Chris Johnson Contract Is Overkill, but Titans Had No Other Choice

The Tennessee Titans reportedly signed star running back Chris Johnson to a $53.5 million deal for six years.

Johnson has landed $30 million in guaranteed money, which is $9 million more than DeAngelo Williams signed for with the Panthers this season as the top free-agent running back available.

To many people those numbers are eye-opening and shocking. Admittedly, they were to me too, but when you delve into the situation in greater detail you realize that there was little—if any—wiggle room for the Titans to work with.

Realistically, no team was going to give the Titans good value in a trade since it is easy to find good running backs these days and teams can win without an elite one. Had they waited further into the NFL season to sign him to a deal, they would have risked disgruntling the star running back or affecting team chemistry.

Johnson is now being paid elite-quarterback money; he will receive $13 million in 2011 as opposed to the $800,000 he was scheduled to make.

While he is obviously not an elite-level quarterback, he is at the very least the second best running back in the league. More importantly, he is the Titans' most important offensive piece that their offense is built around.

He is not an elite quarterback, but the Titans do not need to pay an elite quarterback money any time soon. The fact that the rookie wage scale took effect the same season that the Titans brought in their supposed face of the future in Jake Locker allows them to be more flexible financially.

Had Locker come out a season before he did and been drafted in the same position, he would likely have received something very similar to the money that Johnson received.

Instead, Locker signed a much smaller deal and the Titans have essentially locked up his most important piece with the money that would have gone his way. Locker won't be on the field this year and Matt Hasselbeck didn't command too much of their salary cap to prevent them from paying Johnson now.

The Titans can afford to pay Johnson this year as they don't have any other huge pressing needs on the horizon or huge commitments financially.

Johnson's value to the team is huge because they will be a run-first team this year and during Locker's early years as a starter. A strong running game is essential to ease in a young quarterback and aid his development as a professional quarterback. Much of Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez's success in Baltimore and New York respectively was due to their strong running games.

The truth is that Johnson's deal is too much money for the position, but Johnson is more than just a running back for the Titans. With Javon Ringer in the backfield teams obviously wouldn't fear the Titans' running game as much as they would with Johnson.

In my mind, the best situation for the Titans would have been to trade Johnson. But would they really want to see him play against them in the future and was there another team willing to commit this kind of money to him?

Had they traded him, they likely would have had to settle for something like a second-round pick at best, with a player or two coming in, because of Johnson's contract demands. At the end of the day, Mike Munchak is looking to build a new winning team in Tennessee and getting off to a good start is crucial.

If Munchak couldn't even get his best player onto the team, it would have given his players an excuse to undermine him or not to perform as he makes his first venture into being a head coach.

Signing Johnson to this money wasn't a good decision from a business point of view, but providing that it is predominantly front loaded, it should not cripple their long-term plans and should allow them to remain optimistic and settle any issues that would have emanated from a longer conflict.

It may not be an ideal ending, but at least it is an ending for the Titans and Chris Johnson.