The Bengals are in the market for a backup linebacker.
It's believed that Sean Porter, the club's star-crossed third round pick from 2013, unbelievably tore his ACL on the first snap of his NFL career Sunday night in Foxboro in a crazy non-contact injury on the opening kickoff.
Porter missed his entire rookie year with a preseason shoulder injury and when he finally got to play the second preseason game of his career this August, he injured his hamstring and missed the first three games of this season before being active for the 43-17 loss to New England.
He arrived in the locker room Monday on crutches and in a full-length cast.
The Porter injury put a huge special teams load on backup linebacker Vincent Rey, already starting for injured Pro Bowl WILL backer Vontaze Burfict (concussion), as well as middle linebacker Rey Maualuga. Rey took 23 teams snaps as well as 91 percent of the scrimmage snaps and Maualuga played more than he usually does with 50 percent.
Now they're looking for a seventh linebacker and most likely they'll hold tryouts Tuesday…
On Monday afternoon, left tackle Andrew Whitworth thought they would remain calm in wake of the 43-17 loss.
"I don't think our backs are against the wall," Whitworth said, "We're 3-1, so I don't think a freak out is in the picture." …
Safety George Iloka on fans jumping off the bandwagon:
Let them jump off…I'm not worried about the people that jump off. We don't want those fans anyway. We just look at the Patriots and how they came out with the loss on Monday night in prime time. All their fair-weathered fans jumped off the bandwagon and they're probably back on after they beat us. We look to them and see how they came out and we hope to do the same thing on Sunday and beat the Panthers.
