‘09 FA Target: Bryant Johnson

I was away all weekend in the land of Mikey Mouse so I am catching up on most of the news from the past couple days, but did come across this bit of news on a 49ers blog about Bryant Johnson.  The 49ers beat witter for the Sacramento Bee thinks its likely that Johnson won’t be back in San Fran next year.

I’d say it’s 65-35 that Johnson doesn’t return. The 49ers will not aggressively try to re-sign him before Feb. 27. But if he doesn’t get a lot of attention on the FA market, they’d welcome him back. He’s a big-bodied WR who would be a good fit in a smash-mouth offense.

Johnson isn’t a big name wide receiver and its not the kind of receiver that will take over a game ala Larry Fitzgerald, but lets be honest with ourselves.  There’s a very, very small chance the Eagles FO would ever make a move for such a wide receiver via free agency.  The cost of such a player would be deemed too high for a FA signing and the cost in draft picks to trade for someone like Anquan Boldin would be deemed too costly.

So if we can’t add an elite wide receiver, why not take a chance on a guy like Johnson?  His numbers in 2008 weren’t overly impressive - 45 catches for 546 yards and 3 touchdowns - but he was catching passes from JT O’Sullivan and Shaun Hill all year long.   He is the exact type of receiver that this offense could really use though - a big, strong, receiver who can move the chains and be a target in the red zone.  With the speed Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson bring to the wide receiving corps, what this offense really needs in an underneath threat that can keep defenses from dropping the safeties back all game long to prevent the long ball.

The Eagles could have pursued Johnson last year, but choose not to.  Last year though they had Reggie Brown coming off a 61 catch, 780 yard, 4 touchdown  season.

I’m not saying this would be a great move by the FO or that it will solve some of the problems our offense had in 2008, but who would you rather have as a 3rd wide receiver Bryant Johnson or Reggie Brown?  (Note, despite two years more experience in the league, Johnson is still a year young than Brown).  The problem though is what do you do with Brown and his ridiculously long contract?  Cutting Brown this off-season would cost the Eagles $5.8 million against the cap and who is going to give up much for a medicore WR scheduled to make $3.06 million next year?