Did the Bengals Miss Wide-Right with Graham?

The artist formerly known as Chad Johnson made national headlines last week for converting the decisive extra point in a preseason W over New England. While many made light of this impressive yet trivial accomplishment, it begged the question: Did the Bengals drop the ball when the team decided to franchise tag Shayne Graham?

This is no slight towards Shayne-o-matic. Graham currently ranks 4 th all-time in field goal accuracy converting 86% of his chances, and has been as reliable and clutch as any placekicker in the league not named Vinatieri. Graham has also been one of the most active Bengals in the community, giving back with the Shayne Graham Foundation and teaming up with former Cincinnati kickers Jim Breech and Doug Pelfrey for the charity Kicks of Kids.

Yet the franchise tag is such a valuable asset to a football team, and bestowing this designation on a kicker could be viewed as thoughtless, especially since this assignment led WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh to test to the free-agency market, eventually landing in Seattle. To replace Houshmandzadeh, the team signed free-agent Laveranues Coles to a four-year, $28 million contract. If given the option, I’m sure many would have taken Houshmandzadeh, who accumulated over 200 receptions in the past two years and was Carson Palmer’s favorite target, at five years, $40 million (the deal he signed with Seattle) over Coles at 4/$28 million.

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Kickers are like closers in baseball. It’s reassuring to have a solid guy in that position, but unless you have a talented squad to reach that venture of the game where said player becomes valuable, they’re as useless as non-alcoholic beer. When the Indianapolis Colts signed Vinatieri a few years ago, it was as a final piece to a fine-tuned machine. Unfortunately, this current Bengals team has more pressing issues to worry about than finding a superior kicker, like finding protection for Palmer or signing their draft picks.

In defense of the Bengals (something that has rarely been uttered in the English language), the cost to tag a kicker is around $ 2.5 million, compared to almost $10 for a wide-out. T.J. had also become somewhat disgruntled the past two seasons, skipping voluntary offseason workouts due to contract complaints. With Ochocinco doing everything but pulling a George Costanza and towing the team’s AFC Championship trophies through the parking lot, maybe the team figured one irritated wide receiver was enough. Furthermore, this all becomes a moot point if Coles performs well, or Houshmandzadeh’s departure allows Chris Henry the chance to become more of a focal point in the offense.

Let’s hope this discussion isn’t brought up during the season. But if the offense stalls coming out of the gate, or Housh leads a revival with the Seahawks, fans will look back at this decision and shake their heads, knowing the Bengals dropped the ball - again.

By Joel Beall
ProFootball-fans.com Cincinnati Bengals Correspondent