Tuesday, March 16, 1999
Bengals firm on Pickens
Won't settle for 2nd-round pick
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PHOENIX — The Bengals and the agent for Carl Pickens went eyeball to eyeball here Monday during the first day of the annual league meetings, and neither side blinked. Steve Zucker informed club president Mike Brown that teams are willing to trade a second-round draft choice for Pickens but aren't willing to give up the first-rounders the Bengals covet.
Using both hands to make his point, a grim Brown told Zucker the Bengals would take nothing less than a first-rounder for Pickens, the team's all-time leading receiver who has vowed to sit out the 1999 season rather than play in Cincinnati.
Later, an equally grim Zucker reiterated that Pickens will sit out the year if he can't leave Cincinnati. The franchise designation the Bengals placed on Pickens forces a team to give up No.1 draft picks for the next two years to sign him.
“My feeling after working this for three months is we could do a deal for him if the first-rounders weren't involved,” said Zucker, who has talked mainly to Miami and Dallas. “At least one of them I think would do a second-rounder, but that won't be available for long either. But Cincinnati is telling me they want the first (-rounder).”
The Bengals probably would take a first-rounder, plus a player or another pick, to give up Pickens. The Dolphins aren't ruling out giving up their first-rounder, the 24th pick overall, but it probably would be a draft-day call and only if the players Miami wants are gone.
Before bumping into Brown, Zucker worked Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, Pickens' best hope. But Johnson isn't looking to give up any players and certainly won't give any player $6 million a year with quarterback Dan Marino still around.
Johnson would give up a second-rounder, but Brown scoffed: “That's the 55th pick. I don't see that.”
Zucker made the trip from Chicago to make his point to Brown in person and to convey Pickens' resolve. But it had no visible effect. Brown still thinks Pickens will play if there are no other takers.
“I told (Zucker) there's no satisfactory trade out there and he's going to have to face up to it,” Brown said. “If there's no market for him, then there's no market for him.”
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