Center Kyle Cook, who left Sunday’s game with a foot injury after just eight plays, was in a walking boot and on crutches in the locker room Monday, but he said they were only precautionary before declining to answer any more questions.
Cook was on the field for three special-teams snaps in the fourth quarter, which would seem to indicate it is not that serious.
Defensive end Wallace Gilberry also left Sunday’s game after getting poked in the eye, but he said afterward he just had a little blurred vision and should be fine.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis deflected all injury questions during his press conference Monday afternoon.
Asked about Gresham and Eifert first and later about cornerback Terence Newman, who hasn’t played since injuring his knee in the Indianapolis game Dec. 8, Lewis simply said “We’ll see when we get to Sunday.”
The 6-foot-5, 312-pound Nwagbuo is a fourth-year player from Michigan State who was with San Diego from 2009-11 and Carolina in 2011. He played one game for Detroit in 2012 and was with the Lions during the preseason this year before being waived.
He has 44 career tackles, including 1.5 sacks, two passes defensed and a fumble recovery.
The Bengals also signed a pair of players to futures contracts Monday. Cornerback Brandon Burton (5-11, 190) is a third-year player from Utah who previously was with Minnesota and Buffalo, while defensive tackle Zach Burton (6-1, 297) is out of Montana State who signed as a college free agent and appeared in two games this season for Chicago.
Coaching casualties: Four more NFL head coaches lost their jobs Monday after the Browns fired Rob Chudzinski on Sunday night and the Texans parted ways with Gary Kubiak earlier this month.
It’s an annual, end-of-season occurrence known as Black Monday, but Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said it’s still a difficult day even as the second longest-tenured head coach in the league.
“It’s a hard day. It always is,” Lewis said. “There’s only 32 of these and now we’re going to be on (78) changes since Jan. 14, 2003. That’s hard.”
Jan 14, 2003, was the day Lewis was hired. Since then, there have been 72 head coaches hired (not counting interims), and there are six current vacancies in Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Washington.
Only New England’s Bill Belichick has been with his current team longer (14 seasons) than Lewis.
Fan death: The Cincinnati Bengals confirmed that a fan died after suffering an apparent heart attack during Sunday's game at Paul Brown Stadium.
Jack Abner, a 75-year-old Middletown resident, passed away after being transported to a local hospital.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” Bengals Director of Business Development Bob Bedinghaus said. “I did with his wife briefly earlier (Monday), but they were in the midst of making some arrangements. We will be reaching out to the family again here in the next day or so.”
Bedinghaus said Abner was a Bengals season ticket holder since 1980.
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