FanHouse Frostee Rucker

(Hat tip: Cincy Jungle)

The Bengals waived backup defensive end Josh Mallard. You don't know who he is and this little bit of transaction news was as earth-shattering as a pin dropping. He was only in Cincinnati for a couple of weeks as a fill-in when Frostee Rucker and Robert Geathers were placed on IR. He has played in just 40 games with the Colts, Falcons, Broncos and Bengals since he was drafted in 2002.

The real reason anyone cares is because it gives us a great chance to look at his Broncos headshot taken before the season began. I don't know if that is intense, scared, confused or oops-I-crapped-my-pants. Did the cameraman ask to see his war face? Or is he really nuts?

At any rate, he is way too serious to be a Bengal. Now he's not.

Current Bengals Who Have Been in Trouble at Some Point

• Ahmad Brooks: Accused of punching a woman in the face
• Chad Johnson: Sued for his part of an alleged "bogus raffle"
• Dhani Jones: Arrested for "failure to obey a lawful command". He refused police orders to stop dancing in the street outside a South Beach nightclub.
• Jonathan Joseph: Marijuana possession
• Deltha O'Neal: DUI
• Frostee Rucker: Vandalism and spousal battery while in college
• Jason Shirley: Drove drunk and crashed his car into an apartment building while in college

Former Bengals Who Got In Trouble While With the Team

• Chris Henry: Speeding, marijuana possession, driving without a license, waving a gun at people, providing alcohol to minors, misdemeanor assault and property damage. He once was suspended for eight games for violating the NFL's conduct policy.
• Matthias Askew: Arrested (and acquitted) for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to comply with a police officer's order, obstructing justice
• Reggie McNeal: Drug possession, resisting arrest
• AJ Nicholson: Burglary, grand theft, vandalism, domestic assault
• Eric Steinbach: Boating under the influence of alcohol
• Quincy Wilson: Arrested at a wedding for disorderly conduct
• Odell Thurman: Is coming off a two-year suspension for violating the NFL's conduct policy. He was picked up for a DUI in Ohio. He was also accused of assault in Georgia but the complaint was dropped.

This isn't a post as much as it is a running page to document some of the difficulties this Bengals organization has had.

If you were expecting improvement for next year's defense to come in the form of Odell Thurman's return, think again:

"Odell is not a member of this football team," Lewis said Tuesday. "He's on suspension by the NFL. He's got a long road to go. I'm not even going to spend any time talking about Odell.

"We're talking about our '07 season. He's not part of this football team. We don't need to talk about it." [...] Asked if Thurman could be part of the team again, Lewis said, "I don't know that. I don't see it on our horizon."

I don't know if Marvin is just being so harsh because right now he has no idea what will happen in the future with Thurman, or if he's positive that Thurman is done, but either way I can't see Thurman coming back after that kind of response.

It's altogether possible that Marvin could even know that Thurman hasn't cleaned himself up while suspended. It's tough when a team gets very little from it's highest draft picks, and the Bengals really haven't gotten squat lately.

2004: 1st round - Chris Perry, hurt all the time
2005: 1st round - David Pollack (broken neck), 2nd round - Odell Thurman (suspended), 3rd round - Chris Henry (missed games in 2006 due to suspension, arrested four times)
2006: 3rd round - Frostee Rucker (missed entire season), 5th round - A.J. Nicholson (missed entire season)

I suppose a team can be successful with that kind of draft run, but it just makes things harder than they need to be. Hopefully the Bengals have a combination of better luck and better character in the upcoming draft, because they need some help.

More: Bengals Don't Expect Thurman Back - AP

The injury reports obviously come a little earlier this week with the Thursday game, so let's get right to things. Here's who's banged up heading into Baltimore Week ...

• John Thornton is doubtful with a knee injury that he suffered on Sunday. No, not during the game, during pre-game warm-ups. That's pretty much how the Bengals roll this season. He actually has a fairly impressive consecutive games streak that's probably going to end Thursday. Thornton's played in 59 games in a row.
• Levi Jones is still out. Maybe next week.
• Bobbie Williams is also still out. Should be awhile for him still, but I'm pretty happy with the way Stacy Andrews has filled in.
• Rich Braham has been elevated to questionable, and could actually play on Thursday night. This one could be huge.
• Deltha O'Neal is questionable. It'd really help if he could play, since that would probably mean a little less of Tory James on the field.
• Kelley Washington is also questionable. I'm hoping he comes back fairly soon, because Cincinnati's fourth wide receiver is an undrafted free agent at the moment. I don't have anything against Glenn Holt, but I'd rather see Washington doing that job.
• Sam Adams is probable, but not practicing, which is standard operating procedure for him. He might want to consider practicing so that he'd be a little less of a fat ass, but whatever works I guess.
• Brian Simmons is probable, which is huge. The linebacking corps has been absolutely decimated this season, and getting Simmons back into the rotation can only help.

