Chad Ocho Cinco Has a Very Serious Injury But He Refuses to Acknowledge It

Chad Johnson has a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. Yet, if you listen to Ocho Cinco, he is going to be just fine. I am not a medical "expert" per se, but I think that when you have anything that's torn in a important part of your body, you are not "fine".

Still, the loudmouthed Bengals wide receiver is maintaining that nothing is wrong.

Johnson did not seem to worried about the injury, and claims he will be ready for the season opener at Baltimore on September 7.

"I'm lifting my normal weight. I do everything normal now. Everything," said Johnson, who caught 93 passes for 1,440 yards and eight touchdowns last season. "It's been what? Eight days? (since the injury) I'm back to normal."

It takes me eight days to recover from wakeboarding for a weekend, and while I'm no professional athlete, wakeboarding is no partially torn shoulder muscle. So forgive me if I'm not entirely sold on Johnson's health.

Oh, and it turns out the Bengals might not be sold either. They have T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Johnson and Chris Henry (again!), so if everyone's healthy, the very last thing they need in the entire world is a wide receiver. Yet, SCOOP Mortensen is reporting that Rudi Johnson is on the block in Cincy, as the Bengals are looking to get a wide receiver in return for the former stud running back.

I could take the time out to analyze what potential trades are available, but the fact that the Bengals have inked Henry and are now trying to ship Rudi out of town kind of sums up what's going on (again) with a once nearly rejuvenated franchise.

Fantasy Spin: Okay, I haven't been drafting Ocho Cinco thus far in any fantasy drafts, mainly because he's still going a little too high for my tastes, relative to what I think his production will be. Now that he's got this shoulder injury, I'm definitely not touching him unless he drops to the sixth or seventh round, which he probably won't. Bump up Housh on your draft boards, and Henry as well, barring a trade.

Which, if Mort is right, could actually skyjack the fantasy values of Rudi and Kenny Watson (and Chris Perry). You can get all three pretty late in drafts, and in a year where supposedly there's a ton of scary RB options, I'd absolutely consider all three in the teens. Watson's my personal top choice out of the three, but I imagine he'll be going higher anyway.