Shipley (right) never got a real chance to do a lot with Dalton. (US Presswire)

When the Bengals took Jordan Shipley out of Texas with the 84th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, it seemed like a smart value pick for Cincinnati. It certainly seemed that way when Shipley caught 52 balls for 600 yards as a rookie as the third wideout along with Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson.

But the Shipley bandwagon wrecked before it could really get going as the wideout suffered an ACL injury during Week 2 of the 2011 regular season. He never really recovered and the Bengals on Friday decided to cut Shipley from the roster.

CBSSports.com's Paul Dehner, Jr noted recently that Shipley was still lacking burst and his roster spot was in danger. But Offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, speaking earlier this week, indicated Shipley would have some time to try and play his way onto the roster.

"That decision will play out in the next three weeks,” Gruden said. “We are all about playing the best guys and may the best guy win. We know what Shipley has done in the past. He's been a great player for the Bengals. These other guys are emerging great players. We will let it play out. We are not going to predetermine any moves right now. The competition is there at wideout, that's for sure.”

So what happened? Well, on Thursday night Shipley was only targeted once by all the Bengals quarterbacks and after the game, Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer "saw Shipley walking to the bus last night with a huge icepack on his knee. The knee was not responding."

Reedy also noted that it was a "tough break" for Shipley, and he's spot on. Shipley emerged as a value pick as a rookie, looked like he could latch on in 2011 with the new-look Bengals offense, and suffered an injury just as Andy Dalton and A.J. Green were taking flight.

He's been working to rehab it, but with Green, Andrew Hawkins, Mohamed Sanu, Brandon Tate, Armon Binns and now Marvin Jones playing well, there just wasn't room for Shipley given his medical concerns.

On the bright side, he now has a shot at potentially getting picked up by a more wideout-needy team, of which there are plenty out there.

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