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Andre Johnson and rented mule Cortland Finnegan

ADDING Pro Bowl WR Andre Johnson to a potent offense that includes RB’s like 2013 Rushing Champion LeSean McCoy, and every down mismatch Darren Sproles; a QB like emerging star Nick Foles; WR’s like rookie Jordan Matthews, and Jeremy Maclin; not to mention TE’s Zach Ertz and Brent Celek, sounds awesome right?

Let me stop you right there.

First of all, I’ve already mentioned that in 2015 the Eagles will have some serious belt tightening to do. Johnson’s $10M price tag in 2015 ($11M in 2016), isn’t friendly to that mission. Even if we play him in 2014 and cut him in 2015, his dead money figure in that year is north of $7M. On top of that we’d have to trade to get him, which only makes him more pricey.

Secondly, with Chip Kelly saying that Matthews will start in the slot, that says either Maclin, or Riley Cooper are making $5 to ride pine this year. Either that or Matthews sits as one of them moves inside. If Matthews goes to the bench it only buries Josh Huff further down the depth chart, which then stunts your youth development, which hurts double considering again that you gave away a draft pick.

Third, at 32, is Johnson even physically able to adjust to Kelly’s up tempo pace? He’s far from a pristine 32, as his body has quite a bit of wear and tear on it. As far as body type goes, we just drafted a big WR who seems to be picking things up well, and is working out with some of the NFL’s best WR’s in order to live up to Kelly’s expectations of him. If he’s pushed aside for Johnson, it could damage his attitude early on. Why play with fire?

Lastly, what exactly would we be getting? It’s not like he’s a dangerous scoring threat, with only 61 TD’s on 927 career catches; and yes I said only. His catch to TD ratio is 15.1:1, which is dead lowest among active players with 40 career TD receptions. In a system predicated on the run, we don’t need a 100 catch WR. More to the point, this system won’t produce a 100 catch WR. (More on that tomorrow.)

Put bluntly, we can’t afford him, we don’t need him, he’s too risky, he doesn’t fit what we do.

I’m probably going to “catch” hell for this and I welcome it. It’ll be good to get the blood up before camp. Fans need to get in shape too.

I look forward to responding to the Comments you post below.