http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...PT02/708020364/</p> </p><div class="header">Something special</div> <div class="decker">Enthusiasm on kickoff team suggests Brooks can be key to 'D'</div> <div class="byline">BY MARK CURNUTTE <span class="byline_outer">| MCURNUTTE@ENQUIRER.COM</span></div> GEORGETOWN, Ky. - Middle linebacker Ahmad Brooks might be the most important player in the Bengals' defense this season and for years to come.</p> Just one year after he was taken in the third round of the supplemental draft, Brooks essentially has been handed the keys to the defense as its signal caller.</p>His progress was watched closely during the offseason, when he showed he was a serious student. The scrutiny is greater at training camp. But the best indication of Brooks' development as a defender might not have come on a defensive play.</p> During the morning practice Wednesday, the Bengals worked on kickoff coverage. Brooks, who a year ago couldn't be motivated to play special teams, has a spot on that unit.</p> "Today with kickoffs, it's just totally different from a year ago," an appreciative coach Marvin Lewis said at his late-morning news conference Wednesday when asked about Brooks' first week of camp.</p> "Here he is starting as a linebacker on the football team, but he is working on the kickoff team as though he is still trying to earn a job on the football team. Last year we were telling him to go and use that speed, and now he has it and is playing with it all the time."</p> No one ever has doubted Brooks' physical gifts. He is a natural 260 pounds and can run a 4.6-second time in the 40-yard dash. He is a freakish combination of size and speed.</p> In 2004, as a sophomore at the University of Virginia, he was first-team All-America with 90 tackles and eight sacks.</p> He is a big hitter who could give the Bengals' defense a personality it has lacked. Brooks could be the enforcer, similar to what linebacker Ray Lewis has done for years for the Baltimore Ravens. Brooks could strike some fear into opposing offensive players.</p> The Bengals selected Brooks in the third round of the 2006 supplemental draft. He was in camp two weeks later.</p> "I came in here, didn't know what was going to go on," Brooks said Wednesday between practices. "I only had two weeks to prepare for the whole defense."</p> He didn't know where he belonged, let alone any of his defensive teammates. He played in 11 games with five starts, but he was de-activated three times and active but did not play in two more.</p> Part of the reason was Brooks didn't understand the importance of playing on special teams.</p> Through a long offseason of classroom work to learn the defense, Brooks also had the light go on as to the importance of the kicking game in the NFL.</p> "Special teams ... a big part of the game," he said. "You can get a big play on special teams and change the game. I have to work hard just like everybody else out here."</p> On defense, Brooks, as the middle linebacker, runs the huddle. He receives the call or sign from coordinator Chuck Bresnahan on the sideline and relays it to teammates in the huddle.</p> "We didn't put that on him last year, and this year he's doing great with it," Lewis said.</p> Said linebackers coach Ricky Hunley of Brooks, "What gets me is how he is making all the calls and adjustments."</p> Brooks has improved his recognition of what's happening in the backfield, said Hunley, himself a former NFL linebacker. Brooks reads his keys - for example, where the quarterback and running back are going - reacts and beats blockers to the hole. Brooks has shot the correct gaps in practice on offensive run plays and blitzes.</p> Lewis also noted the way Brooks has taken charge on the field.</p> "He is a guy that now understands how he is supposed to line up, and where everybody is supposed to be around him," said Lewis, who was a linebackers coach in Pittsburgh for four seasons (1992-95). "Last year he was trying to get himself lined up, for the most part. Now he is able to put other people in position. He is able to get us correct if there are adjustments that need to be made."</p> </p> </p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="315"><tbody><tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td class="photobyline" width="100%" align="left"> THE ENQUIRER/JEFF SWINGER </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="caption" colspan="2"> Bengals middle linebacker Ahmad Brooks, selected in the third round of the 2006 supplemental draft, has impressed coach Marvin Lewis with his newfound willingness to work on special teams.</td></tr></tbody></table> </p> </p>
