As the Bengals prepare to convene for a mandatory minicamp (we’ve received an unconfirmed tip that Johnson is on a plane from Atlanta to Cincinnati), the obvious question is whether, if Johnson reports, he’ll do what Giants receiver Plaxico Burress did on Wednesday in New York.  (Bengals.com beat us to the idea by an hour or so.  Hobson!)

Burress reported for the mandatory session, but he apparently won’t practice due to the absence of a new deal.

But showing up for camp and not practicing is the equivalent of not showing up at all, and if Johnson tries something like that our guess is that he’ll be disciplined by the Bengals.  Penalties range from the per-day fine for not showing up for camp to a suspension for conduct detrimental to the team to a finding of default under his contract, which could subject him to responsibility for 25 percent of his signing bonus allocation for 2008.

As to Burress, the Giants likely will opt not to take a hard line, even though they could.

We’re told that the Giants are willing to re-work Plax’s package, and that Burress wants more than the Giants are willing to pay.  He’s signed through 2010 at salaries of $3.25 million, $3.5 million, and $3.75 million over the next three years, respectively.

But Burress signed a six-year deal in 2005, and no one forced him to do it.  After languishing on the market for several weeks, he could have signed a shorter-term deal with the Giants.  To get, however, the kind of up-front cash that he coveted, additional years were needed.

And so Burress signed for six years.  He has no real leverage, and but for the Giants’ apparent decision not to inflame things the whole situation could blow up in his face.