We waited and waited, as NFL fans, for the return of football. In late July, we got our wish. While time will tell as to who inevitably got the better of the five-month staredown between the players and owners, all the major bulletpoints point to the players getting the better end of the new CBA. However, while the players walked away from this agonizing ordeal with a paper W, one man wants another crack at the cookie jar.
That man is Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson.
Johnson isn't the only player who felt the need to rain on football's welcome back parade by selfishly holding out of camp in search of a new deal. DeSean Jackson did it. Osi Umenyiora did it. The past few weeks have been more about who's not in camp than a celebration over the fact that there's actually a camp for them to not report to. The difference between Johnson and the latter two is that DeSean and Osi eventually agreed to return to camp and leave the differences to be settled at a later date. CJ2K, meanwhile, might not be suiting up for the Titans for awhile, it seems. Every season has holdouts as players, gassed up by the whispers of their agents, sit on their couch with a pretend bruised ego and an inflated sense of worth. We saw it last year with the standoff between cornerback Darrelle Revis and the Jets and this year's Johnson-Titans showdown seems to mirror last year's ugliness that played out for the world to see on Hard Knocks between Revis and Gang Green's front office.
There's no questioning Johnson needs a raise. He's set to make $800,000 this season after racking up nearly 5,500 total yards in three seasons, including a 2009 campaign where he joined the 2,000 yard rushing club. The Titans haven't made an offer yet, demanding that C.J. makes his way to camp before negotiating a new deal, are willing to offer their franchise back "top RB money", which would pay him somewhere in the ballpark of $10-to-12 million a year. Reportedly, Johnson turned his nose up at the idea, claiming that he deserves a salary that's less Adrian Peterson and more Peyton Manning.
That's where my issue with Johnson lies. Beyond kicker and punter, Chris Johnson plays the most replaceable position in pro football. The NFL has become a passing league, which is why guys like Manning and Tom Brady get top dollar and guys like Johnson get replaced after a few years. We're coming off a year in which the Super Bowl was won by a team with one of the worst rushing attacks in the league, led by a 7th rounder from Buffalo named James Starks who didn't even see action until Week 16. Prior to the Packers winning it all last season, the Saints won it all with an undrafted back out of Illinois named Pierre Thomas. Two of the three Patriots' Super Bowl wins were won with Antwoin Smith and Kevin Faulk toting the rock. An elite running back hasn't won a Super Bowl since Marshall Faulk did it with "The Greatest Show On Turf" in St. Louis back in 1999. Even with C.J.'s amazing first three years in Tennessee, the Titans have had won winning season, made the playoffs once and have won a total of ZERO playoff games. Your top five rushers from last season didn't win a playoff game last year, and five of the top eight didn't sniff the postseason. You think the Titans couldn't go 8-8 or 6-10(their record the past two seasons) with Javon Ringer as the lead back? Why should the Titans give "top playmaker money" to a guy that has lead them to 27 wins in three seasons? You know why Peyton and Brady get the big bucks? Because they get the big wins. You know why guys like Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha can nab $13 million a year from teams? Because defense wins championships and top-flight corners like Revis and Asomugha have a longer shelf life than running backs who barely make it past the age of 30. Which brings me to my next point......
The other concern is health. Johnson will be 26 this year and his game is solely based on his blazing speed. You want to give top dollar to a guy with maybe four years left in his prime and whose a torn ACL away from being finished? These concerns don't come without precedent. After leading the Falcons to an improbable Super Bowl run in 1998, Jamal Anderson held out of camp in an attempt to be compensated for his career year. When he finally suited up, Jam blew out his knee and was lost for the season. He never really recovered from the knee injury and the team went another route by signing Warrick Dunn away from Tampa Bay and drafting bruising T.J. Duckett in 2002. Terrell Davis, whom Anderson faced in that '98 Super Bowl, rushed for 2,000 yards en route to winning Denver's second-straight Super Bowl over Anderson's Falcons. The next year, T.D. blew out his knee and the Broncos found a slew of 1,000 yard backs from Olandis Gary to Mike Anderson to Clinton Portis in the years after parting ways with T.D. Let's say you give C.J. the $39 million guaranteed he's asking for and he tears his Achilles like so many seem to be doing this preseason? That's a huge chunk of your salary cap that could have went to other players that's now tied to dead weight. That brings me to what I call "The Alex Rodriguez Theory".
Back in 2000, the Texas Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez away from Seattle to the then-richest contract in history to the tune of $252 million over 10 years. Despite having the man regarded as the best player in baseball and someone who could eventually be the greatest hitter ever, the Rangers went nowhere, mainly because they had so much tied up in A-Rod, that they couldn't afford to put talent around him. Few years later, A-Rod was shipped to the Yankees and, just last year, the Rangers found themselves in the World Series. Baseball doesn't have a salary cap. Football does now, which makes the potential of giving such a large portion of the pie to one man so detrimental to the chances of building a Super Bowl champion. Talent-wise, the Titans don't have many "franchise" players beyond Chris Johnson. Sure, rookie QB Jake Locker could be one. Wideout Kenny Britt has potential to be one if he gets his head on straight. Safety Michael Griffin is one the game's most underrated defenders. The thing is, those guys are going to eventually want new contracts, too, and what leverage do you have to not pay those guys top dollar when you just gave "top playmaker money" to Johnson, let alone find room in the cap to give it to them. Championships are won by teams, not players. The Packers' lone "big signing" was Charles Woodson and Woodson's contract seems like pennies when compared to the deals given to some of his position peers. Even while emerging as one of the best QB's in the league, Aaron Rodgers still isn't making Peyton-Brady money. Drew Brees, who led the Saints to a Super Bowl a year ago, isn't making Peyton-Brady money. The Saints, themselves, aren't filled with prized free agents. You know who the teams that are filled with big-money free agents? The Jets and the Redskins. How many championships have THEY won in the last decade?
At the end of the day, Johnson doesn't have much leverage here. The Titans has proven it's just as capable of being a sad-sack franchise with him as they probably would be without him. It's hard to justify giving big money to a running back when teams don't run the ball anymore and even the most elite backs don't have a long shelf life. Just ask Jamal Lewis or Shaun Alexander or Clinton Portis. The case can be made that Johnson's not even the league's best back. That honor could go to the guy who currently IS being paid top running back money, Adrian Peterson. It's time for Johnson to let the greed go, swallow his pride and report to camp while he still has a job. No one man is bigger than the franchise and, after an offseason where the owners kowtowed to the union with a new player-friendly CBA, you have to think Bud Adams is not willing to cave twice in one season.
The question becomes: How stubborn is Johnson willing to become when history suggests the Titans will move on to the next one?
No comments:
Post a Comment