Jets regretting massive deal for Trumaine Johnson shows Rams lucked out

Looking back, it seems like the Los Angeles Rams made the right decision in letting Trumaine Johnson walk in free agency last offseason.

Around this time last year, the Los Angeles Rams were facing a difficult decision in regards to Trumaine Johnson, and whether it would be worth bringing the cornerback on board for another season with the team after using the franchise tag in each of the previous two seasons.

For obvious reasons, the Rams knew how ridiculous it would be to use the tag for a third year in a row since the lost alone would be more than the team could afford, but also they knew Johnson would be seeking a hefty contract, meaning to keep him around, it would be expensive.

Turns out, Los Angeles was right on the money with this assumption after watching Johnson eventually go on to sign a whopping five-year, $72.5 million deal with the New York Jets in free agency.

Even if the writing was on the wall for Johnson after Los Angeles made it clear they were moving on after acquiring Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib through trades, there were still concerns over whether the team would regret moving on from their former cornerback.

With that being said, Manish Mehta of the NY Daily News recent did one of this Jets mailbag pieces discussing all things New York football related, with one of the topics coincidentally being the contract signed by Johnson last year.

While discussing the concerns of the possibility in overpaying average players, Mehta quickly pointed out the contract signed by Johnson last March in free agency since after one season, it’s pretty clear the Jets paid way too much for the cornerback.

The debate is certainly still out there over whether the duo of Peters and Talib was the right decision for the defense, but at least in comparison to what it would have cost to keep Johnson around, this was easily the better option.

Plus, thanks to Los Angeles making the wise decision in letting Johnson test the free agency market before agreeing to that hefty deal with the Jets, the Rams were able to invest money that would have been spent on the cornerback on other positions.

In other words, thank goodness the Rams were smart enough to make this tough decision in regards to Johnson when they did, or who knows how different things could have played out this past season.