Ocho Cinco Not So Happy In Cinci

Even though every year is full of stories like this, there seems to be an influx of disgruntled players around the league right now. The primary names are Jeremy Shockey and Chad Johnson, with Chad speaking out about his current situation and Shockey keeping quiet thusfar.

With Drew Rosenhaus as his agent Chad Johnson wants the Begals to renegotiate his contract...sound familiar anyone? Having been selected to the Pro-Bowl, Johnson is currently in Hawaii with those festivities and is using this opportunity to be able to speak to the media on his contract situation. In addition to calling out some of his teammates, "All the voices talked for 16 weeks. I don't hear them now. Where you at? Now's the time to let it out. The only voice I hear is mine", you would think a lot of those Bengal's players are pretty fed up.

Rosenhaus has said that Chad will not hold out and will play in 2008, but he wouldn't go far enough to say he would definitely play for the Bengals so this seems like it's going to be an ongoing story. This is very similiar to the Owen and Eagles situation a few years ago, so if Chad is headed down that path of being disruptive, the Bengals need to decide whether they should just cut their losses now.

Cincinnati has made it clear that they are not going to re-negotiate Chad's contract, by speaking out against the team he's no making anything better because now they just see, why would they invest even more money in an unstable player? So currently I don't see any easy or fair end to this, the only solution would be for Johnson to realize how detrimental his actions could be and give up on purusing a new deal, or continue to be as disruptive as possible in an effort to force a trade.

As for Jeremy Shockey there aren't many facts to go off of in regards to his situation, right now it's all specualtion. After breaking his leg in December and not being healthy to be a part of the Giants as they proceded to win the Super Bowl, Shockey was no where to be seen. All could be well for Shockey as he could just have been depressed about the fact that he was missing winning a Super Bowl with a team he's been a part of for many years at this point and it must have been hard to see the Giants flourish without him.

Again, this is something else we are going to watch unfold as the season rolls on and knowing Shockey's beligerent history it seems to be a given that we will hear at least something from him generally soon. Once that happens we will really get to see whether he is upset and ready to move on, or whether in this current state of silence things have just gotten blown out of porportion.

Now considering we are in the off-season and looking to improve as a team, in both the wide reciever and tight end positions, you can't help but think what kind of help these players could be to the Eagles. It's so tempting to think of a Donovan McNabb and Chad Johnson combination, but at the same time it is extremely dangerous because Johnson is, just the way Terrell Owens was, a ticking time bomb.

I feel ridiculous even writing about this but this isn't the Philadelphia Inquirer, me posing a hypothetical scenario isn't going to get the entire city talking about something with no facts behind it, so I'm just going to go with it.

Let's say that hell froze over and the Eagles decided to try and make a deal with the Bengals for Chad Johnson. On one hand, though we have been severely burned by an outlandish wide receiver in the past, I think we are in such a different state as a team at this current time. When Owen's was brought in we were at our peak, having lost 3 NFC Championship games but still on a roll towards taking that final step towards the Super Bowl we were looking for one more piece to the puzzle. The problem that ended up occuring was that player who propelled us forward to help reach that Super Bowl against the Patriots, tore us to the ground as quickly as he rose us to the top.

Frankly though, this time around we don't have a lot to lose. The Quarterback that we have been trying to protect all of these years is in no way as secure as he was back in 2004 and unless he has a great year in 2008, he won't be around any longer. So why not just take the risk, give him the best tools possible no matter what it costs to see if we can get a championship. Best case scenario, the addition of Johnson could be exactly what McNabb needs to get things done and we win. Worse case scenario, the team keeps losing, there are problems between McNabb and the new reciever, we cut them both lose.

I realize I'm making all of this sound so simple, there is so much money involved and the main concern the front office has is in making sure we don't pay someone a huge signing bonus that isn't going to be around for more than a season and don't take huge future salary cap hits for players that end up not even being on the roster. But right now, this fantasy scenario seems like it would be a ridiculously good time, and it can't hurt to dream of a Donovan McNabb to Ocho Cinco connection. I wish.