Well, that didn’t exactly work out.
The $72.5 million free-agent corners did not pan out well for the New York Jets. The Jets announced earlier this morning that they would be cutting the once elite corner, per the New York Daily News.
One of the biggest free agents of 2018, the Jets signed the former Los Angeles Ram to a 5-year $72.5 million deal with $45 million guaranteed, with hopes to bolster their secondary. Saying Trumaine Johnson underperformed in his second season with the Jets would be a colossal understatement.
Just how bad was Johnson for the Jets since he was signed in March of 2018?
Johnson was benched this season, played in only seven games and ranked 111th out of 133 corners in Pro Football Focus’s corners who played at least 200 snaps. All in all, the Jets only managed to get 17 games from their big fish free agent. One ankle injury after another also caused him to miss significant playing time.
The cut will leave the Jets with a $12 million dead cap hit. With the new collective-bargaining agreement, the team can decide whether or not they want to spread it out over the next two years.
In addition to not living up to his massive contract, Johnson also has never been selected for a single pro bowl since he was drafted by the Rams in the third round of the 2012 draft.
Despite this, Johnson was franchise tagged twice by the Rams, ultimately setting up for his big payday, but Johnson’s career with the Jets comes to a bitter end as the free-agent signing will go down as one of the biggest whiffs in franchise history.
The release will free up about $3 million in cap room, increasing the Jets to a $51.8 million budget. Another hole in the secondary leads to more questions surrounding its possible solution. Free Agency? The draft? Only time will tell now as we are only nine days away from the start of free agency. For the Jets’ sake, hopefully, the next signing will pan out better than this one.