Bengals Bytes (2/5): Who did the Bengals draft before Tom Brady?

A look at the six players the Bengals drafted ahead of Tom Brady
Tom Brady was drafted with the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. Did the Patriots know he would end up becoming one of the greatest players ever? There’s no way anyone could’ve seen this coming. Let’s look back at the six players the Bengals drafted ahead of Brady in honor of his eighth Super Bowl appearance. The Bengals drafted two wide receivers, two defensive backs, a running back and a kicker before Brady was selected. Here’s who they picked and how their career ended up

Cincinnati Bengals free agency 2018: Top 5 targets
It has not been a great last two years for the Cincinnati Bengals. After making the AFC playoffs every year from 2011 to 2015 and not winning any playoff games, the Bengals have failed to quality the last two seasons. Apparently, 15 years of Marvin Lewis wasn’t enough, as he has re-upped with the Bengals for at least two more years.

Doc: Would you miss the NFL and the Cincinnati Bengals if they were gone?
Now that the country’s unofficial holiday has passed and you’ve scraped the salsa from your shirt, lost 50 bucks in prop bets and discovered that Bloody Marys really aren’t a healthy way to get drunk, riddle me this, NFL fan: Would you miss it if it was gone? Not the Super Bowl. The NFL.

Cincinnati Bengals: the Super Bowl this season deserves
Super Bowl LII seems like the title game this NFL season deserves. It also feels weirdly fitting from a Cincinnati Bengals perspective. It feels fitting for this NFL season to conclude with this particular matchup. With the New England Patriots in the big game once again. Something that felt inevitable at times throughout the playoffs. With Tom Brady, a quarterback whose life and career seems straight out of a movie at times. Plus, there’s the picture of happiness and joy that rarely is Bill Bellicheck.

Former Bengals star Chad Johnson leaves large tip for Applebee’s
Johnson, who was also known as Chad Ochocinco during his NFL playing career, posted a video on his account Friday night and he appeared to be surprised that he could pay using a tablet at the table. “Did you guys know they had these machines at Applebee’s?” Johnson said.

TDBH: Rudi scrambles to re-unite with Dillon in Pro Bowl backfield
Running back Rudi Johnson spends today scrambling to make plans to get to Honolulu for his first Pro Bowl that is set for next week and that gets the trivia masters searching. Name the last time a running back plays in the same Pro Bowl backfield with the player whose single-season franchise rushing mark he broke. It could happen since late last night Johnson gets the Pro Bowl word on the same day Patriots running back Corey Dillon also gets the call to go to his fourth AFC-NFC all-star game. They are going as alternates because Edgerrin James and Curtis Martin decide not to play. Even that is up in the air today because Dillon is in Jacksonville this week with the Patriots preparing for the Super Bowl against the Eagles to cap off a year that began with his April trade from Cincinnati.

AFC North Bytes

Browns NFL Draft 2018 Rumors: Scot McCloughan to Work as Consultant
Former Washington general manager Scot McCloughan has joined the Cleveland Browns as a "personnel consultant to assist the team in this year's draft," according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN. Per that report, McCloughan "agreed to reunite with new Browns general manager John Dorsey for the draft and participated in meetings Saturday with the team's full scouting department."

Le’Veon Bell: Certain guys weren’t ready to play against Jaguars
The Steelers have been done playing football for a few weeks now, but they aren’t done revisiting reasons for their ouster in a divisional round loss to the Jaguars. Running back Le'Veon Bell was a guest on CBS Sports Radio this week and shared some of his thoughts about why the team wound up on the wrong side of a 45-42 final score. Bell said he “had a sense” that the Jaguars had more energy than the Steelers, who fell behind 21-0 before trying to make a game of it in the second half.

Random Bytes

Nick Foles, High-Powered Eagles Stun Tom Brady, Patriots to Win Super Bowl 52
The Philadelphia Eagles waited nearly 58 minutes to sack Tom Brady. When they finally did, they made it count. Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham strip-sacked Brady on a Patriots' potential game-winning drive, helping Philadelphia clinch a 41-33 victory over New England to take Super Bowl LII on Sunday.

Super Bowl 2018: Tom Brady has best game yet but can't lead Patriots to a sixth title
The greatest quarterback who ever lived, and perhaps the greatest athlete in the history of professional sports, sat, elbows on his knees, for what must have seemed like an eternity. The game-winning Super Bowl drive that he surely envisioned in his mind was over almost before it started. Tom Brady's season was effectively over. Brandon Graham had managed to do something no one on the Eagles could accomplish all evening: harass Brady, and make him even moderately uncomfortable. What seemed impossible for four quarters had just become Brady's reality at the very moment when yet another legacy-defining drive was in his midst.

Rob Gronkowski Doesn't Commit to 2018 Return After Patriots' Super Bowl LII Loss
The New England Patriots' Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles may have been tight end Rob Gronkowski's final game. Gronkowski, 28, was asked about his future after the 41-33 loss and would not commit to playing in the 2018 campaign, per Henry McKenna of USA Today