The NFL Players Association confirmed Tuesday that the Bengals would take an $8.03 million salary cap hit if they traded or released Johnson before June 1.
Keep Him. Chad wants to be relevant. He will bitch and moan but at the end of the day; he will be playing by the 1st regular season game. HE may sit out all of training camp but he will play. It is most likely he will stay with the Bengals because they will take too much of a salary cap hit to get rid of him.
I'd drop him. I'm not sold on him ultimately staying in CIN, and even if he's traded there's no guarantee he'll be an impact player where he lands. Chris Chambers, anyone? I'm not sure Chad Johnson wants attention as a highly-skilled football player as much as he does attention in general. Nobody cares any more about the end zone dances. Before that it was the locker list of D-backs he didn't believe could cover him. Zzzzzzz. Play your position, Mr. Johnson, and please remember that it doesn't take too long to go from being remembered as a winner to being remembered as a whiner.
I don't know if I'd drop him outright, I'd want to get something in return. There must be a ocho cinco lover in your league that you could dump him on. With Housh still in Cinci and his frequent crying, I don't think Johnson will be able to put up the numbers that he has in the past. I wouldn't hold him as a #1WR if the season started right now.
There's no way I'd drop Chad Johnson outright, but I'd trade him and take the best offer you can get.
He'll probably play this year, but will his head be on straight and how good of a shape will he be in if he misses mini-camp, OTA's, and some or all of training camp. Can anyone name a player who missed time during the offseason due to a reason like this then came back and played really well from the get go??? Sure those players may have played better as the season progressed, but they always seem to get off to a slow start.
Also, and this is the biggest reason why I have him in only 1 of my 22 leagues. His NFL stats look great, but his FF stats suck. Here's why:
I like to look at players stats and look for trends. One trend that I've noticed with the top end FF WR's, is they score over their season average more then 50% of the time. The best ones do it year in and year out. Chad Johnson is NOT one of those players.
Take a look at his scores for the past 3 years. Yes, he's had some great, high scoring games, but the vast majority of them, are well below what a top end WR should score. Plus, if you take his average score for the season, which will be inflated due to the 2-3 really high scoring games he has each year, then compare all his scores to that average, it's very low for a guy who's supposed to be a #1 WR on a FF team.
Case in point. In one of my leagues, CJ was the 6th rated WR in overall FF points in 2007. His weekly average for the season placed him 8th in the league. But these numbers are very misleading because in 2 of the games, he scored over 40 pts, 44.90 & 40.30 to be exact. If you take out those 2 great games, his weekly average puts him 30th in the league. That's not what I want from my #1 or #2 WR.
Because of this, I'd trade him and look to get a WR that has a better chance of getting you solid points each week rather then just a couple of really big games. Good luck. ;)
Trade him if possible. Honestly, he is worth a 4th round selection so attempt to gain equal or greater value, such as Boldin, R. Williams, Holt or Welker. I own him in a 3-person keeper league, as well. I'm not retaining him.
Chad's gonna play. He may pout a bit and hold out of some workouts, but he'll play. The decision to keep or drop really depends; who would you have to drop if you kept him? FFWolf makes an excellent point about CJ, one I've made myself on another board. In '07, he started the season with 2 good and 1 great game. Then he averaged 10.75 FF points for the rest of the saeson. I think in '06, it was the end of the season where he got his burst of points.
If you'de be keeping Chad at the expense of dropping someone less flashy, but more consistent, then try to move him. But don't drop him outright if you can help it.
If he's the best you got, keep him and maybe you can try to add some WRs that are more consistent scorers to help offset his erratic scoring. Good Luck
Unfotunetly no one is willing to trade for him (any offer) because I guess he is to high of a risk to take. Also I have no choice but to keep him. My other keepers are QB Brees, RBs MJD, Rudi Johnson, WRs Fitzgerald and CJ and TE Witten. On the bubble are players like Fargas and Thomas Jones. So has you can see my choices are not great.
