Cardinals running back David Johnson said this week that he’s “obviously” not happy about the fact he’s playing a diminished role on offense this season.
Johnson has seven carries and four catches over the last two games and he hasn’t played more than half the team’s offensive snaps since Week Six of the season. Given that change in status, some may be wondering what the offseason has in store for Johnson.
Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim fielded that question on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Friday and said that Johnson will be one of many players up for evaluation once the season comes to an end.
“Those are the kind of conversations that will certainly be held internally,” Keim said. “I’m not going to have them on the radio. I will say this: We’ll take a deep dive into this roster and take a look at every guy. Not only their contract situation but as I said earlier, identifying the core of players moving forward and making sure we can build around them.”
The contract situation is going to be a significant piece to any Johnson plans. The Cardinals would have over $16 million in dead money under the cap if they cut him without a post-June 1 designation and using that designation wouldn’t make things look much better. Trading Johnson would offer more relief, but it’s unclear other teams will be clamoring to pay Johnson’s $10.2 million base salary in 2020.