Jared Allen to Minnesota
That’s going to be a terrifying defense, but how are they ever going to improve their receiving corps with all that money tied up in the defense?
Much like always trading prospects for proven pitching, this is a great move for the Vikings because they got what they wanted and they gave a good price for it. They probably weren’t going to get Harvey, and they’d be reaching for whatever they picked.
That is, as long as he can stay off the sauce.
How did I fail to spot that eight posts had been made about the trade before posting a link to the trade news?
And replace him with who? Especially since Henry is gone they are already weak in WR. Unless you can get an as good reciever in trade where are you finding one in this draft that will come in with the same or better skills on Day One? It does not matter how many picks they get, if the talent is not there to replace him then they come out behind. If this year had a deep field of top speed prospects in round one I think Chad would be gone in a second.
Since Chad’s position is that he won’t play another down for the Bengals, I fail to see how retaining him helps their receiving corps. Apart from anything else, he’ll take up a roster spot.
In any case, the Bengals are not winning a Super Bowl this season, with or without him. The opposing team could suit up five grandmothers to play O-line and put that one-legged McCartney woman in the backfield and she’d still average five yards per carry.*
*this is hyperbole… but good hyperbole
He says he won’t. Lance Briggs said he would never play for the Bears again, guess what. This is nothing more than a standard negociating tactic that they all use. That is why the Bengals called his bluff. Everone knows that if he actually sat out over money no one in the NFL would touch him with a ten-foot pole. He will whine and complain and act the fool to make Marvin Lewis sick enough of him to trade next year, but he will still need to put up the numbers to be worth it to anyone else and both sides know it. Even if he skips camps and preseason, he will still be Ocho Cinco in Cincy next year and still put up a 1000+ yard season.
And yes, they still would be able to go to the Super Bowl if you comped them tickets. 
What, like TO, who got a 10-foot check from Jerry Jones, sans pole? Or Meshawn?
But neither of them took themselves out. Both were benched due to personality conflicts with the coach and both were their teams best reciever at the time they got benched. TO had the second highest average ypc of his career (now 3rd) at the time he was benched. That is a far cry from a year of inactivity.
This tactic happens way to often to take seriously. He will play, he will bitch the whole time, come 2009 he will get a fat deal from the Cowboys and everyone will be happy. Until then, what other options does Cinncy have?
We can look at Deion Branch, if you prefer - he sat out all of training camp (and was fined $14,000 a day for doing so) and got traded to the Seahawks during the preseason.
Cincy’s only option is to trade Johnson. Even the cap hit isn’t a big deal - it may irritate the GM, but as far as ownership is concerned it’s less money they have to spend to avoid looking cheap.
OK, so even assuming he’s not a monumental distraction and he plays every down this year, you’re arguing that one year* of CJ on a team that’s not Super Bowl bound is better than getting 2 high draft picks? That’s nuts.
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- CJ’s deal actually runs though 2010 with a club option for 2011, so for him to be done after 2009 the team would have to cut him, but my point stands.
Ed Werder of ESPN just broke news that the Cowboys and Titans have reached a deal to trade the suspended Pacman Jones for a 2008 4th round pick. There are conditional picks in the 2009 draft based on Jones playing time, where both the Titans or Cowboys could be sending picks as compensation. No link yet, it was just announced live.
Unironically, the offenisive lineman I credit for Shaun Alexander’s success – Steve Hutchinson – went to the Vikings.
Which makes it so strange to me that teams supposedly want to turn Brenden Albert into a Tackle when he’s an elite guard that could make a teams running attack vicious. Conventional wisdom sometimes isn’t.
Yeah, that was the parallel I was going for. I reacted with skepticism when you said Shaun Alexander was overrated (it’s hard to believe a single lineman could be responsible for so much success over something like five seasons), but I couldn’t find a real explanation for how terrible he’s been since Hutchinson left. Injury could explain it, as could a dozen other things, but none explain it well, or conclusively. It was just good timing that Peterson and the Vikings’ line came up. 
Agreed.
Here’s Alexander’s YPA during his five year window of productivity. Interestingly, Hutchinson missed 12 games in 2002, but started all 16 games in each of the other four years.
2001: 4.3
2002: 4.0
2003: 4.4
2004: 4.8
2005: 5.1
In the same vein, I’m wondering how Larry Johnson will do in 2008. He was injured all last year, sure, but I suspect the OL departures will ultimately show him to be hugely overrated.
But is this a matter of the backs being overrated or of a solid O-line being required for a sucessful running game? If your line is not there your skills a a RB mean less, ask Steven Jackson.
Both.
The threat of the pass factors in, too. The Colts’ line has been undersized for ten years and yet Edgerrin James put up Pro Bowl numbers every year even after his knee injury clearly cost him a lot of his speed.
I am arguing that they would be nuts to trade him in a year where the talent to replace him is not there. They do not have a hot #3 receiver waiting in the wings for a breakout chance, this is a weak WR draft class and the only other reciever with skills they have on the roster is T.J. and how much of his success has come from secondarys ignoring him to cover Chad?
They would be better off keeping him for the year and trading him next offseason when they can find a good FA or real 1st round WR prospect to pair with T.J. and whoever they draft to replace Henry.
Just because you probly won’t go the the SB does not mean you want to become this years Miami either.
Check with me next year when the Bengals are a 8-8 team and the market for CJ is nothing but a 4th round pick. Then tell me how important keeping him was.
You know he was a 2nd-round pick, right?