The Cincinnati Bengals signed wide receiver Antonio Bryant to a $28 million contract with $8 million in guaranteed money last March. The hope was that Bryant could add depth at the wide receiver position and replace some of the production that the late Chris Henry provided last season.

The eight year veteran out of the University of Pittsburgh signed with the team after injuries limited his production last season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The wide receiver had to have surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee and as a result only caught 39 passes. Despite the red flags surrounding his physical health the club at the team opted to sign Bryant rather than Terrell Owens.

Unfortunately for Bengals owner Mike Brown and Head Coach Marvin Lewis it became obvious from the beginning that the team didn’t sign the same player that thrived earlier in his career with the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. Bryant struggled during the team’s minicamp and as a result Cincinnati signed the man that they had snubbed just months earlier because they were convinced that Bryant might not be the answer to help them at wide receiver as they had initially thought.
Training camp didn’t go much better for Antonio and to make matters worse for him, Terrell Owens was performing well and gaining the confidence of Lewis and quarterback Carson Palmer. The preseason was essentially the final nail in the proverbial coffin for Antonio as Owens developed into one of the teams top receiving options while Bryant missed all four preseason games stating that his knee muscles still weren’t strong enough to make cuts.

Today, Cincinnati decided to cut their losses on the acquisition of Bryant. The organization announced today that they have released Bryant ending his short six month tenure with the team. Don’t feel too bad for Bryant though as I said earlier one provision of the contract he signed last March is that he receives $8 million in guaranteed money up front. Yes, that still applies regardless of whether he ever played a down of football for the Bengals.

For the Bengals at the end of the day they made the decision to cut their losses on the deal. Clearly, Antonio wasn’t healthy enough to be a productive member of the team this season or possibly even in the future. Thus you can remember this as one man’s easy $8 million payday and a case of an organization making a costly miscalculation.

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