On Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals fans may have seen Tyler Boyd for the final time in stripes.
Boyd has spent his entire professional career with the Bengals, but he will be eligible for free agency this offseason.
With the cap space and larger holes on the roster outside of the receiver room, it appears that his time in Cincinnati is coming to an end.
When reporters asked Boyd about his future after the Bengals’ victory over the Browns, he said the following.
“I’m just happy to be a part of such a prestigious team. It’s surreal to see where I started and how it ended. You started really low and weren’t good enough.”
Boyd went on to say, “I stuck around, always continuing to battle and make plays while also being there for my teammates. My team got different players, and we improved. Make a run to the Super Bowl and win the AFC Championship. It has been an accomplishment with which I have always desired to live my life. Now that I’m at this stage in my life, I’m not sure what will happen.”
Boyd has been a key component of Cincinnati’s turnaround and a standout slot receiver for the Bengals since being drafted.
Most importantly, he had a winning attitude and helped to change the culture in the Bengals locker room since his arrival.
No one knows what the future holds for Boyd, but he will always be one of my favorite Bengals of all time.
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D’Anthony Bell’s reminder of his long, rocky path to the NFL.
This wheelbarrow remains in the Bell family’s backyard in Covington, Georgia. Just over six years ago, D’Anthony Bell, a Browns safety, used it while working on construction sites with his father, Anthony. He took a year off from school to save for college and pursue his NFL dream. Cheryl Bell, Bell Family
Berea, Ohio — The wheelbarrow is still in the Bell family’s back yard.
Grey and blue, Kobalt brand. Propped against some siding and next to a chain link fence.
“We don’t use it any more, but we still have it,” Browns safety D’Anthony Bell told Cleveland.com.
He no longer uses the wheelbarrow as intended, hauling heavy rocks on construction and landscaping jobs with his father, Anthony, but it still serves a purpose.
The wheelbarrow is a reminder of how far the 27-year-old has come.
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This year, Bell has stayed ready and made plays for the Browns’ top-ranked defense, including the game-winning interception that preserved the Browns’ 20-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 15 and another against the Bengals on Sunday in the regular-season finale.
Given Bell’s background, making it to the NFL and contributing to a playoff contender appeared improbable. But, given the rocks he was willing to haul to get here, it was also unavoidable.
He took a different path to the 53-man roster than most, attending four different colleges while pursuing his football dream and taking a year off in between to work construction jobs to help pay for school.
The native of Covington, Ga., was not even one of the 262 players chosen in the 2022 NFL draft, but that didn’t stop him. He was still the first undrafted rookie to make a Browns roster during the Andrew Berry era, battling his way past cutdown day the last two years.
Since making it to the NFL, it’s been a grind. Bell has worked hard over the last two years to establish himself as a key member of the special teams, making plays on kick, punt, and coverage teams, and even stepping in to kick off in an emergency against Houston this season.
He has had to wait his turn due to inconsistent defensive snaps. However, due to injuries to Grant Delpit, Rodney McLeod, and Juan Thornhill, he has been playing starter-level snaps for the past five games. He’s expected to start again in the Browns’ biggest game of the season, Saturday’s wild card game against the Texans.
Every time D’Anthony Bell steps on the field, it proves that he’s only partially correct about the wheelbarrow.
Even back then, it carried much more than rocks. It also contained his football dreams.
D’Anthony Bell, a young football player, plays for one of his youth teams in Covington, Georgia. Bell’s desire to play in the NFL one day led him to work construction with his father and earn college tuition money.Cheryl Bell/Bell Family
‘It was football, football, football.’
Bell was preparing for this moment even before he stepped onto a football field.
His mother, Cheryl, recalls that his pre-kindergarten class had a career day. While most of his classmates left school wanting to be firefighters, teachers, or lawyers, Bell came home with the goal of becoming a “famous football player.”
“We’ve always been big football fans,” Cheryl said.”D’Anthony hadn’t looked at football in that way. I was like, “Okay, wow.” And so, from that point forward, he would constantly worry me and his father about signing him up for football.”
Even Bell isn’t sure how the idea came to him.
Anthony and his brothers used to play, but Bell does not recall any conversations between his father and uncles that influenced him.
“I just always remember I wanted to play football,” Bell went on to say. “That’s all I remember.”
He had to be patient, however.
Cheryl and Anthony couldn’t sign their son up for football teams until he was eight years old, according to Georgia rules. In the meantime, they enrolled him in any other sport they could to help him burn off excess energy. Cheryl claimed she routinely chastised him for running around the house and into walls.
