CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals announced Wednesday that they filled their final open roster spot with linebacker Nico Johnson, a former Kansas City Chiefs practice squad player.

A fourth-round 2013 draft pick, Johnson spent all of this season on the Chiefs' practice squad after spending all of last year on their active roster. He comes to Cincinnati one day after the Bengals made a series of roster moves that included waiving linebacker Khairi Fortt, one week after he had been signed.

The addition of Johnson also comes amid a rash of injuries at linebacker. Emmanuel Lamur and Rey Maualuga were run from the fourth quarter of Sunday's 37-37 overtime tie with the Panthers. Lamur suffered a left shoulder injury on the third-to-last play of regulation. With time in the quarter expiring, had he been able to get up, Carolina might not have had enough time to get its offense back to the line in order to spike the ball and stop the clock for a game-tying field goal try.

Since Lamur stayed on the ground, the clock stopped and the Bengals were forced to use a timeout. It gave the Panthers a chance to spike the ball on the clock restart, and to have Graham Gano kick a field goal that sent the game to overtime.

Maualuga's hamstring injury came earlier in the quarter, and was apparently so bad he had to be carted off the sideline.

There is no word yet exactly how much time either will miss, but there is a belief internally that Maualuga could miss multiple weeks. With the middle linebacker gone, the Bengals needed to add depth in the form of an interior linebacker. Johnson played inside linebacker in Kansas City's 3-4 defensive scheme.

Johnson also played in seven games last season for the Chiefs and had one start. The Alabama product also recorded 15 tackles and three special teams tackles this preseason.