By Dan Arkush
April 28, 2008

So much smoke … and so little fire.

After the blockbuster deal three days before the 2008 draft that sent Pro Bowl DE Jared Allen from the Chiefs to the Vikings in exchange for Minnesota’s first-round pick and both of the Vikes’ third-round selections (the teams also swapped sixth-rounders), the stage seemed to be set for a lot of potentially frenzied wheeling and dealing of veteran players that would have provided a most intriguing subplot to this year’s NFL draft.

Anquan Boldin

As it turned out, though, only Jones ended up trading NFL places — moving to Dallas in exchange for the Cowboys’ No. 4 pick this year and a sixth-round pick next year — and it very much remains to be seen whether he will be doing his thing any time soon in “Big D,” with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell yet to decide whether he will reinstate the suspended cornerback, who has been arrested six times since becoming the top defensive player selected in the 2005 draft.

Could it be that the likes of Johnson, Boldin and Shockey might still be destined for a change of scenery this offseason, as has been suggested repeatedly by their cantankerous agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who on the Saturday of the draft told ESPN his sources had indicated the Bengals received fliers from a couple of teams offering No. 1 picks?

The way we hear it, don’t hold your breath.

Both Johnson and Boldin would generate big-time fireworks if they were to be traded, but team insiders in both Cincinnati and Arizona just don’t see anything materializing with minicamps about to open from coast to coast.

In Cincinnati, the Bengals are holding firm in the aftermath of Johnson’s trade demands. The rhetoric on both sides has been especially harsh of late. Johnson sharply criticized QB Carson Palmer for saying the wide receiver had told him he would likely report to the team’s mandatory minicamp in June and indicated Palmer’s version of events was false. And in the week leading up to the draft, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said if Johnson wanted to sit out — as he has threatened to do — he should go ahead and do it. Indeed, the Bengals, who signed Johnson to a lucrative contract extension in April 2006 and have him under contract for four more seasons, are prepared to call his bluff.

In Arizona, the word is the Cardinals have no intention of trading Boldin, who is widely considered the team’s heart and soul. It is worth noting, however, that team insiders agree Boldin’s trade value is at its absolute peak at the moment, and that problems could be looming on the horizon in terms of nailing down a new deal for Boldin in line with the megabucks contract recently delivered to Cardinals No. 1 WR Larry Fitzgerald.

We should also note that there were two deals involving former first-round picks, Raiders CB Fabian Washington and Jets DT Dewayne Robertson, who were traded to Baltimore and Denver, respectively, where we hear they both have legitimate shots at starting jobs.

But when the smoke cleared Sunday night — after a record number of deals involving picks on both days of the draft — the relative absence of any big trades involving established players was raising more than a few eyebrows in league circles.