MVN - Most Valuable Network

Bengals worry about Houshmandzadeh

The Cincinnati Bengals offense feeds off of a vaunted passing game with elite quarterback Carson Palmer passing to Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshandzadeh, with developing talent Chris Henry in tow.

Now, Henry is gone and an unhappy Johnson is threatening to sit out unless he is traded.

Peter King at SI.com suggests there may be another reason why the Bengals selected wide receivers Jerome Simpson [Coastal Carolina] and Andre Caldwell [Florida] with their second and fourth draft picks. T.J. Houshmandzadeh is in his contract year and head coach Marvin Lewis is worried that the team may not be able to keep him after this season, writes King in his Monday Morning Quarterback column.

King points out that Housh’s talent could be valued much higher than the $27 million deal Javon Walker signed with Oakland.

The Bengals had the NFL’s seventh-ranked passing offense in 2007, completing 373 receptions for 4012 yards and 26 touchdowns. Houshmandzadeh and Johnson combined for 205 of those catches, 2583 of those yards and 20 of those touchdowns. That’s about two-thirds of Cincinnati’s passing offense.

Quiet as it’s kept, Houshmandzadeh had a better year than Johnson with more receptions [114] and more touchdowns [12] than his high profile - high maintenance teammate.

The Bengals are taking a hard line with Johnson’s trade demands, but that doesn’t preclude one before this season or next. Houshmandzadeh could bolt for bigger money in ‘09 in the unlikely event Cincinnati doesn’t slap the franchise tag on him.

That won’t solve all problems. Keeping Housh could be as costly to the Bengals as Larry Fitzgerald’s new deal is to the Arizona Cardinals. Fitzgerald’s base salary is $14 million this year. The deal sparked turmoil with Anquan Boldin, the Cardinals No. 1 receiver who is now unhappy with his current contract.

Houshmandzadeh is paying attention to that deal. So is Chad Johnson. But, can rookies Simpson and Caldwell back fill for those two? Perhaps. The Bengals found Houshmandzadeh in the seventh round of the 2001 draft.
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There’s a hilarious commercial out where a fantasy footballer mangles Houshmandzadeh’s name. Housh is an Iranian-African-American and “Houshmandzadeh“ is Persian for Son of Wisdom according to Wikipedia.      

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am 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.