BJ and the Bears

[joecrisp]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

We were going to lose him anyway Beems, and at the hefty contract the Saints offered him it put the Skins right up against the cap limit. At least they got something instead of nothing is the main point.

That's exactly why the trade made sense. Yes, it sucks that the Skins lost Johnson, but if they had retained him, it would have caused too many problems with this year's cap. They were able to get a small consolation prize out of the loss, at least.

In hindsight (which, as we all know, is always 20/20), the best thing for the Skins probably would have been to give Johnson the 1st-round tender, which would have cost them $1.115 million against this year's cap (assuming he wasn't signed to a long-term deal), instead of the $2.2 million cap charge he would have carried under the Saints' deal, which the Skins were forced to match. Though there was a good market for Johnson's services, there's no chance anyone would have sacrificed a 1st rounder for Johnson, so the Skins would have had their man-- at half the cost he would have been.