AJ is on his way out

[Keith]

Welcome to the New England way of doing business. Which is a lot like the 49er way of doing business in the 80s. Smart teams only pay for their players' best seasons. Is Andre worth $11.5M in 2015? Heck no.

Sad end in Houston for the franchise's top player, but it's standard NFL business procedure. Ask Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, Joe Montana...etc. I really did think Johnson would take a pay cut to stick here, but that was an optimistic, sentimental viewpoint in hindsight. As sad as it is to see AJ go, he is 34... moving on and spending that kind of money on a player under 30 makes a lot of sense. Finding a WR to average 11 YPC - about what AJ did in 2014 when he was a year younger - isn't as hard as you might think.

I don't see him landing in Denver, since the team already has such a strong corps of WRs there as it is, but who knows. I do think he probably takes an offer from a team with deep playoff aspirations over a better financial offer.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Keith

Welcome to the New England way of doing business.

You mean that team that just won the SB ? Works for me.

[HPF Bob]

They could afford AJ while Watt was on his rookie contract. Essentially, Watt is the new AJ and there's only one guy on the roster who can make that sort of scratch. That's the way you have to see it. Oddly, most teams have to do that with their QB so if/when we get some top-flight QB, we'll have to decide how much we can afford J.J.

Rinse, repeat.

A.J.'s not going to find that amount of money anywhere else. He can accept a trade where the Texans pay part of the balance or get cut and sign a contract for roughly half of what he makes now.

Now that the league knows we aren't keeping AJ, the only teams that will trade for him are the ones who, for some reason, don't want to get in a bidding war for his services. Heck, I was shocked the Raiders did that for Matt Schaub so anything is possible. More likely, he has value to a team that needs a #2 receiver and wants a veteran to take coverage away from their star guy - like the Lions maybe.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

I was shocked the Raiders did

I don't know how this is possible.