Ryan Whalen, a sixth-round pick in 2011, was among five released Monday.
The Bengals' waive of veteran wide receiver Ryan Whalen led five moves Monday that whittled the roster to 81 players. Six more have to be let go by Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Joining Whalen on the waiver list were second-year defensive lineman Larry Black, rookie safety Isaiah Lewis, and first-year kicker Quinn Sharp. Veteran cornerback R.J. Stanford was terminated.
All but Whalen and Stanford have practice squad ability.
Whalen, a sixth-round pick in 2011, has played in 17 games with 11 catches but hasn't caught one since a big third-down conversion in Pittsburgh in the 2012 Wild Wild Card Game. He was inactive for 12 games last season and started this training camp on the physically unable to perform list (PUP). He had four catches for 31 yards this preseason, but in 15 snaps Sunday in Arizona he didn't have a target.
Black, a Cincinnati product out of Wyoming High School who played at Indiana, was one of the feel-good stories of camp when he returned from a badly broken ankle that was captured on last season's Hard Knocks. But the numbers game on a talented defensive line proved to be too much and he was listed as a DNP Sunday, but he could return on the practice squad.
So could Sharp, who the Bengals cut for a second straight camp even though he made both field goal-tries in the games. This year he made both of them in Sunday's fourth quarter, from 51 and 34 yards.
Lewis, undrafted out of Michigan State after playing in the same secondary with first-round pick Darqueze Dennard, is another practice squad candidate. Stanford tried to hook on with his third team in his fifth NFL season. But he committed a 35-yard pass interference penalty and gave up a 30-yard touchdown on back-to-back plays in the third quarter Sunday.
