Franchising TJ with an Option to Trade - A Violation of the Too Savvy Rule

A couple of days ago, the New England Patriots slapped the non-exclusive franchise tag on Matt Cassell.  The Patriots QB situation remains cloudy due to Tom Brady's knee recovery and franchising Cassell allows them to (a) ensure stability, if necessary, at the QB position, and (b) retain the rights of an in-demand free agent who could potentially be traded as opposed to losing him for nothing.

Let's take that last sentence and copy it almost verbatim (Comrades Bienemy and Showtime touched on this recently).  You will find that the Bengals are in a very similar situation with their Wide Receivers.

The [Bengals WR] situation remains cloudy due to [Chad Johnson being a dumbass, re-signing an unreliable criminal, drafting Jerome Simpson over DeSean Jackson, and Andre Caldwell not emerging] and franchsing [T.J. Houshmandzadeh] allows them to (a) ensure stability, if necessary, at the [WR] position, and (b) retain the rights of an in-demand free agent who could potentially be traded as opposed to losing him for nothing.

Franchising T.J. is the obvious, proper move.  So we'll do it, right?  My guess is a resounding NO for one reason....the Too Savvy rule. 

Trading down and out of the third overall pick in a QB heavy draft to double your amount of total picks in the draft? Too Savvy

Trading Chad Johnson, a player who doesn't want to be on the team anymore, for 1 and likely 2 first round picks?  Too Savvy

Trading up a couple of spots in the draft to satisfy your most gaping need at DT when you know one team in particular is going to leap frog you?  Too Savvy.

If a move is complicated, we won't do it.  It's too adventurous.  It's non-traditional.  We couldn't even complete a trade for Shaun Rogers because we're not used to dealing with that kind of craziness.  The "franchise TJ and hold onto an option to trade him or at least have a top WR for one more year when our WR corps is in shambles" move makes complete sense.  Unfortunately, this clearly is too savvy of a move for our front office.  Only teams like New England pull that kind of stuff off.

Comments

[Who Che]

On a semi-related note, indoor practice facilities are only for those fancy high schools like Massillon and scouting departments are needed to sell Thin Mints. Both are WAY too savvy.

[Robinsgr]

You can bet MB is trying to figure out a way to make the city and taxpayers pick up the bill for an indoor practice facility. He's not going to spend his money on such a thing if he can weasle out of it.

[Leo deTrotskyo]

It may seem like we're getting off the point talking about the indoor practice facility, but we're not. It's arguable whether practicing indoors during the winter helps or hurts the teams preparation: if the game is at home, I think they'd be better off practicing outside. At least they would have the option of practicing indoors to prepare for a warm weather/dome game, if they had an indoor facility.

Back to the point, what level of commitment does it convey to FAs who visit, often in Feb. and March, when they are given a tour and shown the practice field? I imagine much of the positive impressions of PBS are negated, making it more difficult to sign the FA.

We can only hope, Robinsgr, that Mikey has such a thought in his head. I haven't heard anything from the Bengals that they are even considering it.

[JON]

Hilarious once again, thank you! Although, don't you think selling his 1984 Caprice to a high schooler for 4k this past year was pretty savvy? That stamp saving act was very savvy. Mike Brown is darn near savvy, I'd say. I'd like a T-shirt with his mug that says "SAVVY." for ironies sake.

[Joe]

Well, the Bengals did make a draft-day trade to pick Ki-Jana Carter.... The NYT article about the draft sounds like it could be a spoof on this site:

"We think it's a very good deal for us," said Mike Brown, the Bengals' general manager, who selected defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson with the No. 1 pick last year. "Ki-Jana Carter should be a player that will come in here and impact our team very quickly."