[UPDATE: The ESPN piece breaking the story cited figures now]
Sources told ESPN's Michael Smith the deal was worth more than $40 million for five years, with more than $15 million guaranteed.
Well, not that it mattered if Houshmandzadeh was in Seattle, or if his agent denies or not, it's all but announced that after much speculation Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday and most of Monday, the news has finally broke. The Seattle Seahawks signed former Bengals wide receiver (yes, now former) T.J. Houshmandzadeh to a deal on Monday, writes John Clayton. Several teams were, at one point, considered that included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Seattle Seahawks as well as the Minnesota Vikings. The finalists were down to Minnesota, Seattle and Cincinnati.
T.J. Houshmandzadeh closes his Cincinnati Bengals career with 507 receptions, 5,782 yards receiving and 37 touchdowns. In his past three seasons, Houshmandzadeh recorded 294 receptions, 3,128 yards receiving and 25 touchdowns; that averages out to 98 receptions, 1,043 yards receiving and eight touchdowns per season.
A tribute.
The Bengals will resume their perspective depth chart search to find wide receivers that could fill the void. As of right now, there are now seven wide receivers under contract for 2009.
- Chad Johnson
- Chris Henry
- Andre Caldwell
- Antonio Chatman
- Jerome Simpson
- Mario Urrutia
- Maurice Purify
Chad Johnson recorded his career worst season in 2008, and has been mentioned in trade rumors that Oil Slick (Drew Rosenhaus) has manipulated in a letter to all 32 teams. Caldwell has shown potential and Simpson makes Bengals fans really nervous that we blew the second-round pick in 2008. Antonio Chatman has dealt with several injuries recently and Chris Henry isn't very trusting with a history of legal issues. Mario Urrutia and Maurice Purify spent time on the practice squad last season and have no regular season experience.
Christ. Not a whole lot of positive there, is there?
The best news of all, we can actually resume our lives again and give our poor F5 key a frickin' break.