Did the Bengals Really Sign Henry?

Chris Henry has re-signed with the Bengals.  Can’t be, can it?  Not that Chris Henry.  Perhaps it is the running back Chris Henry, although, wasn’t he just picked in the 2^nd round last year by the Titans?  No, he’s still with Tennessee.  It is that Chris Henry, he of the multiple personal conduct violations, he of the six arrests since 2005, he of one four-game suspension already and another coming.  However, due to a quirk in the suspension rules that has never quite made sense to me, Henry can practice and play in the preseason for the Bengals before being told to go away in two weeks for the next four.

A couple things are going on here.  The head coach, an apparently honorable man in Marvin Lewis, has made it a priority to rid his locker room of players with questionable character, players like, well, Chris Henry.  Thus, it appears his owner/general manager, Mike Brown, here trumped him, which is curious in itself, as owners have been cautioned about signings like this for the past couple of years, facing the possibility of incurring team fines for repeated problem players.

The major revelation here is the old adage: desperate times call for desperate measures.  The Bengals obviously looked at their receiving corps and noticed a problem beyond their starters (one of which is the unpredictable and now-injured Chad Johnson).  Their third receiver would appear to be Antonio Chatman, a player I knew well with the Packers that played a great deal due to injuries but was nontendered upon the arrival of a new general manager Ted Thompson.  Henry is immensely more talented than Chatman, and with only two weeks to get up to speed before his suspension takes hold, it was time to confirm that.

The Bengals are being crucified for this signing, and deservedly so – most notably, a scathing article by Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer – but there are always two sides to the story.  Henry has extremely low financial risk.  He will make a minimum contract with no ability to make his salary until October.  He can be released at any time prior to that with no money owed. He will not be an injury risk, as he will not be allowed to practice until October as well.

My sense is that, for now, Henry is a training camp body to compare to the other backup wide receivers.  The chance he will be on the roster when he is actually cleared to play after four regular season games is, in my view, about 50%.

Sometimes teams just can’t help themselves with certain players.  We’ll see if this is one of those times.

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