Twitter is alive with chatter of safeties dropping into the Queen City to visit the Bengals. First it was Ken Hamlin from Dallas and now it's C.C. Brown from the Giants. Maybe the Bengals will set up a Thunderdome-ish competition to see which safety will.... earn his stripes? Two safeties enter.... one safety leaves. Then again, maybe they'll just decide who the better safety is without any unnecessary bloodshed.
Aaron Wilson, writer for Carroll County Times and the Annapolis Capital, wrote:
According to a league source, former Houston Texans and New York Giants safety C.C. Brown is meeting with team officials.
C.C. Brown, a former sixth round pick out of Louisiana-Lafayette, played for the Houston Texans from 2005 to 2008 racking up three interceptions, four forced fumbles and 15 passes defensed. After the 2008 season, Brown left for the New York Giants where he only had three forced fumbles and three passes defensed. When the Giants signed defensive back Deon Grant, they retracted Brown's restricted tender.
GiantsGab.com had these things to say when Brown came to them from Houston:
Here is Brown’s scouting report courtesy of ESPN/Scouts Inc:
Brown has been a starter for each of his previous four years in the NFL, all with the Texans. He missed most of the 2008 season when he was put on IR for a broken arm late in September. His is an above-average sized safety with good striking power and explosiveness when tackling in the hole. He is an instinctive player who is quick to key and diagnose and takes good angles to get to the ball. He plays with a lot of energy and is not timid about inserting himself to make the play in the hole. Brown is more effective the closer he lines up to the line of scrimmage and can struggle in coverage. He has three interceptions in his career, one in each of his first three years, so Brown’s definitely not a ball hawk. He is adequate in his pedal to extend the cushion but tends to come out of his pedal in stages and will loose relationship to receivers in transition. He has a marginal burst to close on the ball once he gets realigned and shows just adequate ball skills when in position to make a play on the ball. He has adequate route recognition but does not look natural when trying to read the quarterback’s eyes to get a jump on the ball.
With Ken Hamlin already reportedly visiting the Bengals in the next couple days via his Twitter account, this obviously shows that the Bengals are serious about adding some more depth to the safety position. I doubt that the Bengals would sign both Brown and Hamlin but it wouldn't surprise me if we find out that one of these guys are in stripes by the end of the week.
The Bengals are being really proactive in free agency right now and I for one, hope they keep it up.