But I do understand guys like CJ, or Anquan Boldin or Maurice Jones-Drew as other examples, who were stuck with the slotted rookie deals that, unless you are drafted really early, don’t include much guaranteed money.

Occasionally some later draft picks just flat outperform their draft class and vets alike, and their deals are just cookie-cutter contracts based on their draft position, not a negotiation based on their production as pros.

So I don’t begrudge them angling for new deals before their rookie deals are up. Some guys, IMO, really have earned that right on the field. CJ is one.

They’ve built their entire offense around Chris Johnson, and they expect him to handle the ball 25-30 times per game. Simply put, Chris Johnson is the Titans’ offense.

If they intend treat him like a franchise player, they’d better be prepared to pay him like one.

It’s easy enough to say, “He should honor the contract he signed”….but a contract should be a two-way street that benefits both parties. If a team feels a player is underperforming, they have the ability to terminate the contract and walk away from the deal; the player does not have that option.

When a player feels his contribution far exceeds his compensation (in CJ’s case, $12M total over five years) his ONLY recourse is to hold out.

Having made him the epicenter of the team’s offensive approach for the foreseeable future, the Titans have little choice but to pay the man.

As far as getting the kinda money a QB or even a top flight CB gets is just not going to happen for him from any team in the league. I?f he will not play for top RB money then my guess is he won’t play at all. No matter his production its just to easy to find a running back that can do close to if not the same production.

But i do believe the Titans owe him a new deal/extension. Just a short term one and if he is still producing at the end of that term then he can get paid again.

Maybe the biggest thing the players have to realize after this CBA is that owners arn’t going to give out retarded big contracts anymore. The days of Nnamdi or Larry F getting huge contracts are over. The only position that will be as big as it was is QB. Everyone else is going to see a small drop in monyes offered. Especially the running back position. RB is positon that is by far the deepest in the NFL its not even close.

I believe Adrian Peterson is the best running back in football, but neither him nor CJ2K got sufficient blocking nor were getting enough receptions.

Let’s assume Johnson is the 2nd best running back in the NFL. He can try sitting out but his potential contract is going to decrease each week if Javon Ringer and Jamie Harper are able to move the chains and the Titans offense steadily improves each week.

I don’t know if that will still be the case under the new CBA but I do know that Chris Johnson’s first three years a comparable to the first 3 years of a number of hall of fame backs.

I said that because, once CJ2K signs his contract, AP is going to want one that is comparable.

You player haters really need to get a grip. This is how NFL business is conducted. NFL management has something that other sports leagues don’t have. They have the ability to cut a player at just about any point in the player’s contract and not have to pay the full amount. MLB doesn’t operate that way, the NHL doesn’t operate that way, and the NBA doesn’t operate that way.

Yet you seem to think some great injustice is being done to teams or owners when players hold out in the middle of a contract.

Yet I didn’t see anyone shed a tear for Thomas Jones when he had the best year of his career with the Jets (1300+ yards rushing and 10 td) yet was asked to take a pay cut and when he refused he got cut. And Jones isn’t the only one dozens of players every season are either forced by management to renogotiate their contract to something more favorable to the team or cut in the middle of a contract for a number of reasons (poor play, salary cap issues, found a better player at that position, whatever). Now I don’t fault the teams and understand this is just business. But I do understand that things cut both ways.

In what other league can you give a player a $70+ million dollar contract and when they don’t perform like you thought they would the team can get out of it paying only $3.5 million?

Even the poster boys for bad contracts Albert Haynesworth and Jamarcus Russell will never see the full value of the contracts they signed. Haynesworth will more than likely see about 40% of that $100 million dollar contract. Russell saw about about 50% of his $61 million dollar contract.

What other sports league can get out of mistakes like those without paying full price? What other major sports league in this country has that luxury?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….if you as a fan don’t want holdouts then you must want fully guaranteed contracts other wise be quiet and understand this is how things are done in the NFL. Why is it that you don’t see NHL, NBA or MLB players ever holding out even when some of them have what’s considered below market contracts? Is it because they’re somehow more noble than NFL players and believe “a contract is a contract”? (Yea right). No it’s because the contract is guaranteed.

I would bet that if all the players in the league were released from their contracts and put into one large pool for a new draft, Revis would be taken before Johnson as well as before all the other DBs in the league who had more interceptions. He’s the best CB since Deion Sanders.

berniemadoffsides says:
Jun 24, 2011 4:16 PM
The Titans should’ve drafted Taiwan Jones for leverage – he’s just a clone of Chris Johnson. Maybe it would’ve made CJ realize his speed is rare, but not irreplaceable. Chris Johnson has a darn good offensive line in front of him.

RB’s are not worth $10M/year unless they’re guys like Walter Payton, Marshall Faulk or Ladanian Tomlinson – guys who, for several years, could basically walk on water. Instead, you solidify your offensive line and then you draft a 2nd round RB (aka… Chris Johnson) who does his job for 5 years, then you draft his replacement. Repeat process, win Super Bowls.

————————————-
bernie,

Chris Johnson statistically is in the same class as LaDaninan Tomlinson after 3 years in the league.

How does Chris Johnson’s first 3 years compare to some of the greatest backs to ever play and some of the best backs in the league today?

Here are Johnson’s stats
4598 rushing yards, 34 rushing tds, and 5.0 yd/carry average

Now for some of the great

Barry Sanders first 3 years in the league:
4322 rush yds, 43 td, 4.92 yds/attempt

Adrian Peterson first 3 years:
4484 yds rushing, 40 td, 4.9 yds/carry

Ladanian Tomlinson
4564 yds rushing, 37 td, 4.45 yds/carry

Erik Dickerson
5147 yds rushing 44td 4.8yds/carry

Emmit Smith
4213yds rushing 41td 4.3yds/carry

The thing I most remember about him is that when the Titans needed him the most… in the Playoffs, he was on the bench with a hood over his head.

Give him a huge contract and he’ll be out of the league in less than 5 years.

——————-

Huh? You mean, after he put up 100 yards total offense and a TD in one half, before having his foot/ankle twisted like a pretzel at the bottom of a pile and suffering a high ankle sprain that lingered for a months, into the offseason program?

Yeah, you gotta be careful what you pay ANY franchise RB because of the extra pounding they take over other positions. But CJ has shown himself to be pretty darn durable so far, and doesn’t deserve to be called out for missing the second half of that playoff game. The timing of the injury was bad, but sometimes s*** happens even to the durable guys.

The Titans won’t make the playoffs this year, so whether Johnson plays or sits is a moot point. I’d rather just save the money while setting a precedent for future players.

There is a bigger difference than the ones PFT noted. One is a shut down corner and the other is a RB. The value of a shut down corner has not gone down, and probably gone up in a pass happy league, all the while the value of a “star” running back has done nothing but go down over the past many years. There is the biggest difference.

If he was a mediocre player that was barely able to stay in the league at this point, he would not have the mindset that he didn’t deserve the “overpayment”. The fact is that he signed a deal and that deal was based on what he believed his value would be. Same goes for the team.

The argument that player contracts are not guaranteed is not exactly valid. Teams rarely cut productive players, and when they do, it is usually a cap issue or the player has other “issues”. Those “good” players that do get cut usually sign with another team, therefore there is no real issue since they negotiate a new contract at that point. The ones that don’t get picked up were no longer living up to their part of the contract anyway or they simply were too old or thought they were worth more than they were offered. That’s on the player.

My point is, if a player wants to scream about “outplaying” his contract, then there should be no complaints when a team decides to “renegotiate” early for less money.