From the Cincy Post website:
Post staff report
The agent for Bengals running back Rudi Johnson has reportedly told the team that his client will sit out next season rather than play for the one-year deal that comes with designation as a franchise player.
In a story written for bengals.com Friday, the team's official Web site, Geoff Hobson quoted agent Peter Schaffer as saying Johnson wants to play for the Bengals "for the long term" and isn't interested in another one-year deal.
"That's what Rudi has told me and that's what I've told the team," Hobson quoted Schaffer as saying. "He feels like he has showed good faith by playing this past year on a one-year deal and that he has earned the security of something long-term."
While Hobson writes for the Bengals' official site, the team has said it places no restrictions on what he reports.
Johnson, in his fourth year with the Bengals out of Auburn University, set team records this season for rushing attempts and yardage.
Johnson is one of 13 Bengals due to become a free agent when free agency opens March 2. All of those players are due to become unrestricted free agents, free to negotiate with any other team unless the Bengals tag them as either a "franchise" or "transition" player. The club would then have to offer the player a one-year deal worth the average of either the top five (franchise) or 10 (transition) players at his position in order to retain the power to match any offer another team might give the player.
The list also includes players due to become restricted free agents. The club can retain the right to match any offer to these players -- all of whom have played fewer than four seasons -- with less expensive one-year tender offers.
Johnson was a restricted free agent last offseason, but Schaffer and the Bengals were unable to come to terms on a long-term deal. Johnson signed the club's one-year, $1.8 million tender offer.
According to the bengals.com story, the first day the Bengals can tag Johnson is Feb. 8.
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To be honest, he's not THAT good.
I was hearing rumblings of them picking up a back in the draft....and the draft is RB heavy this year.
So Rudi......you're fucked.
I would love to see them trade for Travis Henry.
But that's because I MARK OUT for Travis Henry.
I can kind of understand where he's coming from but I think he should've played 1 more year and then gone for the long term deal.
Personally, I hope their running back next year is awful.....I'm a Steeler fan, so I never hope for anything positive for the teams in my division.