We're now 52 days away from regular-season Bengals football.
That means we're taking a look at former players who wore the No. 52 during their NFL careers in Cincinnati.
PLAYER | YEARS |
Tim Buchanan . | 1969 |
Doug Adams | 1971-74 |
Brad Cousino | 1975 |
Tom Dinkel | 1978-83 |
Tom Flaherty | 1987 |
Craig Ogletree | 1990 |
Gary Reasons | 1992 |
Tim Terry . | 1997 |
Jimmy Sprotte | 1998-99 |
Dwayne Levels | 2003 |
Nate Webster | 2004-05 |
A.J. Nicholson . | 2006 |
Lemar Marshall . | 2007 |
Abdul Hodge | 2008-09 |
Dontay Moch | 2011-12 |
The first player to wear 52 for multiple seasons was Doug Adams, who was also one of the first Ohio State Buckeyes to play for his home-state team. Drafted by the Broncos in the seventh round (165th overall) of the 1971 NFL Draft, Adams would end up being cut by Denver before signing with Cincinnati. There, he would play in 49 games (three starts) at linebacker.
Later, linebacker Tom Dinkel wore No. 52 for six years in the Queen City. Drafted out of Kansas in the fifth round (126th overall) of the 1978 NFL Draft, Dinkel would play in 102 games (32 starts) during his Bengals career. Dinkel was a member of Cincinnati's Super Bowl team in 1981 that would lose to the 49ers.
After Dinkel, there wasn't another Bengal to wear No. 52 for multiple seasons until Jimmy Sprotte in 1998. He would follow a similar path as that of Adams in that he signed with Cincinnati after being drafted and later cut by the Tennessee Oilers in the seventh round (205th overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft. Sprotte would sign with the Bengals that year and play in nine games (0 starts) during his two seasons with the Bengals.
The most recent Bengals to wear No. 52 was, unfortunately, one of their bigger draft busts in recent memory. That was Dontay Moch, whom Cincinnati drafted out of Boise State in the third round (66th overall) of the 2011 draft. Moch would go on to play in just one game in his two seasons with the Bengals before being cut in 2013. He got another shot with the Bengals in 2014, but once again was axed during final roster cuts.