This is a locker that is full of items that are eye catching. Resting on a shoe rack there’s even a pair of shiny gold cleats. Sweet Revenge, written in Spanish on a laminated list, is tacked up and names all the cornerbacks that the Cincinnati wide receiver intends on burning this year.

The contents in Chad Ochocinco’s locker make one thing clear. There’s a diva at work.

Andre Caldwell, two lockers down, stores his gear. There’s no bling, no list, nothing fancy. As he stops to talk he has two rosaries around his neck. He has on regular gym shoes, blue jeans and a sleeveless t shirt to show off all of his tattoos, which includes one of Jesus’ face that is on his left bicep.

Caldwell’s ego? He checked that at the door.

Caldwell said, I just leave mine aside so I can focus on the team. In just his second year Caldwell is becoming a major contributor for the Bengals, one of the surprise teams this year in the NFL. He improvised his route and caught a touchdown pass of four yards from Carson Palmer during the final seconds of Sunday’s 23-20 victory over the Steelers, the defending Super Bowl champions.

The first NFL touchdown for Caldwell broke the Steelers eight game winning streak in Cincinnati. It also gave the season for the Bengals some hope. With a record of 2-1 and an upcoming game in Cleveland, Cincinnati is a lot better off now than they were last season when they lost eight games in a row to start the season.

A lot of the attention in the offseason focused on Cincinnati signing Laveranues Coles to replace T.J. Houshmandzadeh who they lost to free agency. However, Caldwell probably has the bigger burden. The former third round draft pick out of Florida is taking over Houshmandzadeh’s place at slot receiver and expected to make the tough catches up the middle.

Palmer said, he is playing in T.J.’s spot so he will get lots of those kinds of plays. After the first three games, Caldwell and Ochocinco are tied with 14 catches and one touchdown each to lead the team. Facing the Steelers Calder had six catches, a team high. Three of the catches came on the Bengals’ winning touchdown drive.

His last catch demonstrated he is starting to develop a similar rapport with Palmer that Houshmandzadeh did. On the play Caldwell was intended to get behind linebacker James Farrior. However when Farrior dropped back deeper than what was expected Caldwell made an adjustment to his route. With just 14 seconds remaining in the game, he turned and ran in front of Farrior and caught the touchdown pass to win the game.

Caldwell said, it was like playing backyard football. I just turned and got in front. Carson was able to read it and got the ball to me. On the play we were thinking the same thing. He hit me right on time. You have to be able to read the other guy’s mind out there. Sometimes on the run you have to make adjustments that are not part of the game plan.

As a rookie Cincinnati had wanted to be able to break Caldwell into their offense. However he was limited to only 11 catches in seven games due to foot injuries. During the offseason, Caldwell and Jerome Simpson, Cincinnati’s 2008 second round draft pick, went to California and stayed in a hotel to work out with Palmer so they could develop that passing bond.

Palmer said it was a big commitment and I appreciate that. It has paid off. You love having a guy like Andre on the team. He doesn’t have a lot to say, just goes out to do his job. If he is asked to block a linebacker, he does it. If he is asked to run a certain type of route against a certain type of coverage, he just does it without complaining or whining.

He never says, I blocked the whole game and the ball wasn’t thrown to me. He understands how he’s part of the team. He is the ultimate when it comes to being a team player, Palmer added.

Caldwell was given the starting job after Houshmandzadeh left to go to Seattle. He was able to learn a lot watching Houshmandzadeh for a year running his precise routes and catching the ball while he was getting clobbered.

Caldwell said he incorporated Houshmandzadeh’s game into his. That was very big. What I learned was how to be a player in the NFL, to be a man, and how I should carry myself as a receiver. Without all of that, I might not be where I am now.

Carson Palmer says he expects that teams are going to start paying a lot more attention to Caldwell. That will free up Ochocinco occasionally from double coverage which he has been facing in every game.

Palmer said, that hopefully as more teams started to fear Andre that it would open Chad up a bit more.

The first big moment for Caldwell in the NFL gave him streams of congratulations from all over the country.

Caldwell said he got lots of texts, tweets, phone calls. It has been very exciting how people have been happy for me. I am blessed that I get to be in the situation I am in right now.

When Caldwell was asked if any famous people had given him well wishes he just smiled and said that he didn’t know a lot of big names. It was lots of small time, Friends and family.

Questions still follow Maualuga. Dressing for practice to prepare for the final exhibition game for the Bengals against the Colts, almost 2,000 miles away from home where all of the criticisms began. And the unflattering evaluations still follow him.

