From 2004 to 2008, TJ Houshmandzadeh had an impressive career with the Cincinnati Bengals. He racked up 5,062 receiving yards on 445 receptions and found paydirt 36 times. But when it came time for the Bengals to pay TJ for all the ground he had covered during his time with them, they snubbed him in favor of other players. It’s a scar that still irks Houshmandzadeh to this day.
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Sometimes, contract negotiations can get messy between a player and a team. That’s why most players leave it to their agent to hammer out the details. But in 2009, when Houshmandzadeh’s contract was up with the Bengals, he had to get involved after becoming frustrated with the team’s low-ball offers.
It all led to an excruciating contract tussle between Cincy and Houshmandzadeh. As a player who was a 7th-round pick, he wanted to be duly compensated for performing above expectations. Yet the Bengals still refused to meet his demands.
“I’m getting frustrated, like y’all really offering me this? I was underpaid the last 3 years, so y’all got me at a discount for 3 years, now you’re really going to try to lowball me?” Houshmandzadeh recalled asking (via Nightcap).
“I was frustrated. So, that’s why I left Cincinnati and went to Seattle,” he added
From the Bengals’ perspective, they probably thought they were making a savvy business decision at the time. In the NFL, good teams are often built on younger players with cheap contracts. The salary cap makes it difficult to pay every player what they truly deserve; some guys are inevitably underpaid, just as others are overpaid.
But in Houshmandzadeh’s case, the Bengals should’ve just given him the money, in hindsight. Instead, they spent $24 million on two wideouts who didn’t contribute much.
“They signed Laveranues Coles first, got rid of him after one year,” Houshmandzadeh continued.
“The next year, they signed Antonio Bryant… They basically gave him what they offered me, but a little more. More than they offered me, but a little less than what I wanted. He played there one year, one season. So, he got like $13 million guaranteed, done, they released him.”
Bryant signed a four-year, $28 million contract with the Bengals in March of 2010. But he never ended up playing a regular-season game for them. He battled a knee injury, and the team ultimately released him in August before the season.
Coles, meanwhile, suited up for the Bengals in 2009. It turned out to be his final season in the league, and while he had a respectable year, the Bengals were exposed for their misstep once the playoffs arrived.
“The year that I left, they actually made the playoffs, and they played the Jets. That’s when they put [Darrelle] Revis on Chad [Johnson], and the other receiver couldn’t get open. If I was there, we would’ve won, because I’m for sure going to get open. That’s a guarantee,” Houshmandzadeh argued.
It must have been frustrating for TJ to watch from afar as his former team failed in the playoffs without him. If he had been playing, maybe the Bengals would’ve won that game and gone on a playoff run. But he never got too close to a Super Bowl. The furthest he ever made it in the postseason was the Divisional Round with the Ravens.
Houshmandzadeh was deeply hurt, and still is. And ultimately, the Bengals were affected by the decision as well.
“All y’all had to do was slide me a few more millions, but y’all ended up giving these dudes 24 over two years. I’m like, damn, that hurt me in the pocket. And it hurt them on the field and in the pocket, because they didn’t get no return on their investment.”
The Bengals probably thought they were thinking outside the box, but in the end, they got a little too cute. They could’ve kept Houshmandzadeh and possibly made a deep playoff run with him in 2009. Instead, they opted for older, riskier veterans on cheaper contracts and ended up getting burned. It made them look foolish in hindsight.
Today, the Bengals are one of 12 teams still without a Super Bowl trophy. They made it to the Big Game in 2021 with Joe Burrow. But before that, their last appearance was way back in 1988.
So, it’s not surprising to hear about questionable decisions behind closed doors from the Mike Brown-owned franchise. It sometimes feels like the front office has been tripping over itself since the inception of the club. Who knows when they’ll finally get out of their own way?
