George Johnson Trade to Tampa Bay Ends in a Win for Detroit Lions

Unwilling to pay even an insignificant sum for a potential one-hit wonder, the Detroit Lions still managed to pry away some level of compensation in the conclusion with defensive end George Johnson. 

According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, the Lions agreed to a trade with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that will send Johnson to the Bucs in exchange for a swapping of late-round draft picks. 

Per Tim Twentyman of the Lions' official site, Detroit will receive Tampa Bay's fifth-round pick in this year's draft, with the Bucs getting the Lions' seventh-rounder (acquired from Baltimore) in return. 

A restricted free agent, Johnson previously signed a contested offer sheet with the Bucs. Wednesday's trade cancels out Detroit's appeal of the process, pending league approval of the agreed-upon swap. Johnson will go to Tampa Bay on a three-year deal worth roughly $9 million, while Detroit will get a bump up in the late rounds of the upcoming draft. 

Johnson's farewell tweet Wednesday would seem to indicate the move has been approved:

Overall, the ending must be viewed as a minor win for the Lions. 

Detroit had several opportunities to pay Johnson, who broke out with six sacks as a reserve defensive end last season, and balked at every chance. 

The Lions could have all but locked in Johnson's return with a second-round tender, worth roughly $2.4 million and including draft-pick compensation tied in as deterrent. Instead, the team decided to go with an original-round offer, saving Detroit almost $1 million but opening up Johnson to other teams without any compensation in return.

The Buccaneers finally pounced on the opportunity last week. Given another opportunity to retain Johnson with the right to match any offer sheet, general manager Martin Mayhew all but passed. After saying no thanks to paying Johnson just over $2 million, the Lions had little intention of keeping him in Detroit with a deal worth another million more—or twice what the team initially planned on paying with the original-round tender. 

Set on a price, Mayhew found a way to at least get something back in return. 

And it's not difficult to understand why the Lions held firm on their line. 

Johnson, 27, was a no-name signing for the Lions last offseason. He arrived in Detroit with just 11 NFL appearances and zero career sacks, playing in his last regular-season game way back in 2012. It ended up being a diamond-in-the-rough finding for Mayhew and the Lions, as Johnson went on to appear in all 16 games and register career highs in sacks (6.0) and tackles (29).

That said, Johnson was still a backup defensive end who managed a breakout season as a part of a loaded defensive line after a journeyman career. 

Duane Burleson/Associated Press

The former undrafted free agent failed to produce a sack or any more than five tackles in any season from 2010 to 2013, years in which he bounced around from practice squads and active rosters of the Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings. 

He eventually landed in Detroit, made the 53-man roster to start 2014 and feasted as a rotational defensive end playing alongside the likes of Ndamukong Suh, Ezekiel Ansah and Nick Fairley. The Lions were clearly content with gambling on his roster spot, likely because it will be difficult for Johnson to replicate his career year in future seasons—especially with no Suh or Fairley remaining along the Detroit line. 

Departures	Additions
DT Ndamukong Suh	DT Haloti Ngata
DT Nick Fairley	DT Tyrunn Walker
DE George Johnson	DE Phillip Hunt

He now heads to Tampa Bay on a deal that will expect him to build on his 2014 season. 

No team wants to lose a young pass-rusher, and no team wants such high turnover for what was the club's longtime anchor. The Lions are now losing 15.5 sacks from 2014 in the departing trio of Suh, Fairley and Johnson. That production will be hard to replace in just one offseason. 

However, the Lions have avoided overpaying for a backup player while still managing to receive compensation in return. That conclusion must be considered a win in Detroit. 

Zach Kruse covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. 

Follow @zachkruse2