Let's All Get Off the Ledge

I've seen the comments.  Most of you are angry, and some of that is certainly warranted.  We saw a Bengal we all loved leave today.  I know everyone wants to blame Mikey.  It's the natural thing to do.  Hell, it's basically a Pavlovian reflex at this point to blame him for anything that goes wrong with the Bengals (we've had 18 years of classical conditioning after all).  This certainly seems to be same-old same-old from Bengals management.

I'm on the record stating my opinion that TJ should have been tagged.  My reasoning was that the team could get a 2nd rounder for him in the 2009 draft if they had his rights, as opposed to the 3rd round compensatory pick in the 2010 draft that would likely be a result of TJ leaving in free agency.  However, looking at the events of the last week, I may have overjudged TJ's value.  Matt Cassel, a young quarterback who is a potential franchise guy, was worth a high 2nd (Mike Vrabel was involved as well, but was basically a throw-in, as it's believed he would have been released).  Kellen Winslow, who is a similar player to TJ (he's not nearly as good but is younger) commanded a 2nd and what is likely a 5th.  Would the Seahawks have given their own high 2nd for a 32 year old wideout?  Doubtful.  Maybe the Vikings would have caved, but giving up a high draft pick AND signing an aging wideout to a big time deal isn't exactly palpitable.  At this point, I think it's safe to say it would have been difficult to get anything significantly better than the 2010 compensatory pick we'll get anyways.

So, maybe not franchising him wasn't that bad of a call anyways.  Maybe letting him hit the market was the right call.  How did Mikey-Boy play it from there?  Surprisingly, pretty well.  The team reportedly made a big push to get him signed right before he hit the market, at Carson's behest.  TJ opted to become a free agent, which was perfectly reasonable.  I've seen a myriad of reports on what the Bengals offered TJ (anywhere from 4 years/$28M to 5 years/$38M), but none quite matched the 5 year/$40M/$15.5M guaranteed deal he eventually got.  TJ said he'd take the biggest offer, and it's hard to begrudge a guy for that.  On top of that, he's a West Coast guy.  All you can do in this situation is figure out what your maximum offer will be.  If someone tops it, wish the guy well and move on.  You won 4 games with TJ, you can surely win 4 without him.

The easy thing to say is that, given the fact TJ was going to take the money, Mikey Boy should have offered more.  To be perfectly honest, I have no qualms not giving TJ the money he got from Seattle.  There's been a lot of talk about an uncapped year and the salary cap possibly even going away.  However, no team, outside of possibly Washington, is signing players to contracts under the assumption they won't have to deal with the cap in the future.  It's highly unlikely the cap goes away for good.  Knowing that, giving a non-quarterback the kind of money TJ got at his age isn't a wise move under the cap.  If you're going to give out big deals in free agency, you want to give them to guys who have yet to reach their peak.  At 32, we've seen the best TJ has to offer, and he's likely to get worse each and every year of that deal.  Even The Hardest Man Alive can't stop time.

Believe me, it hurts me to see TJ go.  It's hard to believe the guy my friends and I called "Douchemandzadeh" after he dropped seemingly every other punt in 2001 turned into such a stellar player.  I remember 2004.  I wondered how the team would survive Peter Warrick sidelined (now I wonder how I can even type that).  TJ filled the role past my wildest dreams. 

I remember 2005.  He was such a vital cog to that team.  I was at the playoff game against Pittsburgh.  When Carson was hurt, during the TV timeout while he lay on the ground, two Bengals went on to the field to fight anyone dressed in those hideous yellow pants.  I'm not joking, they literally had to be restrained.  One, strangely enough, was Chris Perry.  The other was TJ.  I remember him catching a touchdown in that game to make the score 17-7.  He immidetely spiked the ball as hard as humanly possible and starting jawing with every Steeler on the field.  I swear to God, he would have fought every single one of them on the spot.  At that point, I knew two things.  First, TJ Houshmandzadeh is comptely insane.  The other is that I loved him for it. 

