Many people think that Chad Ochocinco Johnson's point after touchdown kick was simply a stunt. A ruse. A way to be featured on Hard Knocks. Others ripped into him because "why risk injury", they asked. First off, did you see the kick? Second of all, it wasn't like he's never kicked before; he says he kicked in high school. Thirdly, Johnson is a trained professional athlete. If we're getting worked up about him kicking a football... Finally, if preseason proved anything, Lewis learned something about his personnel. If worse comes to worse, he knows that in an emergency, Johnson can, at least, make an attempt without doing a Paul Janish (make an actual attempt; not just going through the motions to end the game).
If you're a football coach, don't you want to learn all that is learnable in the preseason? Stunt or not, Johnson can kick when we need a place kicker for a game.
However, don't expect Johnson to be a regular during the preseason, writes Joe Reedy. "Shayne Graham (groin) is probably out for the remainder of the preseason." Marvin Lewis told Reedy that the team will likely sign a place kicker this week.
As of an August 11th posting at Scout.com, Matt Stover, John Carney and Martin Gramatica are available. I wouldn't expect the Bengals to eat the $2.48 million salary cap hit with Shayne Graham being the franchise player this year, to sign and keep one of the more high-profile kickers who could ask for significant money.