Chad Johnson Will Not Be on the Field in 2009 for the Cincinnati Bengals

Word from the NFL meetings this week is that Chad Johnson will be permitted to use his “new name” from last year “Ocho Cinco.” Last year Reebok stopped the name change on the jersey itself.

However, I am under the opinion that Chad will be traded on draft day for just about anything the Bengals can get for him. The Bengals may not be the smartest club around, but they typically learn from their mistakes. They “lost” TJ and didn’t get anything in return.

Chad’s contract will be up in two seasons (end of 2010 season), but the Bengals DO have an “option” to extend to 2011. What does that mean…HECK IF I KNOW.

What I do know is that the Bengals need to trade Chad while he still has some value and I think that he does right now. Granted it would be best for the Bengals to keep Chad and have him have a break thru year and his value will skyrocket…but what if the opposite happened and Chad had another “down” year?

You add to the mix that Chad lost his buddy TJ, AND the Bengals brought in another receiver AND paid him more money than Chad. I highly doubt that sits well with Chad. Coles will also add some competition in my opinion.

If the Bengals DO decide to keep Chad, I will be surprised if the Bengals DID draft a bunch of receivers in last year's draft as well. One of them can take TJ’s role and I believe that Coles could fill in nicely for Chad. If Jerome Simpson progresses as expected, Henry continues to stay clean and improve his game, and if Andre Caldwell continues to develop, the Bengals will have a potent WR corps despite the possibility of losing Chad.

TBT