Lions trade George Johnson to Bucs for pick swap

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers agreed to swap late round picks in the upcoming NFL draft for Detroit Lions defensive end George Johnson.

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The Buccaneers picked up Lions defensive end George Johnson and a seventh round pick on Wednesday, while giving up a fifth round pick to Detroit, according to a story by Fox Sports. The Bucs then signed Johnson to a three year, $9 million deal. The trade primarily resolves the Lions dispute to the offer sheet for Johnson, who was a restricted free agent. The Bucs and Lions could have chosen to have an arbitrator come in and resolve the dispute, but they decided instead to resolve it between themselves.

The Lions challenged the Bucs offer sheet because it was set to de-escalate by $2 million, according to a report by Pro Football Talk. Because de-escalators are not part of the relevant

"Since de-escalators aren’t listed in the relevant portion of the labor deal as a type of variable payment that constitutes a “principal term” in an offer sheet, a question arose as to whether the Lions had to match the higher amount or the lower amount to keep Johnson. (via PFT)"

The Lions would not have been compensated for Johnson if they had chosen against matching the offer sheet, this because they had previously given Johnson the lowest level of tender.

Now that that’s resolved, the Bucs get a guy who played in all 16 games last year, had 29 combined tackles, six sacks, one fumble recovery, one pass defended and three stuffs. Johnson did play for the Bucs previously in 2011 and 2012, but he only played in four and five games respectively in those seasons. He’s listed at 6’4 and 265 pounds out of Rutgers.

Johnson is another piece in the Bucs defensive puzzle, one they’ve been slowly and rather quietly trying to improve. At the very least he could give them a situational pass-rusher, but it’s also entirely possible he earns the starting job. The Bucs weren’t looking to be flashy, just looking to add some key role-players to anchor their main defensive stars in Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David.

As for the Lions, they at least escaped losing a decent defensive end for nothing. Johnson was actually their number three last year and he did have six sacks, nothing to sneeze at. Detroit wasn’t going to pay him what Tampa offered him and they weren’t going to give him second round tender either. The Lions are extremely deep at defensive end and can definitely afford to lose Johnson, they just didn’t want to do it for nothing.

So they end up getting a late round pick for him, which is again, better than nothing.

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