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Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, who famously declined a visit with the Dallas Cowboys, spent time in Cincinnati last week. Green-Beckham is a special talent with more red flags than a NASCAR race in Talladega. There are multiple arrests for marijuana charges (big deal) and allegations that he pushed a woman down the stairs -- he was dismissed after that incident.
Despite the talent (Green-Beckham ran a 4.49 40-yard dash compared to Alabama's Amari Cooper at 4.43), those flags are heavily weighing on team's projections. Neither Todd McShay nor Mel Kiper Jr. have Green-Beckham going in the first round. Mike Mayock ranks him as the fifth-best wide receiver prospect.
The SB Nation writers mock draft has him going No. 33 to the Tennessee Titans.
Is Green-Beckham a target in Cincinnati? We wrote two months ago about the team's previous comments on character. Here it is again... (yes, we're holding them to that standard): Regardless of your opinion, Mike Brown's view on this subject has evolved. At one point the Bengals were fine with character guys, believing that second-chances and redemption stories would benefit the Bengals -- who were deficient on talent. The idea is that grabbing players that other people avoided would accelerate the talent pool with little cost. Sometimes it worked... other times it didn't.
"We made a conscious effort to draft and bring in good people," Brown said before Tuesday's kickoff luncheon in 2013. "I think with (Andy) Dalton and (A.J.) Green as examples, with (Andrew) Whitworth as an example, this is how we want to be perceived. Over the years we've dug ourselves into a hole. I'm probably the one who did it. We brought in guys and worked with them. Sometimes they came around and sometimes they didn't."
Around the same time, head coach Marvin Lewis reiterated Browns' point:
"I don't think Chris Henry, we would pick today," Lewis said via Dan Wetzel with Yahoo! Sports. "See, Chris had social issues [at the time of the draft but] he hadn't really gotten into legal issues. Chris would have a harder time today just because we would be more sketchy on if he could handle the day to day of being a good teammate."
"I think there was always a feeling that boys will be boys," Lewis continued. "There are some boys that just can't get over being boys. And unfortunately, the organization had to learn that."