Why not right? Terrell Owens is not as bad as Buffalo made him look last year and he’s certainly not so bad that he should have been available in late July. If you take his stats playing with Ryan Fitzpatrick last year, a quarterback who actually has the arm strength to hit him deep unlike Trent Edwards, and stretch them out over 16 games, you get pretty close to 1000 yards. I think Owens has matured from the type of player he was a few years ago. He kept his mouth shut on one of the worst offenses in the league last year in Buffalo, because he wanted to prove to contenders that he was worth a shot. That may still be selfish, but it’s the good kind of selfish. It’s the, “I want to win” kind of selfish. Cincinnati is a playoff contender and Owens is an upgrade over Antonio Bryant. Speaking of Bryant, this move pretty much is Cincinnati admitting that the 28 million they gave to Bryant was a mistake. Bryant is lazy and apparently hasn’t recovered from his knee injury as fast they would like. Bryant is a solid #4 receiver, behind Ocho, Owens, and Shipley, that is assuming he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t get in the coach’s face. The Bengals already have a bunch of receivers on the roster and even with Bryant going to the bench, this move for Owens was the smart one. He’s the legit field stretching deep threat that they didn’t have last year and he’s only commanding 2 million. That’s 26 less than Bryant and he’s better than anyone on the roster not named Ochocinco.

Grade: A