Fantasy Football Coin Flip: T.J. Houshmandzadeh or Chad Ochocinco?

It feels kind of like Batman and Robin have broken up and went their separate ways. The dynamic duo that once roamed the open field for the Cincinnati Bengals in no more! T.J. Houshmandzadeh bolted town, leaving his old buddy from college and the pros Chad Ochocinco all alone, trapped in the jungle. Well, the question that begs is who is gonna be better off, or will they both suffer?

Sounds like a raging debate that can only be settled by arguing. OK, more like weighing the pros and cons. And after a few emails back and forth, Ryan Dembinksy and I decided to tackle this proposition. Let's get debating, shall we?

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Sean Lalley: It probably surprises most of you when I say that the Ocho is the obvious choice of who will benefit most. I'm not saying Houshmandzadeh will become a ghost of the past, but he's not going to be putting up 100+ catches and making annual trips to Hawaii. He's headed to Seattle, where he'll get his fair share of touches as the No. 1 wide receiver. However, the Seahawks offense has never really produced top-flight receivers on a regular basis. Only once in the past seven seasons has a WR grabbed more than 90 passes.

This offense is made for spreading it around to the receivers that they can manage to keep healthy. Meanwhile, the Bengals did a solid job of replacing Houshmandzadeh with an aging Laveranues Coles, who will see some of the over-the-middle looks that Palmer used to direct to Houshmandzadeh. Chris Henry isn't suspended and could be in position to have a decent season and help open things up more so for the Ocho.

Coming off his worst season to date, Ochocinco is ready to shed all doubters and rebuild that rapport he once had with a finally (well hopefully) healthy Carson Palmer. All bets are off if Palmer goes down. I just like the chances of Ocho having that bounce-back year and returning to the lofty throne of the upper-echelon WRs. Am I expecting too much? Not really. He's getting drafted with the Dominik Hixons of the world. Why not go with Ocho about two rounds later than Housh and thank me later.

Ryan Dembinsky: Did you really just make a Batman and Robin analogy? Wow. I think the more appropriate reference is Huey Lewis is leaving Clover and moving on to form the News.

Anyway, truth be told, I think both Ocho and Houshmandzadeh will have pretty solid seasons, but Housh still looks like the safer bet. As you said, Ocho is coming off his worst season ever with the exception of his rookie year in 2002 (and not by much) and his gunslinger Carson Palmer stunk it up and eventually sat the season out after playing awful in four games. Palmer keeps feeding the 100% bait to the media, but he opted against Tommy John surgery in the elbow and already has an ankle sprain causing him to miss preseason time, so something tells me Carson Palmer may not be as healthy as people think.

Sure both T.J. Houshmandzadeh and his quarterback have a new offense to learn, but a player with three consecutive seasons with over 90 catches moving into the No. 1 wide receiver role is no reason to doubt him. The targets will be up and Seattle looks like it has the better running game of the two teams, so even though Houshmandzadeh will get more attention, defenses will still have to be honest. In this case, more targets should still be a good thing. Plus, he should get a few more big play opportunities as opposed to being the near-total possession guy that he was in Cincinnati.

In the end, this is a case of two uncertain futures and two very talented wide receivers, but given the history, there is no reason to expect a big drop-off from Houshmandzadeh. He's happy as can be in Seattle, excited to play with Hasselbeck, loves his new offensive coordinator in Greg Knapp, and the lack of Ochocinco distractions should prove a relief. Housh outperformed his loud-mouthed teammate and earned the spotlight over the past three seasons and this year he will finally get his opportunity to stand in it.