Sportsnaut
Today, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins help lead a high-powered Cincinnati Bengals offense that typically ranks in the top ten of scoring at full strength. While Burrow’s current injury prevents the Bengals’ scoring attack from being at their best, when Cincinnati is at full strength, they’re hard to outscore.
That was also the case in the mid-2000s when Carson Palmer, Rudi Johnson, Chad Johnson, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh were helping propel the Bengals to top ten scoring offenses too. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when that star quartet helped the Bengals end their 15-year playoff drought in 2005 with an 11-win season.
Today we’re reminiscing upon the Bengals of yesteryear because one of those star players has now passed away.
According to TMZ Sports, former Pro Bowl running back Rudi Johnson has passed away at the age of 45. He was found dead by apparent suicide early Tuesday morning.
Johnson arrived as the 100th overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft, and it’s safe to say he smashed past expectations as a fourth-round pick. He enjoyed three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 2004-06, ranking fourth all-time on the team’s rushing yards leaders list with 5,742 yards.
After seven seasons with the Bengals, Johnson closed out his career by spending one year with the Detroit Lions in 2008. He then spent the next years of his retirement life trying to give back to the community, even founding the Rudi Johnson Foundation to help underprivileged children.
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