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Sean Porter made it.
With Vontaze Burfict, Rey Maualuga, Emmanuel Lamur and Vincent Rey locking down the first four spots at linebacker, an open competition took place for one, maybe two vacancies. Marquis Flowers had the advantage of being a draft pick in this year's NFL draft and Jayson DiManche put together a significant special teams resume last year.
If Cincinnati went with six linebackers... Porter was the odd man out. They kept seven. They kept Porter. Cincinnati loves their athletic linebackers and clearly the coaching staff still wants to see what they can get out of Porter; who presents more of an aura of promise than bust.
"Sean Porter is a player that has great athleticism," Marvin Lewis said after drafting Porter in the fourth round. "He’s played the outside positions, he’s played the inside positions. He’s been the guy that can really run and cover, a guy that is going to continue to grow and develop. He has the potential to be an NFL body, be an athleticism-type body similar to the linebacker we had here the last couple of years here, similar to Thomas Howard."
In 52 games and 41 starts at Texas A&M, Porter generated 261 tackles, 14.5 quarterback sacks and 34.5 tackles-for-loss. Cincinnati selected him in the fourth round.
Unfortunately, Porter only played the preseason opener last year before spending the rest of his rookie season on Injured Reserve with a torn labrum.
"It happened at practice right after the first preseason game," Porter told Dan Hoard at Bengals.com. "A tight end ran a vertical route on me, I took him on with my arm straight, and my shoulder came out of place."
As luck would have it, we'll have to wait to see his contributions. Porter could miss the first couple of weeks this season with a recent hamstring injury, writes the mothership.
Porter makes it even though he has played just three preseason games in his career because of injury and it’s believed he’ll miss a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury that iced him early Thursday night.
Alright then. We'll continue waiting.