re: Saints had trade in place for Rams CB Trumaine Johnson

Screw that he is not as good as he is getting paid:

Johnson has been franchise tagged for the second consecutive year, meaning the Rams aren’t just on the hook for the $14.2 million that any other cornerback would have received had they been franchise tagged, but for $16.7 million, or 120 percent of the franchise tag he received last offseason—such is the way the system works. That $16.7 million is a full 10 percent of the new salary cap figure of $167 million for 2017.

Johnson won’t actually be the highest-paid cornerback in the league this year, but he will be the second-highest, trailing only Washington’s Josh Norman in both cash earning and salary cap hit. His cap hit eclipses that of Arizona’s Patrick Peterson and Seattle’s Richard Sherman by more than $3 million each, and Denver’s Aqib Talib by almost $5 million.

So just how far short of that elite level is Johnson? This past season, he ranked as the 26th-best CB by PFF grade, with a score of 81.0; a year ago, he was 25th (80.9). In abstract terms, 64 cornerbacks start in the NFL, with another 32 playing more often than they are on the bench given the propensity for nickel defense throughout the league, so ranking around the top 25 is far from a bad thing, but neither does it justify almost $17 million a season.

PFF