Peter King to Bengals: Your Stubborn Refusal to Change the Way You do Business Would Have Greatly Helped the Broncos this Offseason

We've heard this line of reasoning before with respect to how the Bengals dealt with Chad Johnson last year. 

The line goes:  the Bengals said they wouldn't trade him and they didn't...and good for them for not giving in to his demands which would set a bad precedent.

Peter King (scroll down) brings this up again.  Saying:

The short view is, "Let's get rid of this unhappy jerk.'' The long view is, "This guy's a great player, he's a handful, but if we trade him, we're handing everyone else in the locker room a blueprint for how to shoot his way out of town. Plus, we won't get real value for him.'' I can't believe I just told the Denver Broncos to study the Bengals. Frightening.

Good point, Peter.  But you're mistaking the Bengals stance on Chad as a well thought out tactic for what was really just another manifestation of Mike Brown's stubbornness and insistence on doing things his way (which has proven to be a failure).  In an earlier post I'm too lazy to search for, I mentioned Mikey once said "If people would confront me, I would show them how to spell confrontation."  Point is, making demands of Mikey will get you nowhere.  He will not give you what you want out of principle, even if a reasonable solution presents itself.

In this case, that reasonable solution was Washington's offer of two draft picks for Chad...which Mike ignored.  Peter acknowledges this.  So basically, Peter is just saying in the nicest way possible that Mike Brown is a stubborn fool, but if the Broncos had adopted a stubborn stance in this particular instance it would have prevented the mess with Jay Cutler/Brandon Marshall.

My take:  no franchise should ever take lessons from the Bengals and no one should give Mike credit for how he dealt with Chad - it's equivalent to giving him credit for being a curmudgeon.

Comments

[J M]

Hmmmm.

Pat Bowlen or Mike Brown.

Pat Bowlen or Mike Brown.

Pat Bowlen or Mike Brown.

I'll just have to go with Pat Bowlen here. Something tells me their record with Kyle Orton at QB will be better than ours with Carson Palmer for half a season. I say half because Dick Lebeau just woke up with a morning woody thinking about how many sacks he can rack up with two games against an offensive line that will feature:

A guard playing left tackle,

A backup playing left guard,

A backup or rookie playing center,

A pro playing right guard,

And a backup or rookie playing right tackle.

Yep Dick's ......... well you know, was harder than chineese algebra! It was so hard a cat couldn't scratch it! Besides he knows all of Brats new playbook already right?

1st and 10 = run stubbornly

2nd and 9 = run stubbornly

3rd and 8 = incomplete or complete for 5 yards.

4th down = I'm excited to see our new wrinkle......... The rookie punter!

Let's not even think about Baltimore.

[Eddie]

Great comment, JM!! Right on the money, and entertaining, too.

[Thom Tadsen]

No, wait JM, I thought the Bengals were going to make the playoffs and win it all with this shitty team, (sad, cries).

Ha, LOL, good post.

[J M]

I think the "team" meaning defense with next years head coach Zimmer is getting better. But protecting a pro bowl QB exactly as described above, with back-ups, rookies, and players out of position is the equivalent of 2 steps back.

I'm honestly asking how the line as a unit wouldn't have been better off with Levi at left tackle. I mean honestly why let him go? Whit is a better left guard than Levi but can anyone say he's a better left tackle? I wasn't a big fan of Levi in the last couple of years but I feel he's a better left tackle than Whit.

Oh well. Mike brown is going to his investors ( we the douchebags ) with this offensive line and say "we tried all options but this is the best we could do for you"

he of course cannot or will not ever say that. We've lost 4 big dollar o-lineman in the last 3 off seasons. (Steinbach, Anderson, Andrews, and Jones)

Where did all of that o-line cap space go? Seriously, where is it?

[bustinyourchops]

Good job guys! It's nice to see that you can make yourself feel smarter than what you actually are. The article and the comments are all based on uneducated opinions. The only factual item was the quote from Peter King. The whole basis of this website is trying to impose your opinion of what Mike Browns thought process is. Hmmmm, something tells me to look elsewhere for omniscience.

[TigerJ@w]

You need FACTS on how MFB thinks? Dude, they are every where. His pitiful record as a owner is a simple one, his not taking draft picks to make this team better is another simple one, his draft selections over they years are right in front of your face, his Free Agent selections and his non using of the CAP to the utmost effectiveness and for the most part not using all of it every year are all simple FACTS! What more else do you need to make it more omniscience?

