Aaron Maybin
The Bengals released a former first-round pick and an NCAA record-holder Sunday. And that was just to help them get to 87 players, three below the maximum of 90. They've got nine more days to get to 75 and 13 days to get to the final 53.
The Bengals terminated the contract of veteran linebacker Aaron Maybin and released rookie free agents Troy Stoudermire and Tyrone Goard.
Stoudermire, a cornerback, finished his career at Minnesota as the NCAA's all-time kickoff return yards leader but ran into heavy competition for what could be the sixth and final cornerback spot from Shaun Prater, a fifth-rounder from last season, and Chris Lewis-Harris, a veteran of three games last year in his rookie season. Goard, a wide receiver from Eastern Kentucky, missed a chunk of time that included the preseason opener with a concussion.
The writing was on Saturday night's stat sheet against the Titans. According to the NFL, Prater and Lewis-Harris played 23 and 21 snaps, respectively, while Stoudermire played just eight and didn't return a kick in his two games. Goard played just four snaps.
Maybin, the 11th pick in the 2009 draft by the Bills, arrived trying to resurrect his career by switching to SAM backer with his third team. But he had a lot of young traffic in front of him, such as Emmanuel Lamur, J.K. Schaffer and Jayson DiManche, all rookies or first- or second-year players.
The stat sheet also told the story. Maybin took just five snaps Saturday while DiManche took 32 and Schaffer 28.
