Tennessee Titans Must Tear Up Chris Johnson's Deal and Let Him Become Free Agent

If you ran a football team, would you pay a running back on pace for 690 yards in a 16-game season over $55 million dollars over the next six years?

I highly doubt it but that’s exactly what the Tennessee Titans are getting out of and paying for Chris Johnson. Let’s take a look at some numbers courtesy of Mike Florio over at ProFootballTalk.com

Johnson is already looting $3 million from the team this year for his 2.8 yards-per-carry average and one single touchdown this season, and it gets much worse from here on out.

Next season, Johnson would be scheduled to make $7.7 million (I’m going to go ahead and assume he loses that $300,000 for not hitting 1,000 yards this season) if he was on the Titans’ roster five days into the 2012 league year.

That if is quite important because the Titans could cut their losses and just tear up CJ2K’s deal after this abysmal season and go in a different direction.

They could do that and they should do that.

It’s absolutely crazy to pay a guy that much money to perform so poorly in the first place, but Johnson hasn’t helped his cause off the field either.

He was very selfish and arrogant during his contract negotiations and his lengthy holdout had a debilitating effect on the team and their new head coach who is trying to install a system that would showcase Johnson.

After finally weaseling his way into that ridiculous new deal, Johnson proved he did not take football seriously during the offseason and completely regressed.

There is no more making excuses for this guy, he does not deserve to be one of the highest-paid players in the NFL for having one transcendent season in 2009.

That year is looking more and more like a fluke and Johnson is not going to ever recapture that magic again judging by his recent play.

I think the Titans need to go ahead and just take the $3 million hit this season and let CJ walk away, he certainly isn’t worth his salary cap-crushing contract.