Earlier this week, agent Joel Segal suggested he thought Chris Johnson‘s time with the Titans was over, but didn’t know exactly when that would become official. It looks like Segal may have his answer. The running back himself tweeted last night that he’s en route to Tennessee for a Friday meeting with the team, and Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean reports that the expectations is Johnson will take a physical before being released.
The Titans have been expected to part ways with Johnson for some time, but recent reports of trade interest created optimism that the 28-year-old could be moved rather than cut. As I pointed out yesterday, however, once those reports start to suggest that Johnson will be released if no trade partner is found, it becomes pretty tricky to extract anything of value for him in a deal.
If and when Johnson hits the free agent market, he’ll provide an interesting case for the value of running backs — so far this offseason, backs have been hard-pressed to sign deals worth more than $3.5MM per year. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggests that a contract which pays Johnson $8MM in year one, with an average annual value of $6MM, seems reasonable. But even that kind of offer may not be easy to find, considering how many teams have already fired their free agency bullets.