Just to illustrate how bad off the Bengals are this year, the Ravens injury list features three players, all of whom are questionable, but all of whom will almost certainly be on the field Thursday night. Three injured players against eight, and that's not even counting all the guys on IR (Tab Perry, Chris Perry, Bennie Brazell, Antonio Chatman, Frostee Rucker, David Pollack, etc. etc.) The Bengals are incredibly fortunate to even have a shot at the playoffs with the bad injury luck they've had this season.

This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear from Marvin:

Asked at his Monday news conference if he noticed any difference without Henry on the field, Lewis said, "I did notice a difference, actually.

"I didn't have anybody taunting, in anybody's face or anything like that. That's where I noticed the difference: Guys doing it the way they're asked to do it. I didn't have to worry about the guy taking off his helmet on the field and things like that."

It's pretty clear from that comment that Marvin's pretty ticked, not just about Henry's off the field issues, but also about the way he handles himself on the field.

This is certainly a good thing. It's entirely possible that the Bengals might be better off entirely without Henry at this point. He's easily the third most talented receiver on the team, with potential to move up the list, but his actions have been ridiculous and detrimental to the team. While other players have done stupid things, if it weren't for Odell Thurman and Chris Henry I don't think anyone would be talking about the Bengals and off the field issues.

What really sucks is that the last couple of drafts are looking like total busts at this point. This year's third rounder (Frostee Rucker) is out for the year after some of his legal problems worsened. Last year's first rounder (David Pollack) is out for the year, certainly through no fault of the coaching staff, but it doesn't help. And then you've got last year's second and third rounders who were Henry and Thurman. Compounding things is the selection of oft injured Chris Perry in the first round the year before that.

Some bad luck combined with some idiotic behavior, and all of a sudden the Bengals have gotten less than many other teams in the past few drafts. It's kind of impressive how solid they've been this year when all the injuries and suspensions are taken into account.

More: Lewis: No Henry, no problems - Cincinnati Enquirer

The Bengals signed linebacker Andre Frazier today.

It was just one of a flurry of moves. Odell Thurman was suspended for a year and two players were put on IR (A.J. Nicholson and Frostee Rucker), ending their seasons.

Frazier played for the Steelers last season, seeing a lot of time on special teams. The Bengals need him because, unbelievably, their linebacking corps is getting a little thing. Rashad Jeanty is banged up and possibly out for Sunday, and Brian Simmons' knee has been bothering him all season.

Andre is a player the Bengals apparently had their eye on out of college, but were unable to sign. He played for the University of Cincinnati, so it's nice to see a local kid coming home. I hope he won't see the field too much on defense, but I imagine he'll be playing a lot on special teams. Frazier has his own website, so check that out if you want to learn more about the newest Bengal.

More: Andre Frazier - Why was he cut? - PittsburghLive Message Boards
Frazier signed, Rucker to IR, Thurman gone 1 year - Mark Curnutte's Blog

Boy oh boy, after reading this you really have to wonder what the Bengals were thinking taking Frostee Rucker in the third round.

Right up front, let me clarify by saying that I have no problem with a team taking someone with a troubled past. As a Bengals fan I know that plenty of players get a bad rap that isn't indicative of who they truly are. Chad Johnson fell to the Bengals in the second round because of perceived character issues, and that's worked out extremely well.

But Frostee Rucker's case is kind of above and beyond. His latest charges are his third in nine years, which might not sound terrible, until you hear that all three have involved abuse of women, including a rape allegation when he was 13 (the girl was 11). At Colorado State Rucker was accused of assaulting a female athlete and exposing himself in a classroom, and his latest charges are assualt related brought by a former girlfriend.

If it comes up over and over and over again, then that starts to suggest something. It's the exposing himself in a classroom thing that really worries me, perhaps surprisingly since it's the smallest thing he's been accused of doing. But it suggest to me that Rucker has a mindset that the rules don't apply to him, and that he can do whatever he wants, without consequence. Quite frankly, from what I'm reading in the Columbus Dispatch, Rucker sounds like a mentally ill individual.

And the Bengals used a third rounder on the guy? This can't even be classified as a late round flyer, not to mention the fact that many draft experts saw the Bengals as grossly reaching when they selected Rucker in the third.

Obviously Rucker's career is just beginning, and everything could look quite a bit different in five years. But right now I really have to question this pick, in a way that I haven't questioned the Bengals before. Chris Henry, A.J. Nicholson, and others didn't bother me, but I'm really not sure I agree with the Bengals turning a blind eye to Rucker's past.

More: Trail of allegations follows Rucker - Columbus Dispatch