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dzrams
NOTABLE OUTGOING FREE AGENTS
Trumaine Johnson - Wants elite CB money but isn’t elite. Also, he’s not a Wade Philips press CB.
Do we know that Tru wants to be paid like an elite? He's already made an absurd amount of money these past two seasons, so unless he has a bad accountant he should be pretty well set for cash.
We know he was tagged the first time in a desperate move not to lose both CB's, especially after having the best year of his career. We know he was tagged the second time because neither he, nor the team, knew how he'd fit in Wade's defense and we didn't want to be trapped in a long contract.
Obviously he'll want to be paid like the 6 years starter he is, and he'll want financial "respect", But is there any reason to think we couldn't keep him for $10-11 mil per year?
At age 28 this is likely his last big money contract. I'd guess that guaranteed money and contract length is going to be more important than the yearly. He's not going to want to hit the market again when he's 30 with the likely hood of shuffling between teams on 1 year deals.
I don't know his family situation (Internet says he's single and quite a player) but he did grow up in Stockton and might have family and friends in So Cal.
TruJ was tagged both times because the Rams felt they couldn't afford to lose him but what the team was willing to offer versus what he was asking for were not close.
What are the chances that he or his agent are gonna say, "you know you made a lot of money these last 2 years, we'll ask for less."? I think those chances are near nil.
What makes you think that just because one is set for cash they don't still want to maximize their earnings? Especially when you bring in the concept of financial respect. If he sees himself as elite - and from all accounts I've heard he does - why wouldn't you want to be paid elite money?
In addition, even in the unlikely event that TruJ wanted to sign for less than market value, I'm not certain that Rams want that. Wade is known to prefer the press coverage type CB. That's not TruJ.
Snead hasn't sounded nearly as enthused about the prospect of keeping him as he has for Watkins. His comments regarding TruJ returning have always been lukewarm. I take from that, that he's not the Rams highest priority to retain.
All in all, when a player is franchised twice, the chances are low that in the 3rd year they suddenly work out a deal with the team. That $16M already set a baseline. Players easily feel insulted when their team wants to pay them less.
So I'm making an educated guess based on everything I've seen and heard.