I remember 2006.  TJ missed the first two games, both Bengal wins.  The third game was in Pittsburgh.  In the fourth, TJ scored two touchdowns in the span of about 30 seconds, the 2nd coming off one of the best catches I've ever seen.  Off his helmet, off his shoulder pads, into his hands, and still somehow got both feet down.  Wiping his feet with a Terrible Towel.  I repeat:  wiping his feet with a Terrible Towel.

All this is to say it sucks to lose a player we all love.  I'm not saying Mikey isn't to blame for the last 18 years of futility, or that he's an acceptable general manager.  Still, he may have got this one right.  After all, even a blind squirrel can find a nut.

Comments

[Ty]

All great points - I'm not upset that he didn't choose Cincinnati. But I am infuriated that we didn't use the money turned down by TJ to sign Ward. After Benson - who sounds like he's made up his mind about us - there's literally no starting RB's available. We blew it because we're so cheap and very well could enter 2009 with no legit starting RB. This is the team that Marvin promised after the season would be more physical, like the Steelers and Ravens? Somebody cue Dr. Evil - rrrrrright.

[Ty]

All great points - I'm not upset that he didn't choose Cincinnati. But I am infuriated that we didn't use the money turned down by TJ to sign Ward. After Benson - who sounds like he's made up his mind about us - there's literally no starting RB's available. We blew it because we're so cheap and very well could enter 2009 with no legit starting RB. This is the team that Marvin promised after the season would be more physical, like the Steelers and Ravens? Somebody cue Dr. Evil - rrrrrright.

[Brian]

i completely agree with Ty. i'm a bit miffed about him not signing with us for a couple reasons. 1. he rocks. 2. i have a man-crush on his rat-tail. 3. the money that we would have used on him is going into mr. brown's pocket. we all know that the bengals virtually never sign any quality free agents, or even make a halfway decent trade every once in a while.

we need a rb (i think re-signing benson would be a mistake) and some proven wr's, but first we need an o line. and then a d line. then a couple lb's and a fullback... if we aren't going to get it through free agency, we are going to get it in the draft. but the bengals hate drafting for the lines, and love drafting wr's and rb's. so we're going to do what we have done for the last 2 decades, and build up our peripherals before we build up our core.

'f' my 'a' this is going to be a long season. but like a true bengals fan, i fully expected to be proven wrong, and make a deep playoff run because this is the year we get 'scrappy.'

[Sly Vramavomovich]

I'm getting comfortable on the ledge.

[K. Phelps]

Wiping his feet with the terrible towel...

I'm gonna miss him

And I'm about to get off the ledge like you asked, by jumping

[Inkstained.]

It comes down to this: Mike Brown will not do what it takes to be successful in any facet of this game. Free agency scares him; the draft mollifies him; the game is beyond him. And fans pay him.

In sports, there is nothing worse then being a Bengals fan. Nothing.

[Flash]

There would have been no sense in throwing money at a guy who made it known he had no desire to be here. Mike Brown did TJ a favor by making any offer...

Brown drove up the price and forced Seattle pay more than they wanted. Mike Brown can't run a football team, but he handled this as well as he could have.

Good luck, TJ

[Tired]

Bull Showtime - TJ wanted a "fair offer" from the Bengals, not necessarily "the most money." We don't know what the Bengals' offered him. I'd like to know. Why are you and "C" Trent and others giving the Bengals' credit for "trying?" Gimme a break!!

Being stuck with the miscreants that are CJ and Henry, along with a budding bust in Jerome Simpson, and a 4th WR in Caldwell, will not get it done, ecspecially when you don't have a legit threat at TE, and one of the worst o-lines in the league (now).

Quit f**ing letting this crap go every off-season, it's one thing to be "rational," it's another to just excuse everything the Bengals' do in the off-season. This will come back to haunt them, because they won't sign anyone and will waste yet another day one pick most likely, on a WR, when they need o-lineman and LB's in the worst way, and not just one, multiple players.

TJ knew the system, played hurt, made the touch catches, and carried this team on offense. They just lost the most productive WR in the NFL since 2005. AND IT'S NO BIG DEAL??? Was Rod Smith, Harrison or TO not worth a damn in their 30's either?

I don't care if 14 other teams haven't signed an outside FA, the Bengals' NEVER sign a "name" FA outside of the org, and that's still what, 16 teams that HAVE!!!

