Adams ready to 'create havoc'
DT gives Bengals needed run-stopper
BY MARK CURNUTTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
<!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->The eighth overall selection in the NFL draft in 1994, Sam Adams still needed a couple of years to learn how to play defensive tackle in the pros.
"I wanted to make plays," the newest Bengal said Tuesday. "My job is to create havoc and tear up anything and everything in my path to the football."
Adams, a 12-year veteran and three-time Pro Bowl player, is one of the league's consummate defensive tackles. He's a run-stuffing specialist, something the Bengals have sorely needed for some time.
Adams signed a three-year contract worth an estimated $7.5 million on Monday afternoon and went right to work to make good on his goal.
"I'm here to win a championship," Adams said.
Adams wanted to play again for Bengals coach Marvin Lewis and defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, both of whom he played for in the past in Baltimore and Oakland.
"They don't need me," Adams said of the Bengals. "I'm another bullet in Marvin's gun."
Adams will anchor a defensive tackle rotation that includes John Thornton, Bryan Robinson and Shaun Smith. Adams, tipping the scale somewhere in the neighborhood of 340 pounds, is the biggest and has the best résumé at clogging the middle.
The Bengals were 20th against the run in 2005.
"First and foremost, as a defensive tackle, I'm here to stop the run," Adams said. "You have to earn your right to rush the passer."
Mild-mannered and well spoken off the field, Adams undergoes a transformation in uniform. He was a Pro Bowl alternate in 2005 for the Buffalo Bills, who released him.
"You have to be willing to punish somebody and make them want to quit," he said. "You want to be nasty and dominating. We want you to understand when you have Cincinnati on your schedule (that) you better bring your lunch pail and understand it's going to be a long day."
Adams said he still has enough "gas in the tank" to be effective. "My health is pretty good," he said.
He had an easy exchange with reporters at a news conference Tuesday morning.
"A defensive tackle has to occupy two blockers by penetrating," he said in reference to a question about how his presence would help Bengals middle linebacker Odell Thurman. "He's going to make my job easier. I'm going to make his job easier.
"Every man has to do his job."
Wide receiver Chad Johnson, a three-time Pro Bowl player, called Adams the type of free agent the Bengals could not attract six or seven years ago.
"It shows how much we've come around," Johnson said.
Adams' signing, coupled with the signing of safety Dexter Jackson and the return of free safety Madieu Williams, should help the defense. Linebacker David Pollack, the Bengals' first-round pick in 2005, also should have a full training camp after missing it last year because of a contract holdout.
Adams and the Bills played in Cincinnati and defeated the Bengals in each of the previous two seasons. But he came away impressed with the crowd at Paul Brown Stadium.
"The fans have been tremendous for their team," he said. "The city is beautiful."
Adams relied on the recommendation of former Seahawks teammate Jon Kitna and offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski.
"The support you get ... the community is awesome," Adams said. "They said it is a young, exciting team. I want to be with Marvin."
Adams talked with the Bengals as a free agent in 2002 and 2003.
"I did want to come here a couple of years ago," he said. "But the numbers weren't right, and we decided to go our separate ways."
In 2006, after his release by the Bills, Adams had a message for agent Angelo Wright: "Just get it close enough. Just get me close enough that I won't look like a complete idiot. I needed to get here."
His desire to be a Bengal is matched only by the Bengals' need for a player with his skills.
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