I am most certain that i am not the first person to write about the situation between Chris Johnson and the Titans (if you could even call it a situation) and i am sure i wont be the last.
With that said i would like to go on record as saying that all the coverage on the NFLN and ESPN is nothing more then media personnel looking for something to report on out of nothing.
Let us start out by looking at the facts, Chris Johnson was given a rookie contract worth $12 million dollars with a guaranteed bonus of $7 million dollars, last season Johnson made a base salary of $385,000 dollars and is expected to make $560,000 dollars this season. If the numbers look low to you its because they are, but, it doesn’t mean he will hold out.
If you are a player in this league you want to get paid the big bucks and it is understandable why when your next snap could be your last, but CJ2K wont be making any sort of K if he holds out, and with the looming collective bargaining agreement situation and a potential player lockout in 2011 a one year holdout with no pay could turn into a two year unemployment with no check coming from the federal government. In addition to possibly not receiving pay for the next two years the Titans could also fine him for every practice, game, training camp session, team meeting and mandatory OTA session which would make that 560,000 dollar salary disappear awfully quick.
The Titans have always looked after their star players when they were in their prime as long as the numbers were not outrageous (cough cough Albert Haynesworth). With the NFL having a rule that prevents a player from signing a new contract that would make him thirty percent more then his previous contract and Johnson not wanting to go a possible two years without a paycheck i would expect a new contract that gives him a 29 percent pay increase with a healthy side of guaranteed money to hold him over until a stronger long term contract can be renegotiated.
I would expect to see Johnson at the first mandatory OTA to remind the Titans what they have and also to show the rest of the team that even though he is unhappy with his pay, he is still here to compete and to play ball.