Those would be wonderful points to make in a contract negotiation
if Johnson didnt have five years left on his current deal. He could even use those points to counter the negativity of a holdout if Johnson was playing serious hardball with the Texans by not showing up for offseason work at all. However, Johnson has been far from disruptive. Instead, he missed three days of workouts this offseason, showed up to tell management he wasnt happy and then went back to work with his teammates.
He did that even after Melton hinted to the media that Johnson was going to play rough with the Texans.
My uncle may have said some things about what he thought I should do, but that didnt come from me, said Johnson, who led the league with 1,569 receiving yards last season.
Johnsons body language demonstrated that he was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of holding out. The idea goes against his very nature. But Johnson, 28, is also frustrated with his contract, a deal which likely will cover the rest of his most productive seasons. By the time it expires after the 2014 season, Johnson will likely be playing out the string of his career if hes even able to do that.
When I missed the first days [of offseason work], everybody has their own opinion like, Hes greedy and this and that. They dont know the whole story, they havent been here, so its something you just have to understand, said Johnson, the third overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft. The crazy thing about it and this is why I say people dont know what was going on when I signed the contract [extension in 2007], all you heard is, Hes a great guy, hes a team player, he restructured his deal to bring other people in.
But now, when I ask for a restructured contract, Hes greedy, hes a diva, hes this. Everybody flips on me.
For the Texans, this is clearly an uncomfortable subject. They have a great player who is dissatisfied. Criticizing Johnson in any way would come off as bad PR.
I want to make something clear, this is not me against Andre Johnson, Houston general manager Rick Smith said. Andre is a great player and person in every way.
But
We didnt give Andre a new contract [in 2007] to create cap space so we could sign free agents. We did it because he wanted more money, Smith said.
OK, the problem is that Johnson didnt really get a lot more than if he had played out the old deal certainly not enough to make up for the risk of playing out his first contract.
Heres the breakdown: As a rookie, Johnson signed a six-year, $39 million deal, which was pretty much in line with the market at the time. Then again, most rookie contracts are essentially slotted deals and the Texans were aggressive about giving Johnson a deal to get him signed on time for camp.
Where things went wrong was after the first four years of that deal in the 2007 offseason. By that time, according to NFL Players Association figures, Johnson had earned $21.71 million and had two years left on his rookie deal. He would have made $8.35 million in 2007 and again in 2008 for a total of $38.41 million over the first six years of his contract.
That also would have made Johnson a free agent or franchise player in the 2009 offseason. By then, fellow wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald(notes) (four years, $40 million) and Roy Williams (six years, $54 million) had already signed lucrative extensions.
But instead of playing out the final two years and getting leverage that comes with being a free agent or franchise player, Johnson signed a new deal in March 2007, adding six years to his original contract.
The result was basically an eight-year deal worth $60 million. If all goes well, Johnson, who is the only other receiver under 30 who ranks with Fitzgerald, will earn a total of $81.71 million over 12 years, which is basically his whole career.
Now, theres nothing terribly wrong with that sum, but heres the problem: Based on what Fitzgerald and Williams signed for, its not absurd to believe that Johnson easily could have made more than $10 million per year if he had waited. A six-year, $66 million contract, including $32 million or so guaranteed, could easily have been had.
Andre Johnson is the one guy who could have [gotten more per year] than Larry Fitzgerald at that point, a prominent agent said, referring to what could have happened if Johnson had waited. The funny part is we actually had his contract used against us in one negotiation. The team said, Your guy isnt as good as Andre Johnson and look at his contract.
The bottom line is this, if Johnson had been patient, he could have hauled in more than $104 million over the same 12 years where he stands to make $81.71 million. And thats if he stays healthy all the way through. Under the more patient scenario, nearly $70 million of that would have been guaranteed.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AlnXGfX.k8QJEnYLAPmbLMJDubYF?slug=jc-directsnap060310
him.