It's been a rough offseason financially for running backs. And it's about to get worse with the Titans reportedly getting closer to releasing Chris Johnson.
Johnson is 28 years old. He's been in the league seven years. The only time he didn't have a 1,000-yard season was the year he had a 2,006-yard season. His career average per carry is 4.6 and the only NFL game he's ever missed came in 2008, his rookie season.
So he's young, durable and productive. But this is the 21st century and star running backs for the most part are becoming obsolete, if they haven't already reached that point.
According to NFL.com, six of the running backs listed among its top 101 free agents this year are going to be paid an average salary ($2.89 million) that's less than the average salary ($2.91 million) of the league's six highest-paid punters.
As for the future of the position, well, last year was the first time since 1964 that a running back wasn't taken in the first round. This year's draft could make it two in a row without a back taken on Day 1.
Johnson will make his next team very happy. But that next team won't make him as happy financially as he would have been had the Titans chose to continue paying him according to that four-year, $53.5 million deal he signed to end a 35-day holdout in the summer of 2011.
Remember that deal? As good as CJ2K was, eyebrows were raised because it came with $31 million in guaranteed money.
A few weeks later, in San Diego on the eve of the Vikings' regular-season opener, Adrian Peterson topped it when he signed a seven-year deal worth up to $100 million with $36 million guaranteed. He got $40 million of that money in his first three seasons, which just concluded.
