During the Cincinnati Bengals press conference, head coach Marvin Lewis reiterated that Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco remains under contract and that they "anticipate all of our players under contract to be at training camp unless they tell us they're going to retire." Slam. Of course Chad isn't going to retire; it would hurt his bottom line too much -- which is, you know, him. So unless the team releases Chad after Thursday -- when the team is allowed to release players -- expect the team's all-time leading receiver to report at Georgetown Friday for their first practice on Saturday.
Chad Ochocinco is scheduled to earn $6 million in base salary during his final season under his existing contract. Considering that he's only averaged 64 receptions, 806 yards receiving with just over five touchdowns, the cost to keep him could be overwhelming. And for the most part if this team were having issues against the salary cap, they could release him to save that money. Unfortunately that might not be the case this year, for a team that's needing to spend so much, we could see Mike Brown keeping Chad with the intention of using his cap number to help the team go north of the salary floor that's now required of all teams.
Chad's 751 career receptions is 221 more than Carl Pickens' 530, who ranks second all-time. Chad also holds the franchise record for most yards receiving (10,783), receiving touchdowns (66), most 100-yard games (31) and a collection of single-season and single-game records.