There are a few signs pointing to the same conclusion coming out today from Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots, that all might not be well with the team's relationship with charismatic wide receiver Chad Ochocinco.
Source tells colleague Karen Guregian that Chad Ochocinco arrived at Gillette Stadium today and left 10-15 minutes later.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) June 7, 2012
Even further, it was confirmed by WEEI who noted, "Adding to the intrigue was the fact that Ochocinco removed the fact that he played for the Patriots from his Twitter bio sometime between Wednesday night at Thursday morning."
Ochocinco had made public statements declaring that he would not only make the Patriots team, but was ready to make a major impact on the field. Instead he might not even have that chance after a busy offseason where the Patriots overloaded the wide receiver position with talent. Alongside Ochocinco, the names are many: Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Donte Stallworth, Brandon Lloyd, Jabar Gaffney, Julian Edelman. That doesn't include the famous tight ends of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.
In short, Tom Brady has way too many targets and someone was going to get left out. Despite well wishes, Ochocinco is apparently the odd man out. Certainly that brings up him as a possible free agent target for teams looking to improve their wide receiving corps. However, if he's not going to know the playbook or be able to play special teams, Ochocinco's value is limited.
He's likely to wait for injury on some team and then make a play during training camp. Perhaps the Chiefs would be interested in Dwayne Bowe was going to sit out instead of attending training camp, but that's not likely to happen. Until anything dramatic happens to a team, expect Ochocinco to sit out for some time if he is, indeed, released by the Pats.