Bengals add Brown

The Bengals on Friday signed LB Preston Brown to a 1-year deal. That’s a surprisingly small commitment for a guy who has started since entering the league, given the money flying to other LBs early in free agency. Brown should be the favorite to start in the middle for Cincinnati this season but might not be in on all sub packages. We’ll see, too, how Vontaze Burfict’s PED suspension impacts Brown’s role.

The Bengals have waived MLB Preston Brown. It's an overdue move on a guy who has never been particularly good. Pro Football Focus grades Brown 81st this season among 90 off-ball LBs who have played at least 140 snaps. Rookie Germaine Pratt should see more playing time going forward. We'll have to see him get enough to be IDP relevant before we can use Pratt in fantasy lineups, though. The 3rd-round pick played a season-high 49% of Cincinnati's defensive snaps in Sunday's loss to the Ravens.

The Buffalo News reports that rookie Bills LB Preston Brown will get the 1st shot to replace Kiko Alonso on the weak side. Brown reportedly impressed his coaches through OTA work but did so at MLB, his college position. He'll be in for significant transition this summer and might not be headed for 3-down duty even if he wins the job. Brown projects similarly to MLB Brandon Spikes as a thumping run-stuffer with limited range in coverage. Of course, Brown and the Bills might disagree with that. We'll see how the team plans to arrange its LBs in passing sub packages, but for now we're betting on the veteran Spikes to claim the 3rd-down role that eluded him through most of his Patriots seasons. Check out our 2014 IDP rankings to see how high we project him.