Another Day in BengalDumb

The Cincinnati Bengals made a move today that appears to signify the end of a great career in Cincinnati. I’m talking about T.J. Houshmandzadeh, the eight year Bengals veteran, was rumored to be tagged the Bengals “Franchise” Player during the offseason. However, the Bengals announced today that they used the Franchise Tag on none other than Bengals kicker, Shayne Graham.

This is a stupid move by the Bengals in my opinion. You have one of the top receivers in the league, available to franchise, to ensure he spends another year catching passes from Carson Palmer, instead we waste it on a kicker! A KICKER? The most worthless position in football, this position is held by the kid that you beat the crap out of in high school because he was too big of a sissy to actually PLAY football; instead, he decided to join the team JUST to kick field goals. The Bengals used the tag, to keep someone, whom they could sign to a long term deal, without breaking their pocket books, for roughly around two million dollars a year. I’m not saying kickers are a dime a dozen, but what would be easier to find, someone who can kick a fifty yard field goal? Or someone who catches one hundred passes a year? Easy answer right? Take the guy that’s going to catch a hundred balls a year, a potential Pro Bowler, a true professional on and off the field.

This is what OTHER teams would do, not the Bengals. They would rather let T.J. walk; go to another team, without receiving any compensation for him whatsoever. This is why I’m angy, if the Bengals HAD placed the Franchise Tag on T.J. and he decided to sign with another team, the Bengals either could have matched that offer, or let him go, and be given two future first round picks as compensation. They chose however, to tag their kicker, and leave the potential out there for T.J. to sign with anyone else, and the Bengals be left with a sub par receiving corps at best.

So where does T.J. go? Rumors have been flying around faster than the wicked witch of the West, but there is still a possibility that he could remain with the Bengals by signing a long term deal, this is unlikely, because T.J.’s price tag appears to be too steep for the hapless Bengals. T.J. has already said he wouldn’t mind playing with McNabb and the Eagles, other places that could be a good fit for him would be Tampa Bay, and even Tennessee.

Maybe the Bengals have it all worked out, maybe they are letting T.J. go for a reason. I mean, they do have Chris Henry, who spent more time last season in prison stripes, than Bengal stripes, oh and don’t forget Chad “Ocho Stinko” Johnson, who made headlines last year only because of his legal name change. He spends more time running his mouth than running routes. Maybe they believe second round pick Jerome Simpson is finally ready to start running plays correctly this season, since he wasn’t smart enough to remember his playbook ALL of last season. Or Andre’ Caldwell, and Antonio Chatman, these guys are promising when they aren’t on crutches.

My bitterness will go away eventually, I just need to relax, Bengals owner Mike Brown has it all figured out I’m sure, he NEVER makes bad decisions when choosing players for his team. Right?

At least they have one hot cheerleader!

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