Jim Owczarski

jowczarski@enquirer.com

Karlos Dansby could barely get the words out, his brain racing faster than his lips could structure the sentences, a palpable excitement crackling over the phone.

“It’s a great opportunity with a great team,” he began. “With a great team, man. Like, you know what I’m saying? Oh, man, this is going to be awesome. I, I, really can’t put it in words, this situation, man. You can’t … you can’t …”

You could hear him trying to catch up to his thoughts, having already spent time speaking about defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s scheme, the defensive line in front of him, the linebackers beside him.

“You just can’t draw this up every day, with the talent level we have on this team, man.”

At 34 years old, Dansby has started 171 games and played in 180 over 12 seasons. He’s played in a Super Bowl. He scored a game-winning touchdown in a playoff game. He is one interception away from becoming just the fifth player in NFL history to have 40 sacks and 20 interceptions.

There are few emotions he hasn’t experienced on the field.

The emotion that has escaped him, however, is what comes over a player when he holds the Lombardi Trophy as world champion.

It’s why Dansby sought out the Cincinnati Bengals once he released by the Cleveland Browns in mid-March.

“I haven’t been around this much talent in a long time,” he said. “You look at the roster man, there’s a lot of talent on this team. There’s a lot of ball players on this team, a lot of guys that have had a lot of success in this game. I just wanted to surround myself with a lot of talent one time to see how it’ll all pan out. I think it’ll pan out great.”

Dansby watched other players hold up that trophy right in front of him as a member of the Arizona Cardinals in 2008 when the Pittsburgh Steelers edged his team in Super Bowl XLIII. He also watched the Bengals lose to the Steelers in the first round of the playoffs last year, and he’s well aware of the recent history of the team’s struggles in the postseason.

“I feel like I can come in and I can help get us over that hump,” he said. “I want to be a part of something that’s great.”

Dansby, who visited the Bengals 2013 before re-signing in Arizona for a season, feels good not only about the talent on the roster, but the coaching staff. He recalled connecting with Guenther, who was then the team’s linebackers coach during his visit, and he played under defensive backs coach Kevin Coyle when Coyle ran the Miami Dolphins defense in 2012.

Dansby has played every linebacker spot in a 4-3 defense, but in Cincinnati he will play on the strong side when the Bengals linebacker corps is healthy and all together. It will be the first time he’s been on that side since 2007, and admitted the younger players will push him to get better. But he wasn’t about to discount what he can still do.

“I think it can be very, very dynamic and it will posse some problems for a lot of teams that wasn’t expecting this kind of move or wasn’t expecting to deal with this kind of talent we have on this defense,” he said. “And the way coach Paul I going to be able to dial certain things up, probably the way he couldn’t do in the past, but now he’ll have some freedom to do that. It’ll just expand the defense, man, and make everybody great.”

Despite the fact he’s entering his 13th NFL season, Dansby vividly recalls the sting of not winning the Butkus Award as the nation’s top college linebacker in 2003. The Super Bowl loss has, to this point, permanently bruised his heart. Not winning the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2013, which went to Carolina’s Luke Kuechly, still makes him seethe.

“You hear me talking and I get very passionate about it because these things have been eluding me,” he said.

Clearly for him, there remains much to prove.

Toss in the fact that he did sign for one year, even though he has stated he would like to play another four or five, Dansby feels he’s in lockstep with the rest of his new teammates in having unfinished business to attend to.

“The guys being so close last year I know it’s going to push ‘em to another level,” Dansby said. “Back in ’08, when I lost that, when I lost that game in ’08, the Super Bowl, it pushed me to another level. So I know my expectation level here coming is like these guys are going to be ready to go, they’re going to be itching to get back on the field, they’re going to have a certain kind of drive and a certain kind of passion for the game that they didn’t have before because they were so close. They knew they had an opportunity to win that game they lost. So, man, I fit right into that boat, you know? I want to be around guys that have the same kind of mindset.”