Not taking those draft picks for Chad is just another notch in MFB's ole tiresome thinking belt just to save a buck in return. Oh, I forgot, Chad is in the best shape of his life and he is going to really, really, really, produce. I can't wait and I am sure you can't wait too. I hope he worked on his drops, not blocking down field techniques and staying on sides at the snap while he was twittering. LOL He better produce or he will be blasted from here to kingdom come.

[Kato]

I hate making any comment that can be seen as a defense of Brown, but this bears repeating: Chad needed surgery when the proposed trade from the Redskins came up. There is no way he would have passed a physical. From all accounts, the owner, coaches, and Chad were all aware of this. It is a very probable reason the trade wasn't made.

[TigerJ@w]

He did not need surgery, he played all season without surgery and still to this day has not had surgery. He was all a ploy to get out of dodge. He had a partial torn labrum so it was said, but guess what, nobody has heard anything about it anymore. Why is this? I know he had minor ankle surgery last year, but that was way before training camp.

[votasi]

yeah, his shoulder healed. these players elect not to have surgery and that's an understandable choice (carson did as well). it doesn't mean they were not hurt or that it could have had a possible impact on their play...

for the last time, somebody give me an actual hard number on chad's "drops" and then compare them to the rest of the league, including a ratio of balls thrown to, caught, and dropped. you keep dragging this tired complaint out and repeating it for your personal bias against chad and the bengals, but you've never ever documented any of this with real evidence...

for as much as you like to blast mike brown on his draft choices, what would 2 for chad really have brought us? i argue that it's a much better strategy not to cave to a player's demands, like chad's at the beginning of last year, than it is to take a chance on a couple of college players - and scouts or no scouts, most draft picks are a craps shoot anyway...

"he better produce"?!? they're professional athletes. i hope they all produce. none of you can use last year as an indication of future performance. whether his antics are your cup of tea or not, the only proven reality outside of last year was that chad has been a consistently elite receiver in this league, did not miss games due to injury, never had any off-the-field legal issues, and never (publicly) criticized his teammates (except for his fantastic ghuicec slam recently). he is an asset this team cannot afford to lose for the potential of a couple of redskins draft picks...

get better at trying to make an argument. this site would be much more interesting.

[TigerJ@w]

Pleaseeeeeeeeeee, the ole, not to cave into the player's demands as per what MFB does every freaking year. That is a joke of statement you made right there. Many players in the NFL get what they want, it is only MFB who does not want to pay more money out of his lined pockets! Where have you been? Talk about not being able to make an argument. You know, you are right, getting two # 1 picks would not have helped MFB, i forgot about that, because MFB does not have a clue on what to do with those picks like say to get more extra picks or how to pick real NFL players with those picks so why even get rid of Chad. LOL He would not want to pay 2 # 1 first round draft pick signing bonuses. What was I thinking? You helped me make my point!

Dude, the evidence is on the tapes. I don't need to provide you any stats, because if you grab stats from HOBJOB they are totally masked from the actual NFL site stats. Chad is being paid to make catches and this has nothing to do with comparing him to anyone else. He is being paid as a #1 WR and he needs to make more catches then any other WR on this team and not to drop the damn ball when it hits him in his hands.

You are a CHAD LOVER and that is why your are so BLIND! Wake Up! He makes mistakes more then any other paid #1 WR on any other team that I have ever seen. Hopefully, he gets his head on straight and PRODUCES just like I said before. PRODUCE like a #1 WR is what I mean!

[Wyatt]

Tiger J@w,

Are you 14? You argue (and write) like a 14-year-old, so I'm hoping that the reason is because you are, in fact, 14. Chad did need surgery before last season, as Kato stated. Convenient of you to forget the orthoscopic surgery he had on his ankle before training camp in light of mentioned the shoulder injury he sustained DURING THE PRE-SEASON, after the Washington offer was already off the table.

Also, in your horrible mass of run-on sentences, I think there was an argument in there that Chad's a horrible wide receiver. While I'm just as miffed at him as the rest of Bengals fandom, there's really no way you can argue with Votasi's statement that (and I'm paraphrasing here) outside of last year (2008), Chad Johnson has been an elite receiver in the NFL. Yes, TJ had more catches the past few seasons, but how much of that was due to Chad drawing double teams? I think you'll see this year, when TJ's ostensibly the number one receiver on the Seahawks, that his production will dip. Conversely, I think you'll see a huge year from Chad if the offensive line is less porous than it was last year. Why? Because he's on a contract year, if I'm not mistaken, and he's going to want to put up some big gaudy numbers so that he can get Fitzgerald money for what will probably be his last big contract (expect to see him back in five years or so at the league minimum). And, if that happens, and he goes to another team for big money, I have a strange feeling you'll be one of the fans crying and calling him a traitor.

[GailClements31]

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