Maybe the former All American linebacker from USC, Rey Maualuga thought all of the questions had dissipated. May he mistakenly thought that because he was now starting to show his potential with the Bengals, after being drafted by Cincinnati mid second round, that he wouldn’t have to think about all the negative analyses coming from anonymous scouts any longer. All the questions about his maturity, intelligence, and ability for him to translate his success in college to a successful pro football career. Maualuga has discovered that even thought Jeff FitzGerald, Bengals linebackers coach, stated on a recent show of “Hard Knocks” on HBO that the coaching staff absolutely needed to get Maualuga into the starting lineup, that the questions about whether he has NFL level talent have not disappeared.

Maualuga says people will talk as he rested his hand, adorned with his “One Love” Jamaican inspired bracelet, inside his metal locker. People are going to say things about you and say you can’t do it. No matter what I said it was not going to help in getting me drafted to where I wanted to go. I had to come here and just let my play do the talking.

His play so far has sounded like a man yelling into his microphone. In the Bengals’ third exhibition game against the Rams, Maualuga had eight tackles, leading the team even though he started this season at strong side linebacker behind Rashad Jeanty on the team’s depth chart. This week FitzGerald said Maualuga has made it into a race and it’s now a neck and neck battle. Maualuga on Sunday stated he has been informed that he would start in Cincinnati’s season opener, although the team has not announced that.

The coaches have also found him impressive when working as a middle linebacker, which was the position he played in college at USC, when Cincinnati switches to the nickel defense during passing situations.

FitzGerald said that when it came to him playing outside linebacker that here had been questions regarding his pass coverage because they hadn’t seen him playing there before. Up to now we have been happy with what we have seen. There are always concerns when you haven’t seen a guy in the position. He exclusively played inside linebacker and we didn’t get to see him covering receivers from outside the box. Coming into the spring that was one of the big questions we had about his, but he’s done a good job and been able to carry that through into training camp.

As the scouts worried about his exploits on the field (was he inconsistent, was he just a big play wonder), there were other questions regarding his maturity.

Before the Rose Bowl last season, Maualuga, who won the Bednarik Award for being the top defensive player in the nation, was captured on film, dancing suggestively behind Erin Andrews, sideline reporter for ESPN. It wasn’t a good reflection on him, and it was obvious he had made a mistake with the video getting millions of YouTube views.

Maualuga stated that he apologized with how he handled himself and felt he had show disrespect to women. He added that he didn’t want there to be the appearance that they could do things like that and get away with it.

Since then he’s walked the line of trying to maintain his what’s best for the team, chilled out, happy go lucky personality while at the same time trying not to be too obnoxious as a rookie linebacker who is challenging a veteran for a starting position.

At the team’s training camp, located in Georgetown, KY, Maualuga was always the last rookie to leave after signing autographs. One time his legs started to cramp from staying on so long that he needed to be carried off the field as he continued signing footballs and tossing them to the fans. He has also playfully nabbed walkie talkies from gullible team interns.

It’s definitely harmless fun. However, his complete personality won’t be revealed until after Maualuga completely understands all the fine points regarding his position.

FitzGerald said this is just a glimpse of who we will see on the football field. He will be good in the community and interactive with people. All of that will come. But right now it is all about him learning how to play our defense and the linebacker techniques we use, and then just getting out and playing your behind off.

The veteran linebackers and several of the fellow ex USC Trojans, including Keith Rivers, linebacker, Frostee Rucker, defensive end, and Carson Palmer, quarterback, will all help him to channel his enthusiasm.

Chinedum Ndukwe, strong safety, said about Maualuga that he is very high spirited and that was a good thing he brought to the team. He just needs to channel that in the right way. Regardless he will make the plays. I am sure that Rey wants to be a big time player. The veteran guys surrounding him is going to really help him.

Early in training camp Maualuga was slowed by a hamstring injury. He missed about a week of practice as well as the team’s first exhibition game. However since that time with all the repetitions during practice, he has performed very well.

Marvin Lewis, head coach for the Bengals, said that Maualuga might make a small mistake or something but he is going full speed. What he does, he does with an impact. Like most of the college players Rey comes needing to learn how to discipline his eyes. And that is true with just about any college linebacker. But USC has a varied defensive scheme and he learned a lot there so he has a big advantage.

Although Maualuga has tried to let his playing during preseason answer all of the criticism, he has not forgot what occurred in April. He said he was bitter at first when he didn’t get drafted until the second round, but that he has gotten over it. However, the way that he plays seems to confirm that he is still attempting to answer all of the questions that have never quite gone away.

Maualuga said he didn’t know that he really had anything to prove. I just need to go out and play football and do what the coaches have taught me. He added that he wasn’t going out of his way to show other people what he could do. Football is what I have played for 12 years. Sometime people will say he is a football player. We were wrong. This guy really can play. That is what I am going to show.