Arizona Cardinals: RB Chris Johnson mulling offer

The Arizona Cardinals have offered free agent running back Chris Johnson a one-year contract

If this was a few years ago, this might be pretty exciting news. However the news that the Arizona Cardinals have made free agent running back Chris Johnson an offer for a one-year contract is two-fold not the best news in the world.

If Johnson, who averaged 4.3 yards-per-carry for the New York Jets shows up, then it means only one negative and not two. The one negative means that since Johnson is here, coach Bruce Arians is not happy with the current core of running backs.

I alluded to a little bit about this last night. By making an offer to Johnson, the Cardinals are saying they do not have full confidence in Andre Ellington and have a worry about draft pick David Johnson. That and you can’t go into the season with Kerwynn Williams and/or Marion Grice as your top two running backs if Ellington and Johnson aren’t available.

Johnson has not accepted the offer as of yet. The offer was first reported this morning by multiple media outlets. He is reportedly “mulling” the offer. I don’t know the terms but he’d be crazy not to take the offer. I guess the one thing he’d have to think about is if this is a move to just light the fire under Ellington and Johnson or is this a true offer with the real opportunity for playing time? Some are speculating this is a move to just light a fire under those guys but certainly with neither one of them being able to practice much at all at this point, it’s a gamble that Johnson could probably afford to take.

The jury will be out on him though until I see him get on the field and practice. Yes he had a very good yards-per-average last year but he’s not the Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans from the start of his career. Still, out of the veteran running backs still available on the market, he seems to be the most viable option at this point.

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