It means a lot to have an organization that supports you, backs me like that, sticks their neck out for me. For one, keeping me around and then offering me an extension. Mack and Dillon had questionable backgrounds when they entered the 1997 draft. Dillon, out of the University of Washington, was rated among the top three running backs but had been convicted of five juvenile offenses growing up in a tough Seattle neighborhood. There were questions, but the answer is no one really knows how it's going to come out,'' Bengals president Mike Brown said.
Players can get hurt, players can be surprises and all of that happens to every football team.
Dillon has rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his first three seasons, posting a career-high 1,173 yards this year with two games remaining. Despite the team's 4-10 record, Dillon finished third in the AFC Pro Bowl voting behind Edgerrin James of Indianapolis and Eddie George of Tennessee. To be up in the caliber of the upper running backs and actually go over and participate with the top backs in the AFC is just great. I'm proud of him, the ordeal he went through, to overcome and to be a Pro Bowl player. Mack was arrested for driving under the influence in October of his rookie season and played in just four games.