The draft is a little over a month away and the Rams have very little draft capital. It would behoove Les Snead to look at his assets and determine if there’s anyone he’d be willing to part with in exchange for an extra second, third, or best case scenario actually getting a first round draft pick.
Doing that is easier said than done but there’s always a team that gets desperate for talent at a certain position so its not outside the realm of possibility. Snead’s best trade asset or at least the best he can afford to part with would be Trumaine Johnson. His tagging has been well documented given that its his second time under that designation making his cap hit $16 million which is a lot for a guy who only had one pick last season.
It was a horrible pill for the team to swallow because either they let him walk and have nothing at corner or they over pay him which also hurts. Now that the first three or four waves of free agency have ended, teams obviously have way less need than they did a month ago and this year’s draft is a gold mine for defensive backs so getting a big return on Johnson is getting less and less likely.
Snead publicly put the feelers out on a Trumaine Johnson trade a month ago and either he had no takers or his asking price was too big for any team to stomach. Johnson isn’t worth a first rounder from anybody and even teams with more cap room than they know what to do with like Cleveland won’t take him if it means giving up their 12th overall pick (yes they also have the first over all but that’s not going anywhere) or any of their second round picks. Same with Tennessee who would much rather take one of the many corners with either their 5th or 18th overall picks and like Cleveland wouldn’t part with a second rounder.
Their best hope in getting some real value out of Johnson would be to reach out to teams that have multiple needs at defensive back and likely wouldn’t want to have that part of the defense comprised entirely of rookies. Indianapolis comes to mind as they believe they are still a contender and have a lot of other issues to take care of with their picks and could use a corner to start opposite Vontae Davis.
The Jets are another possibility as they are going to lose Revis so they could give up a third pick.
The Packers would seem like a player in this discussion given their woes at that position but GM Ted Thompson isn’t the kind of guy who likes to burn cap room even when he was a lot of it and he covets draft picks so they would be out.
Las Vegas’s own Raiders could be in the mix as their defense was lacking last season and Johnson could give them a boost in the secondary. Houston would seem like a candidate to make this deal but they’re most likely going to focus their cap space towards bringing in Tony Romo and that means they aren’t likely to surrender any picks because they still have to make some type of trade with the Cowboys.
In summation, the Rams aren’t likely to get much out of Trumaine Johnson given the glut of corners in the draft and his own personal value as a player not being incredibly high. The good news is that the Rams know that and will likely lower the price just to get some picks for this year or possibly an extra pick this year and one next year.
Johnson’s high cap hit and low end production make him a gamble for teams but if a middle class team feels that they are one player away on defense or want a veteran at defensive back they might see fit to trade. Something has to give because the Rams only have him for one more year and given that they could’ve locked him up two years ago but chose to tag him in consecutive years shows that they aren’t sold on him.
That might change in Wade’s new defense but if not, the best case scenario is to make a trade during the draft as teams lose out on corners or safeties they had coveted. The Rams needs assets and unloading Johnson is their best chance to do that.
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