Freakin sick of the lap dog media in this town.

And frankly I'm disappointed in this WhoDey Revolution post!!!

[T. Rais]

I agree with "Tired" on this one.

[Tired]

PS - Inkstained - NO ONE wants to play here - that's a given, they play here for $ and personal accomplishment/pride only. That doesn't mean you can just excuse not signing their leading rusher, starting RT and best WR, with no plan to replace them.

TJ was very comfortable here and said as much, again stating he just wanted a "fair offer" from the Bengals. He didn't get it, said it was the same offer they threw out there all along.

Let's stick to the facts here folks and quit assuming the Bengals' upped their offer or that TJ "didn't want to be here" etc...,

FACT is the Bengals' never even bothered to call him after the season ended, they treat their players like garbage, and apparently weren't close enough to Seattle's offer to keep him.

[BengalAnthony13]

I'm going to preface my post with this statement: I already am missing T.J. However, let's look at this realistically--The Bengals made a fair offer to T.J. (the same money as Super Bowl Wideout Plaxico Burress). As a 32 year old #2 or a #1B WR, however you choose to look at it, that's A LOT of dough. And, T.J. hasn't been here for the offseason workouts the last two years--notice the decline in Carson's/the offense's play the last two seasons? They are bringing in Lavernues Coles today, a pretty good player (not a T.J., but solid) and that could ease SOME of the pain if they sign him. However, the Derrick Ward thing kills me. They need a back. Benson was good at the end of the year but was a question mark. They should have thrown good money at Ward when he visited and shouldn't have let him leave. Now Benson doesn't want to play here and they're screwed because no one worth anything is left.
It's becoming increasingly apparent that the only way the Bengals can get people to play for them is to force them to via the Draft. The Bengals have said that they wanted 5 offensive free agents: a veteran RB, veteran backup QB, 2 veteran O-Linemen and a veteran WR. All they have to show for it thus far is DeDe Dorsey. Yikes.

[THEAARON1979]

ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS IS IF WE CANT REPLACE ONE WR WITH THE DRAFTING OF THREE IN THE SAME YEAR THEN ITS NOT LIKE TJ WAS GOING TO CHANGE A WHOLE LOT HERE DUE TO THE FACT WE CANT JUDGE TALENT AND HAVE ALOT MORE PRESSING ISSUES OTHER THAN WR. IF YOU DONT HAVE TIME TO GET HIM THE BALL WHO CARES WHO YOU PUT OUT THERE. MY FAVORITE CONVICT, OCHO STINCO, THAT DAMN GATOR, IT JUST DOSENT MATTER,UNLESS THE RULES HAVE CHANGED AND CARSON CAN THROW A PASS FROM HIS BACK.

[Inkstained.]

"It's becoming increasingly apparent that the only way the Bengals can get people to play for them is to force them to via the Draft. "

Yes, and we know how well that's worked for them.

Face it, the Bengals might win six games next year, maybe seven if the stars align. For Mikey Boy, that's, like, three Super Bowl rings.

[Michael Doerr]

Where are the free agent visits by OL or DL????
Groundhog Day.
Change, sell, or leave town.

[Who Dey NYC]

Agreed it's not poor football judgment to decide against giving a 32 year old WR a 5 year deal at $40 M with $15 M guaranteed. I think a lot of people are most up in arms about the fact that we have signed no one even though we were terrible last year and have obvious needs. It's sad to see TJ go and I get it. But it's tough to get us not addressing our other gaping weaknesses.

Our offensive needs are C, OT, RB, FB. WR is probably the fifth need behind those four considering we drafted 2 WR last year and re-signed Henry. I don't think we should be bringing Coles in. We should be bringing Matt Birk in.

[williamsburg gerwintown]

The Mike Brown Process (as seen in South Park):

step 1:
draft some players

step 2:
???

step 3:
profit.

Its so easy......who needs TJ?

Furthermore, part of step 2, which is the most important part mind you, includes the improvement that occurs in the offseason by your younger players....

how do they improve: ????
how do they improve more than other young players from other teams: ????

you guys need to relax, mike has it all under control.