[Sea Ray]

I must admit that I root for these kinds of guys but if I'm being completely honest, it's for selfish reasons. I want my team to develop this diamond in the rough, not because I'm happy for Vontaze but because I want to think my team is better than your team at finding and developing talent.

Now, have any of these projects ever worked? I would say probably not although I would opine that the Bengals don't win the division in 2005 without Odell Thurmond and Chris Henry. Has PacMan worked out? Not really but I suppose it can be argued that he's a contributor.

As for Vontaze, I'm still not sure if he's going to work. I wish I'd read in that article how his frustration led him to studying extra video and going in for extra work. I think Mike Brown ought to fork out money for him to get a place at Lytle Tower and change his environment as well as keep him close to Paul Brown Stadium. In other words keep him on a short leash. Then work him into the lineup slowly and let him be a head hunter on special teams out of the box. Tell him that he will get more playing time when he earns it and remind him that his position (MLB) is wide open and asking for someone to take it. When he screws up coach him, see if he learns from his mistakes and explain to him that such mistakes are the reason he's not starting. Let's see how he responds to all of that.

I hope he does respond because quite frankly we need head hunters in order to compete in the AFC North. Pittsburgh and Baltimore will hit you in the mouth and when they do, it's nice to have a guy like Burfict to hit back.