No hanging Chad in Cincy

May 13, 2008   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

The Cincinnati Bengals opened their first voluntary OTA (organized team activitiy) today. The first of twelve the team will host this season. There were two pretty big names that didn’t show up. TJ Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson both decided to skip out. Let’s take a quick look at both.

Chad Johnson is threatening to sit out the entire season, so having him not show up for an OTA is no surprise. This situation is only going to get uglier and uglier as training camp and then the regular season approaches. Philadelphia Eagles fans are going to say good, just send him our way we’ll take him. But Cincinnati management is still standing by their stance of not trading Johnson no matter what. One of these two sides will budge, and I personally think it will be Johnson. Once the Bengals threaten to start taking away bonus money and withholding paychecks he’ll have no choice to show up.

TJ Houshmandzadeh is a non-issue. He didn’t report to the OTA’s last year either as he prefers to work out on his own. He likes to stay out in warm sunny California and work out near the privacy of his own home.

Back-up running back Chris Perry is at the OTA’s, and he’s back on the field for the first time since fracturing his ankle back in November 2006. If he remains healthy throughout the off-season, then they’ll be virtually no chance of Shaun Alexander getting signed to a deal.

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