The Bengals on Friday signed three free agents, including Brooks, wide receiver Hakeem Butler and punter Ryan Rehkow.
“I don’t know any of my teammates names, helmet didn’t fit, threw me in the fire, but I love the opportunity,” Brooks said of the whirlwind transition. “Can’t be mad.”
Brooks, originally a college free agent signee of the Arizona Cardinals in 2019, has played four career NFL games but he’s bounced around to 14 different stops since his days at the University of North Texas, most recently in the UFL where he spent time in 2024 with the Michigan Panthers and Birmingham Stallions.
Had it not been for the UFL, Brooks said he probably would be on a different path, but he always hoped he could get back to the NFL. He said he was grateful for the UFL allowing him a chance to prove himself again and collect his first professional honors with a first-team All-UFL nod.
“I always kept faith,” Brooks said. “You doubt yourself sometimes, but for sure. All I needed was the right opportunity, the right team, someone to take a chance.”
The Bengals gave him that chance as they still had three roster spots and a youth-filled cornerback room where former first-round picks Dax Hill and DJ Turner are competing for a starting job and there’s not much experienced depth behind them.
Brooks has at least some experience, but most of his time in the NFL was on practice squads, including with the Cardinals, Patriots, Buccaneers, Titans, Raiders and most recently the 49ers. His only games were with the Dolphins in 2019 and Ravens in 2020.
One of those with Miami was in the infamous “Burrow Bowl” overtime game against the Bengals in 2019 that helped them secure the No. 1 overall draft to select Joe Burrow. Brooks was targeted three times and didn’t allow a catch, and one of his stops was in overtime when he kept John Ross from getting one yard for a first down before punting.
“It was probably one of my best games, honestly,” Brooks recalled.
Brooks said he hopes he can show the Bengals who he really is — a defender who is “instinctive, smart, just a ball hawk.”
That day wasn’t necessarily Friday in practice, where he was inserted in man coverage and had no plan except to lock in on the receiver and cover. However, he plans to take advantage of every opportunity he gets.
“I want to be on a 53,” Brooks said. “That’s my goal. That’s what I wake up everyday and train to. I want to make a 53-man roster and prove I can play in this league and that a bunch of other guys in my position can also play.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The other newcomers, Butler and Rehkow, will be competing for spots as well.
Butler, a second-year player out of Iowa State University, originally was a fourth-round draft pick of Arizona in 2019. He spent his rookie season with the Cardinals on the Reserve/Injured list, then was on the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster during the 2020 campaign and played in two games but was not with an NFL team during the 2021-23 regular seasons.
Rehkow, a rookie out of Brigham Young University, signed with Kansas City as a college free agent in May, then was waived by the Chiefs in June. He played in 50 games during his collegiate career at BYU, and recorded 176 punts with a gross average of 47.4 yards and 74 downed inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.
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