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Not Every Player Saw Franchise Dreams Come True

Don't cry for Trumaine Johnson. He'll be OK.

As ridiculous as it was to think Von Miller would play out a franchise tag with the Denver Broncos, for some teams, and even some players, it actually makes sense. That’s why I wasn’t surprised at all to see Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and Los Angeles Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson unable to work out long-term deals with their teams before the Friday deadline.

There were two surprises out of the guys that got the deals they wanted and those that didn’t; New York Jets defensive tackle Muhammad Wilkerson and Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry.

The shocker with Wilkerson, of course, was that he got his long-term deal after the Jets seemed completely content in letting him play out the season on the tag since they just run a three-man front and already have Sheldon Richardson and last year’s first round pick, Leonard Williams, under contract for a while.

But Richardson got hit with a one-game substance abuse suspension this year so it’s obvious, at least to me, that the Jets were a little nervous putting all their faith in him. It cost the Jets to keep Wilkerson with a five-year, $86 million deal with $53.5 million in guaranteed money.

With Williams still playing on his rookie deal, the pressure is now put on Richardson. Any more screw ups and he could see his hope for a big payday down the road dwindle.

For Berry and the Chiefs, you hope the fact that Berry is just a little over a year removed from his diagnosis for Hodkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. Last year Berry made a full recovery, started 15 games, played in all 16, recording 55 tackles, 10 pass defenses and two interceptions and making his fourth Pro Bowl.

Husain Abdullah retiring, the Chiefs, for the first time in years, were not overrun with starting caliber safeties so it seems like Berry, who is one of the most popular players in the history of the team and its fanbase, could have worked out a long-term deal with Kansas City. It didn’t happen.

As it is Berry will still bank plenty of coin, pocketing $10.806 million this season guaranteed. It’s hard to see a divorce coming between the Chiefs and Berry next season, but with the inability to get a deal done this year it could be a problem. The good news for Kansas City at least next season is they just have two key players become free agents in 2017, Berry and defensive tackle Dontari Poe. So this could just be a way for the Chiefs to kick the can down the road a year.

A non-deal makes the most sense for the Redskins and quarterback Kirk Cousins. And before anyone sheds a tear for him, he’ll still be making $19.953 million this season which is good enough to be the eighth highest-paid quarterback in the league in 2016-17.

There’s no way in hell Cousins was going to make nearly $20 million this year on a new long-term deal so there was no reason at all for him to do anything. This is literally the best thing that has ever happened to him. For the Redskins, they get the chance to see if Cousins can match his 2015 season, which was pretty damn good.  Cousins completed 69.8 percent of his passes for 4,166 yards and 29 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. He also rushed for five touchdowns. If you had Kirk Cousins on your fantasy team, and it’s hard to believe I’m even typing this, you probably did pretty damn well.

If Cousins repeats that performance, or even gets close to it showing it wasn’t an aberration, but what he’s capable of doing, he probably can hit that $20 million mark on his long-term deal. Remember when everybody thought Mike Shanahan was an idiot for drafting Cousins the same year the team traded up for Robert Griffin III?

Jeffery and Johnson are both kind of in the same situation. Johnson is coming off a career year with the Rams where he had 71 tackles, one fumble recovery, 17 passes defended and seven picks. But it’s just a year removed from a season-ending injury. The Rams need Johnson to show he can do it again before committing long term and in the meantime the former third round pick out of Montana is going to be the fourth highest paid corner in the league, making $13,952 million this season.

Jeffery had two consecutive 1,000-yard-plus seasons, but missed seven games last year with multiple injuries pretty much from his ankle to his groin. The Bears need to know this was a freak season and not the sign of a serious problem. Meanwhile for his trouble Jeffery gets to collect $14.599 million guaranteed, even if his leg falls completely off. Not too bad.

Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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