After he finished his first week of practice Friday, the Bengals added cornerback Adam Jones (neck) to the roster to take the place of suspended running back Cedric Benson.
Jones is now looking to play in his first game in a year and a week Sunday (4:15 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) in Seattle, where he's expected to be the third corner and possibly spell wide receiver Brandon Tate on some kick and punt returns.
And there looks to be plenty of opportunity on defense since Seattle runs the ninth-most snaps in the NFL of three-receiver sets. Head coach Marvin Lewis has been enthused about Jones's enthusiasm and has no qualms about the year-long absence since doctors have cleared him following two surgeries on his herniated neck disc.
"He's done everything he can," Lewis said with a smile after practice. "He can't tackle any more dummies than he's tackled. Including this week. For a month he's been tackling that big tackling dummy and the thing on the tripod and all that ... he deserves it. He's worked hard to get this opportunity."
Chalk up Jones as another lockout casualty. Lewis says he would have been back sooner because there would have been more monitoring of his neck, but players were prohibited from being examined by the team from mid-March until late July. Jones didn't get his second surgery to finish the healing until early July, a few weeks before camp opened.
Lewis also said outside linebacker Thomas Howard, who injured his hamstring in the third quarter of the Oct. 16 victory over the Colts, worked Thursday and Friday and Lewis said he should be fine.
» According to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio, the forecast in Seattle calls for a 60 percent chance of rain under cloudy skies with a temperature of 53 degrees and a wind out of the southwest at around 10 miles per hour.
