Trading Chad?

By Mark Curnutte

Marvin Lewis didn't actually deny the rumor today that the Bengals might consider trading wide receiver Chad Johnson in the offseason.

Johnson, chased down Monday afternoon by a half dozen reporters in the players’ parking lot adjacent to Paul Brown Stadium, didn’t snuff out trade talk.

"There is always truth in something," Johnson said when asked about an ESPN report that the Bengals are thinking of trading him in the offseason.

On the network’s pre-game show Sunday, NFL reporter Chris Mortensen said that a "prominent member of the Bengals organization recently told me recently that the organization does have a decision to make on Chad Johnson, that he is so passionate and proud that if they decided to discipline him for some of those antics they believe he might shut it down.

"So how he finishes the rest of the year and the Bengals finish could bring them to a crossroads discussion on whether to even trade Chad Johnson in the offseason."

At his news conference, less than 24 hours after the Bengals defeated the Jets 38-31 to improve to 2-4, Lewis didn’t directly answer the question: Is there any truth to reports you might be looking to trade Chad Johnson?

"Did that come from anyone here?" said Lewis, who is the Bengals’ "one voice," per team policy, to the media.

Told by a reporter that ESPN cited an official inside the Bengals organization, Lewis said, "Is there a source inside this organization? Not the last time I checked. I don’t think there (are) any sources inside this organization."

Did ESPN talk to you?

"No."

Johnson actually has been more low-key on the field than in previous seasons. True, he slipped on a home-made hall-of-fame jacket after a touchdown in the opener Sept. 10 and jumped into Cleveland’s Dawg Pound on Sept. 16. Since then, Johnson has been quiet. He and quarterback Carson Palmer confronted each other after an interception in the New England game, and the question of whether Johnson ran the correct route on a Palmer interception Oct. 14 at Kansas City was asked in the post-game.

After the humiliating loss to New England on Monday night, Oct., 1, Lewis pointed out that some of his players needed to be less selfish and more mature and team-oriented. Those comments were connected immediately to Johnson, based on the receiver’s on-field behavior during the New England loss.

Now here’s the report of a possible trade.

"It doesn't bother me. There is always truth to things that are said," Johnson said. "Always, there's always some truth to it."

Would you be surprised to be traded?

"No. No. Exactly, that's the business part of it," he said. "That wouldn't surprise me."

Johnson’s contract might make a trade financially difficult for the Bengals. The team and Johnson signed a minimum one-year contract extension in April 2006 that added a year to Johnson’s contract, through 2010, and gave the Bengals an option for 2011. Johnson was paid a $5 million signing bonus and a $5 million base salary for 2006. The Bengals have through 2010 to absorb $1 million per year of Johnson’s singing bonus on their salary cap. If they traded him after the 2007 season, the Bengals would have to absorb the remaining $3 million on the cap in 2008.

Johnson has been stung by the comments that he is a selfish player and negatively affecting his team in the locker room.

Lewis defended his receiver later in his afternoon news conference.

"He set out this year to block better. I'm very happy with that," Lewis said of Johnson. "And he's seen the ball get spread out more, and he's had no issue with that. He knows that in order for him to have the success he's having, we need to be able to do other things correctly.

"The biggest thing we continue to try to impress upon our guys … is that the opportunities we want come from making first downs. If we don't convert on third down, I’ve told them, none of you are getting any shots at anything."

Johnson was stung, too, he said, by a columnist Paul Daugherty’s comments in the Oct. 21 Cincinnati Enquirer. He asked if Johnson’s antics were worth the trouble.

"And to write what he wrote yesterday, which I'm sure all of you saw, you've got to be kidding. You've got to be kidding me. You've got to be kidding me. It is what it is," Johnson said of Daugherty, who wrote a book about Johnson last year.

"Everything I've done has always been positive, it's always been fun. It's never been a me, me, me thing. It's how Chad plays the game. … I've been playing it the same way the past four years. I celebrate. I have fun with it. It is a dirty business. And to get the business side of it off my mind, I go out and have fun with it like I'm a little kid."

Johnson is having a solid season. He said he and fellow wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh were praised for their downfield blocking in the Jets game, when the Bengals ran for a season high 177 yards. Johnson had just six receptions against the Jets, but he gained 102 yards, including a team long 56-yard catch. Johnson has 680 yards and three touchdown catches. Still, as a speed receiver, in January, Johnson will turn 30 – an age when receivers start to lose a step.

Johnson doesn’t appear worried, if he should be traded, that he wouldn’t be welcomed elsewhere.

"You know what's funny, every player -- you've got 31 teams in the NFL beside us – every player, every coach loves eighty-five," he said in reference to his jersey number. "I guarantee that. Every coach and every player would love to have eighty-five on their team because they know what I bring to the table."