Bengals DT Andrew Brown discusses the call that changed his life on Day 3 of the NFL Draft

In the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Bengals selected Virginia defensive tackle Andrew Brown out of Virginia.

Brown was hoping to hear his name called by the end of Round 3 of the draft and started getting discouraged when the final pick was announced on Friday night and it wasn’t him.

“Going into Day 2 my mindset was I’m pretty sure I’m going to get picked today, but after rounds started going and I didn’t get picked up and then I saw that last pick go and it wasn’t me, my mind went all over the place,” Brown told Mitch Brown.

“Everything just hit me at once, how hard I worked all my life, everything I’ve been through everything leading up to this moment here,” Brown said. “Not seeing my name called, it hit me kind of hard. But Day 3 comes, ya know, wake up, fresh start. Going through the rounds, stuff like that, it came to a point where I wasn’t going to watch it anymore.”

So Brown went into his room, took a shower.

“And next thing you know, I’m putting deodorant on and my phone rings. I look it was a Cincinnati area code and I look at the TV and see Cincinnati is next to pick. I was like ‘Oh my god.’ So I pick my phone up, ran in the den and I was like, ‘yo I got the call.’ It was crazy.”

After being drafted, Brown also tweeted about his mother, who passed away in December 9, 2007 after battling lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and breast cancer. He wore No. 9 in her honor at Virginia. She was just 38 when she passed away and Brown was only 10. As of now, the No. 9 is available in Cincinnati, so we’ll see if Brown gets to keep his college number.

Brown also dealt with some bullying as he grew up and was nicknamed “Big Greasy” due to his massive (perfect for a defensive tackle) size. But soon after, he was being recruited by nearly every top college program in the country, was the Gatorade National Player of the Year as a senior in high school and now has been drafted by the Bengals. Those bullies are probably mad they messed with him now.

In college, Brown racked up 94 tackles (26.5 of which were for a loss), 10.5 sacks, 4 passes defensed, 1 fumble recovery and 1 forced fumble. He sounds like a high-character, big potential guy who can offer a nice boost to the Bengals’ defensive line depth.

Welcome to Cincinnati, Andrew!