear in my right knee, and I played half of the season with that, which means that I got half my sacks on a torn meniscus. I'm working on my recovery time, and I'm 100 percent now. I'm looking forward to my pro day on April 1, so I can show everybody that I'm just fine, and hopefully shot up all the nonsense. I met with Dr. James Andrews in the early part of February, and he said I'm fine. He gave me some rehab stuff and I've been working on that ever since.

The Bengals could definitely use some help at defensive end. Though Michael Johnson and Carlos Dunlap finished the year strong, there remain questions about whether or not either player can be an every down DE (particularly with Johnson). And with the low production relative to the high cost of Antwan Odom and Robert Geathers, it might be reasonable to suspect that one or both players might not be on the Bengal's 53 man roster next season. Bowers has also proven himself to be a versatile player, spending some time at DT in certain passing situations at Clemson.

Bowers Pro Day will be on April 1st and he is scheduled for a private workout with the Bengals sometime before the draft.