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Marvin Lewis puts quietus on Chad Johnson trade talks

By Skin Patrol

Hat tip to this diary, specifically reader dr WNC who pointed out that today Marvin Lewis has effectively shut down the possibility that Chad Johnson is going anywhere. This is big news for both Ben who, like me, thought this might be a bad idea and my blogging colleague Kirkendall  at Cincy Jungle. The official quote from Marvin Lewis is floating out there in the internet somewheres, among other places, The Sporting News:

The Cincinnati Bengals will not trade Chad Johnson and, furthermore, have never discussed doing so, coach Marvin Lewis told the Cincinnati Enquirer...

"No. 1, the guy has a contract through 2001, OK. No one within the Bengals organization has ever spoken of or ever uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson, nor will he be traded. ... So I think that's pretty clear. Things can move on," Lewis said, according to the newspaper and the team website...

Lewis said he has not talked with Johnson since the regular season ended, but added, "We've had a great relationship. All I want to see is Chad continue to be a very, very productive NFL player and help us win a lot of football games. And that's not going to change."

David Elfin piles on:
Bengals owner Mike Brown is notoriously cheap and he won't stomach the $8.03 million salary cap hit that trading or cutting Johnson would entail. After giving Johnson a $35 million extension less than two years ago and with capable backup Chris Henry on hand if Ocho Cinco holds out, the Bengals are planning to play hardball.
Obviously these things change with the day of the week, though it appears less and less likely that the Redskins, or anyone for that matter, will be able to draw Chad Johnson out of Cincy. As you can probably tell, I'm really beat up over the entire thing, but not really.

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