Monday Night Mill

The rumor mill is churning out Bengals gossip tonight. First up, Muckraker Mike, who passes along word from NFL.com’s Adam Schefter that Chad Johnson’s injury is actually a torn labrum. The Cryptkeeper says it’s only partially torn. The Bengals maintain it’s a shoulder sprain. Whatever the truth of the matter, his shoulder didn’t keep Chad from dropping and giving the media 21. On the heels of this report came ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, who claimed during the lead-in to this evening’s MNF game that the Bengals were shopping Rudi in an effort to trade for a veteran wide receiver. That set off speculation in Bengaldom that the team worried about Chad’s injury. I think that’s possible — but let’s not forget T.J. Houshmandzadeh hasn’t played all preseason, presumptive No. 3 Chris Henry isn’t available until week 5, and all of the other WRs on the roster are either hurt, inexperienced, or nothing special. Getting another veteran wideout in the fold would be a good idea regardless of Ocho’s Oucho. That said, I can’t believe any team would trade much for a running back who was injured most of last year and is fighting the same injury again now.