NFL NEWS AND NOTES

Cincinnati has been awarded LB Ahmad Brooks after the Bengals put in the highest bid for the former Virginia star in today’s supplemental draft. The Bengals claimed Brooks with a 3rd round pick. Brooks had been rated as a possible top 10 pick for the 2006 draft at this time last year but after an injury plagued fall campaign was kicked off the Virginia team for repeated violations of team policy. As a result of the selection of Brooks, the Bengals will forfeit their 3rd round pick at the 2007 draft. No other players were selected at today’s supplemental draft meaning Iowa State DE Jason Berryman, Texas FB Ahmard Hall and DT Marco Martin, NC State WR Richard Washington, UConn OT Craig Berry and former junior college LB David Dixon are free to sign with any team in the league....

Tennessee has signed former Texas FB Ahmard Hall who was not selected in yesterday’s supplemental draft....

With the opening of the first NFL camps now less than a week away, a number of 2006 draft picks signed yesterday. Carolina, for example, signed three more picks including 3rd round OT Rashad Butler, 5th round TE Jeff King and 7th round DE Stanley McGlover. Meanwhile, Houston signed a pair of picks: 6th round RB Wali Lundy and 7th round WR David Anderson; while Philadelphia signed WR Jason Avant, a 4th round pick this year; and New England signed OG Dan Stevenson, a 6th rounder....

CFB

Minnesota officials have confirmed that star junior RB Gary Russell is not enrolled for the fall semester and will be ineligible to play college football this fall. Russell was dismissed from school over the winter because of academic problems and reportedly tried to improve his grades at a junior college. However, school officials reportedly turned down Russell's final request to be readmitted. According to NCAA rules, Russell, who has two years of eligibility remaining, can't transfer to a lower division because he was not academically eligible when he left Minnesota. As such his only other option if he wants to play college football this fall would be to transfer to an NAIA school....

PLAYERS TO WATCH IN 2007

Stephen Nicholas, South Florida… 6-2, 225, SR… Nicholas is another Florida LB who somehow got away from the state’s top programs. He is a very disruptive OLB who thought about entering the 2006 draft, but opted to return to school for his senior season. Nicholas has played all three LB positions, but is most effective when attacking the line of scrimmage from the weakside; in his career, Nicholas already has 224 career tackles in including 12.5 sacks and 26 other tackles for loss. Nicholas isn’t huge at 6-2, 225, but has the frame to add 10-15 pounds. He also has a quick first step and very good closing speed with a 40 time in the 4.6 range; he also has outstanding lateral speed and range, however, he doesn’t make a lot of plays in coverage.