Andre Johnson has made it known he wants the Houston Texans to trade him. There's already been four teams to show interest in acquiring the 4-time All-Pro selection. Lets investigate who the four teams to show interest could be.
In order to get Johnson, a team is going to need enough cap space to absorb his $10 million base salary this year. At this point, any team able to restructure current deals to be able to absorb his contract need to probably have at least $8 million in free cap space right now.
It wouldn't be impossible for a team with less space than that to get Johnson, but for the sake of this article, we're going to say a team needs at least $8 million free right now to get Johnson.
Here are the teams who meet that qualifier, courtesy of the NFLPA:
Team |
Current Contracts |
Team Cap |
Cap Room |
91 |
$125,980,718.00 |
$11,367,935.00 |
|
89 |
$126,480,098.00 |
$9,263,836.00 |
|
89 |
$118,391,548.00 |
$23,271,932.00 |
|
90 |
$132,903,247.00 |
$24,014,509.00 |
|
93 |
$125,613,758.00 |
$8,261,170.00 |
|
89 |
$128,305,821.00 |
$13,515,388.00 |
|
91 |
$116,688,059.00 |
$13,665,036.00 |
|
91 |
$120,181,440.00 |
$27,094,054.00 |
|
91 |
$125,005,678.00 |
$9,462,465.00 |
|
90 |
$137,356,164.00 |
$13,266,249.00 |
|
90 |
$107,272,690.00 |
$22,336,550.00 |
|
90 |
$120,636,291.00 |
$10,271,612.00 |
|
90 |
$131,245,023.00 |
$18,895,510.00 |
|
88 |
$129,131,008.00 |
$10,205,773.00 |
|
93 |
$119,927,216.00 |
$18,978,595.00 |
Of these 15 teams mentioned, you almost certainly can knock out the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons. Dallas will need to re-sign Dez Bryant soon, as will the Falcons with Julio Jones, and they're already working on a new deal for Roddy White.
Take out the Bengals as well with new deals for Andy Dalton, AJ Green and Vontaze Burfict on the horizon. The Buccaneers just drafted Mike Evans to pair with Vincent Jackson, so scratch them out as well.
Cross of the Cardinals too, as they owe Larry Fitzgerald $40 million over the next two seasons. They can't afford to be paying him and Johnson $15+ million per season.
The Packers are also working to re-sign Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, and they also just drafted Davante Adams and Jared Abbrederis.
Miami sports Mike Wallace, Brian Hartline and Brandon Gibson, who will combine to make $26 million in 2014. They also just drafted Jarvis Landry, so take them out of consideration.
KC has Dwayne Bowe, Donnie Avery and either Junior Hemingway, so they could use Johnson. However with contract negotiations to re-sign Alex Smith ongoing, they can't afford to take on Johnson's contract right now.
Cross off Houston's AFC South rivals. They don't want to see Johnson twice a year playing for either the Titans, Jaguars or Colts.
That leaves the Browns, Jets, Eagles and Raiders as the teams in position to land Johnson's services. All four of them are in need of another quality wide receiver.
The Raiders have Rod Streater, Denarius Moore and James Jones. Philly has Riley Cooper, Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff with Jeremy Maclin signed to a 1-year deal after missing all of 2013 due to a torn ACL.
New York did just sign Eric Decker this offseason. However, Stephen Hill and Jeremy Kerley having done nothing to this point to show they're reliable options. Rex Ryan would love to have Andre for the young Geno Smith to throw to.
But Cleveland's situation is the most dire. Andrew Hawkins, Miles Austin and Nate Burleson are their top-3 wideouts, assuming Josh Gordon is suspended indefinitely. Those three combined to catch 75 balls for 904 yards and one touchdown last year.
Of those four teams, the Browns not only have the most cap space, but also hold two first round picks in the 2015 NFL Draft. Would they be willing to surrender one of those picks to get Johnson?
In the end, Johnson will likely remain with Houston at least until the start of training camp. That gives Houston the chance to see if he doesn't come to his senses and show up for camp.
If however he's a no-show for the first day of camp, that's when the trade discussions will really begin to heat up.