Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh says he wouldn’t mind coming back to the Bengals, but “just want[s] a choice. I just want to see what else is out there.” If Cincinnati doesn’t re-sign him before or during the looming free agent period, he thinks the offense could be just as bad in 2009 as it was in 2008.
That strikes me as a bit of a stretch, but I’d prefer the Bengals not test it all the same. Bengals.com’s Geoff Hobson cites the “conventional wisdom” that the team will try to get him back into the fold before March 1 — though apparently no talks have commenced — and won’t use the franchise tag if they fail to reach an accord. If so, that would mark the third straight year that the Bengals did (or in this case, did not do) something highly questionable with the tag.
Two seasons ago, they used it on DE Justin Smith, who responded with a two-sack season, and last year employed it to keep RT Stacy Andrews, who gave up 9.5 sacks before tearing his ACL. Both decisions were widely criticized by the fan base, which objected to giving a giant paycheck to a defensive end who’d never had more than eight sacks in a season and a right tackle who, prior to 2008, had 17 starts in four years in the league. And in both cases, the fans turned out to be right.
The lesson for the Bengals’ front office here is: don’t use the tag on borderline guys. But now, when they have a clear Pro Bowl-caliber candidate for the franchise designation…they’re not going to use it!?!?
That would be just like the “Bungles,” wouldn’t it?
It’s still hard for me to believe that they won’t tag T.J. Though Housh says he will still talk to the Bengals as a free agent, there’s no way on God’s green Earth that he returns to Cincy if he reaches the market in March. And if Houshmandzadeh leaves while Chad Johnson stays, the fans will explode in outrage again, something that certainly isn’t going to help the sagging sales of Bengals tickets and merchandise. No, not tagging T.J. doesn’t make a lick of sense on or off the field.
Of course, the Bengals have long specialized in doing things that don’t make sense, so I suppose we’ll see.
Tags: Chad Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals, NFL free agent, TJ Houshmandzadeh
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[...] to Cincinnati selecting a wide receiver in the first round of the draft. And both Chris and Stripes agree with me that letting T.J. walk will only stoke the fires of an already unhappy fan [...]