MVN - Most Valuable Network

Chad Will Go To Mini-Camp

After the release of Chris Henry today, all that trade speculation about Chad Johnson should go away, as I previously felt even before the incident. They simply need him with no clear third receiver. Now, the issue with be Ocho Cinco actually playing for Cincinnati, as there have been whispers that he’d hold out, asking for change.

However, on ESPN last night, Chad took part in an interview that can only be described as bizarre. As usual, he left people scratching their heads, but finally did give a definitive answer when asked if he would show up to mandatory mini-camps in June:

“My plans are to show up and embarrass everybody that tries to cover me.”

There you go, the usual cocky Johnson actually telling people that he won’t be a hold out.

This is very good news for Bengals fans, even though he didn’t sound too happy with the teams direction, especially in another interview today where he disagreed on the Henry release. It looks like Johnson has determined that he won’t be traded, and after Marvin Lewis played hardball with him, saying that if he didn’t want to play, than he shouldn’t, realizes that he has no other choice besides holding out, losing money and status in the process and retiring, neither of which help his career and quest to become a Hall of Famer(remember the opening weekend jacket?).

He wants to be traded because he hasn’t seen a big enough effort by Cincinnati so far this offseason and doesn’t think they have the team to compete. He’s probably right about the latter with the struggling running game, offensive line, and defense. But, the Bengals have made their team better this offseason, and tried hard too. The landed a ten plus sack defensive end and a decent tight end. Getting a defensive tackle was also a top priority, but they got unlucky and missed out on two near-trades with Dwayne Robertson and Shaun Rogers.

Its going to be an odd locker room after all that Johnson has done this offseason with his trade demands, but nothing can be done now. They’ll just have to all get along, no matter how difficult it is. Remember, these guys are adults, not children.

Hopefully for Cincinnati’s sake Johnson does what he says he’ll do which is going to all mandatory practices and playing his best. The worst case scenario is another TO incident in which Chad is sent home or decides to leave, which would be an absolute disaster.

Johnson is absolutely critical to the already dim chances for the Bengals making the playoffs. With Henry gone, him and Houshmanzadeh are the only dependable receivers left on the team. Someone might be drafted, but no one will make up for Henry’s production.

Either way you look at it, it doesn’t look like a good season is in store Cincinnati, even in April. Getting this Johnson mess sorted out would make it just a little better.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.