Bengals sign Kendrick Adams to the practice squad

When the Indianapolis Colts signed running back Daniel Herron off of the Bengals practice squad, it left Cincinnati short-handed on their eight-man practice squad.

Until today

The Cincinnati Bengals announced on Tuesday that they've signed defensive end Kendrick Adams -- a 6-5, 252-pound first-year player out of LSU.

Adams opened the season in Cleveland and posted eight tackles during three preseason games before he was waived on Aug. 27. Adams was originally signed as a college free agent in '12 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, with time spent on the practice squad in Tampa Bay, Detroit, and Cleveland.

One of our favorite sites, Big Cat Country, run by Alfie, had a scouting report on Adams with help from Paul Crewe on the LSU blog, And The Valley Shook.

Ken Adams is an interesting prospect. If you go back to his recruiting days, he was consistently listed as 6'5, 240 pounds. He originally committed to Auburn, but transferred out after a season. He was a two-way player, who found a home at DE. He signed with LSU to presumably start at LDE, which he "did" for most of his career. However, Adams was essentially a starter in name only, as Mingo took most of the snaps, particularly last season.

Back to his measurements, at the Pro Day, Adams measured, 6'1 3/4" and 244 pounds. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a discrepancy in height. 1, maybe 2 inches? Sure. But 3-4 inches? He's got good speed. He ran a 4.66 at our Pro Day, which would put him in the top 5 for his position, right between 1st round picks Nick Perry and Whitney Mercilus. Unfortunately, none of his other athletic traits match his speed. He doesn't have great change of direction, doesn't have great explosion, doesn't have great strength. All of this shows on tape.

Adams never really distinguished himself as a pass rusher at LSU (4 career sacks). He's a really sound run defender. He's often disciplined in making his reads and sticking to his assignments, but his limited athletic ability hampers him from making plays others could (even when diagnosed correctly). He does have long arms (34.5 inch arms).

At 6'1, 244 it's hard to see him as a DE. With his speed, it seems like he'd best be deployed as a pure pass rusher coming off the edge, but his lack of explosion may hinder there. I can't recall Adams ever employing any advanced pass rush moves.

My guess is the Jaguars want to get a look at his frame, speed and arms to see if they could develop him into a pass rush specialist. Adams figured heavily into the DL rotation at LSU, so it's not as if he lacks talent. He played a lot. He's a smart, disciplined player. He has some untapped ability. I noticed the Jaguars official site both listed Adams at 6'5 AND called him a "speed rusher." It should be interesting to see what account for that height discrepancy. Honestly, he never looked that short, so the measurement really shocks me. Could be a typo.