Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
The Bengals say they are adamant about not trading receiver Chad Johnson. On Jan. 16, we had the Cincinnati Enquirer quoting Bengals coach Marvin Lewis as saying, "There will be no trade of Chad Johnson."
The Enquirer follows up with similar quotes from Lewis today: "No. 1, the guy has a contract through 2011, OK. No one within the Bengals organization has ever spoken of or ever uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson, nor will he be traded. There is no such thing as behind-the-door dealings in the NFL. That does not occur because the team in question (the Bengals) is not willing to trade their player nor have they thought about trading their player or discussed trading their player, or will they discuss trading their player. So I think that's pretty clear. Things can move on."
Lewis seemed to be addressing a Washington Post report suggesting the Redskins have interest in acquiring the unhappy receiver. The Washington Times followed the Post report with a brief blog item suggesting the Redskins might not really be very interested in acquiring Johnson.
The trade market for disgruntled receivers has tanked recently. Randy Moss drew only a fourth-rounder from New England last offseason. That was a far cry from the days when Dallas sent two No. 1 picks to Seattle for Joey Galloway. More recently, Seattle shipped a first-rounder to New England for Deion Branch.
The Bengals wouldn't lose anything by at least listening to offers. If someone wants to come through with a Galloway-type trade proposal, however unlikely, I would think the Bengals would have a hard time not listening.
H
