Bengals sign Jonathan Brown to practice squad

The Cincinnati Bengals are adding some depth at kicker for the practice squad. On Thursday, the team signed kicker Jonathan Brown to the practice squad.

Brown, a first-year player out of the University of Louisville, originally joined the Bengals in May of 2016 as a college free agent. He suffered an injury in 2016 spring workouts, reverted to the team’s Reserve/Injured list after being waived-injured, and was released from that list in the team’s 2016 training camp.

Brown then re-signed with Cincinnati in January of 2017 and spent last offseason with the Bengals. He was eventually released from the 90-man roster on July 30.

Part of that was due to the Bengals giving all of their kicking snaps to Jake Elliott and Randy Bullock as they competed for the starting kicker job. But with Elliott now in Philadelphia, Bullock is the only kicker the team had on the 53-man roster or practice squad.

A soccer standout who started his college career at Kentucky before transferring to Louisville, Brown went from being a soccer scholarship player for the Cardinals to taking a shot as a walk-on for the football team as a kicker. He is still a bit of a mystery after being a backup behind starting kicker John Wallace and rarely seeing the field in college, let alone the NFL.

But the Bengals have apparently seen enough of him to have him on their roster once again. Since he’s on the practice squad, Brown figures to be someone the team will sign to a futures contract in the offseason.