It’s a growing debate that puts the Los Angeles Rams front office at a disadvantage because of their recent lack of success.
Turfshowtimes.com posted an article titled, “They Are More Of A Mess Than People Are Giving Them Credit For,” gathering material from a Ringer podcast (former Grantland creator Bill Simmons’ new podcast) featuring contributor Robert Mays and former NFL executive Michael Lombardi.
Lombardi expresses confusion, according to turfshowtimes.com over the fact that the Rams’ thinking that they had to make Trumaine Johnson the highest-paid cornerback in the league to keep him from testing free agency, saying no one else was about to pay $16.8 million for Johnson’s services.
“But as Lombardi notes, it’s not necessarily an A vs. B decision,” turfshowtimes.com reports. ‘It’s A, B, C, D and E. And the people that can think of C, D and E are the ones making the better decisions. I think the Rams made a horrible choice.’”
Los Angeles general manager Les Snead explained his thinking at an NFL Combine press conference, in another turfshowtimes.com report.
The thinking for Trumaine started last year, when we had two (free agent) corners. After the 2015 season Trumaine, in terms of looking at the corner position since 2012 when he was drafted, he ranked second in interceptions. After last season, he ranks fifth. Takeaways are important in this league, and he’s been able to do that. So he’s a viable player and we need him. Now we change coordinators going to Wade Phillips, but we know this: Wade values corners. So I think what we’re going to do with Trumaine is, because everyone is knew, we need to work together, live together, see if we all fit. Does Tru fit Wade, does Wade fit Tru? Because it’s obvious by the tag number and what corners get paid, it’s a heavy investment and you want to be right. Especially when you go long term.
The Orange County Register’s Vincent Bonsignore added the Rams had to keep Johnson for the sake of their secondary.
This is a case of a major Rams need trumping the cost it will take to address it,” he wrote. “As thin as the Rams are at cornerback, and as uncertain as the position is right now even with Johnson in the fold, losing him would be a punch even more painful than the blow they’ll absorb to the wallet and on their 2017 salary cap.
“… But the reality is, the Rams can’t afford to lose Johnson, no matter how expensive it will be to keep him around at least one more year.”
And that’s the debate. L.A. doesn’t know how well Johnson will fit with defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ scheme. If he does, perhaps the Rams get a contract done with him. And because the Rams showed they were willing to pay him the nearly $17 million, he is more willing to negotiate a multiyear deal.
If he isn’t worth it, the Rams wasted $16 million. Would Snead really have franchised Johnson without asking Phillips whether he thought there was another free agent available that the Rams could sign to play in his scheme? How much better can the Rams make themselves this year when they likely would have to overpay another free-agent CB for multiple years and are hampered with having what was reported as the lowest monetary draft value in the NFL for 2017?
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