CINCINNATI (AP) -One locker is filled with eye-catching items. There’s a shiny pair of golden cleats resting in the shoe rack. A laminated list that says “Sweet Revenge” in Spanish is tacked to the side, naming every cornerback that the Bengals receiver plans to burn this season.
The contents of Chad Ochocinco’s cubby make it clear: Diva at work.
Two lockers down, receiver Andre Caldwell stores his stuff. No list, no bling, no fancy thing. He’s got two rosaries hanging around his neck as he stops to chat. He’s wearing ordinary gym shoes, jeans and a sleeveless shirt that shows off his tattoos, including the face of Jesus on his left biceps.
Ego? Left that at the door.
“I just put mine aside and focus more on this team than me,” Caldwell said.
In his second season, Caldwell is becoming a big help to one of the NFL’s surprise teams. He improvised a route and caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer in the closing seconds Sunday for a 23-20 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers.
t NFL touchdown ended Pittsburgh’s streak of eight straight wins in Cincinnati and framed the Bengals’ season with hope. At 2-1 with a game coming up in Cleveland, the Bengals are far better off than last year, when they lost their first eight games.
Much of the offseason attention went to Cincinnati’s signing of receiver Laveranues Coles, brought in to replace departed free agent T.J. Houshmandzadeh. But the bigger burden probably is on Caldwell, a third-round pick from Florida who is taking Houshmandzadeh’s spot as the slot receiver and main threat to make tough catches in the middle of the field.
“He’s playing T.J.’s position, so he’ll get a lot of those plays,” Palmer said.
Three games into the season, Caldwell is tied with Ochocinco for the team lead with 14 catches and one touchdown apiece. Caldwell had a team-high six catches against the Steelers, three of them on the winning touchdown drive.
The last one showed he’s starting to develop the same type of rapport that Palmer had with Houshmandzadeh. Caldwell was supposed to get behind James Farrior, but the linebacker dropped deeper than expected. The receiver adjusted his route, turned in front of the linebacker and caught the winning pass with 14 seconds left.
t right on time. It’s like you’ve got to read each other’s minds. Sometimes you’ve got to make adjustments on the run that aren’t even in the game plan.”
The Bengals wanted to blend Caldwell into the offense as a rookie, but foot injuries limited him to seven games and 11 catches. He and Jerome Simpson, the Bengals’ second-round pick in 2008, went out to California during the offseason and roomed in a hotel so they could work out with Palmer and develop a passing bond.
“It’s a big commitment by him, and obviously I appreciate that, and it has paid off,” Palmer said. “Andre is a guy that you love to have on your team. He doesn’t say much, but he goes out and does his job. If you ask him to go out and block a linebacker, he’ll block a linebacker. If you ask him to run a certain route versus a certain coverage, he’ll do it without whining or complaining.
“You never hear him say, ‘Well, I blocked all game and didn’t get the ball thrown my way.’ He understands that he is part of a team. He’s the ultimate team player.”
He got the starting job when Houshmandzadeh left for Seattle. He learned a lot from his one year of watching Houshmandzadeh run precise routes and make catches while getting clobbered.
I don’t know if I’d be where I am right now.”
Palmer expects other teams to start paying more attention to Caldwell, which will occasionally free up Ochocinco from the double coverage he’s attracting every game.
“Hopefully that will open Chad up a little more because teams will start to fear Andre,” Palmer said.
Caldwell’s first big moment in the NFL brought a stream of congratulations from around the country.
“I got a lot of texts, a lot of tweets, a lot of phone calls,” Caldwell said. “It’s been exciting. People are happy for me. I’m just blessed to be in this situation right now.”
Asked if he got well-wishes from any well-known folks, Caldwell smiled.
“I don’t know too many big-name people,” he said. “Lot of small-time. Family. Friends.”
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