NFL

Would The Patriots Really Cut Chad Ochocinco And Albert Haynesworth?

by Ben Axelrod | 3:10 pm, August 14th, 2011

It’s been mere weeks since the New England Patriots acquired Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth, but according to the National Football Post, the troublesome twosomes stint in New England may be coming to a quick end.

*Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth might not be long for New England. One day before this story came out by my guy Mike Reiss, one NFL executive familiar with the Patriots ways told me he believes one or both of the big name acquisitions will be cut before the season starts. The front office man thinks coach Bill Belichick will use the controversial players to help control and send a message to his locker room.

And what a message that would send if Belichick were to release two of his highest profile acquisitions before either of them play a regular season game for the Pats.

But before you think about sending back your No. 85 Patriots jersey, you should take a look at this recent post from Pro Football Talk‘s Mike Florio, who does his best to dispel the rumor by providing some salary figures that would make it tough for the Patriots to let go of Ochocinco.

Despite multiple reports that Ochocinco’s restructured contract has a non-guaranteed base salary of $1 million for 2011, multiple sources with knowledge of the contract advise PFT that Ochocinco received a signing bonus in the amount of $4.75 million and a workout bonus worth $250,000. (This year, due to the absence of an offseason workout program, workout bonuses were earned simply by reporting for work.) And so if the Patriots decide to cut Ochocinco, they will have sacrificed the draft picks (fifth-rounder in 2012 and sixth-rounder in 2013) that were sent to Cincinnati for his services, along with $5 million.

Parting ways with draft picks just to send a message to his roster? Now that doesn’t seem like the Belichick way.

[National Football Post. Pro Football Talk. Image via.]

Thomas_Fant

Can someone(anyone?) tell me what justified using the phrase, “on the verge of cutting”, when it comes to Belichick and either Ochocinco or Haynesworth? Please? If not, it reeks of a somewhat desperate attempt to get page views. Nothing wrong with wanting to get eyes on a story, but holy hell this is a prime example of a poor job doing so. Sure, I clicked on it, but I probably will think twice next time I see Axlerod’s name attatched to a Sports Grid story.

I mean, Florio, Mike Reiss(ESPN Boston) & Greg Bedard(Boston Globe), have all refuted the likeliness of this playing out. Not only that, they did it this morning. Even this story ends by saying it’s not likely. Why not title it: Would Bill Belichick really end up releasing Ochocinco & Albert Haynesworth, to demonstrate the only way is the “Patriot Way”?

Also, how about calling NFP to task for using as it’s source, “one NFL executive familiar with the Patriots ways”? For all we know it was the Jets VP of Marketing….

You guys are better than this.
Anonymous

interetsing. maybe they should go