I’m going to say about this deal exactly what I said about Larry Fitzgerald’s deal last year. Yes, it’s a lot of money (7 years, 132 million, 60 million guaranteed). In fact, Johnson’s deal is actually bigger than Fitzgerald’s deal was last offseason. On principle, I don’t agree with giving this much money to a non-quarterback. In fact, because of this giant deal, it’ll actually be harder for the Lions to resign Matt Stafford when his time comes because Stafford will want more than Megatron and that’ll leave the Lions in a messy cap situation.

But what choice did they have? On principle, I don’t like the signing, but I would have done the same thing. Maybe he doesn’t quite deserve this much money, but he’s arguably the best wide receiver in the league and doesn’t turn 27 until September. Last season he caught 96 passes for 1681 yards and 16 touchdowns. Insane. What were they supposed to do? Let him walk after the season? Besides, this deal actually frees up a good amount of cap space for the Lions this season, important because they were backed up against the cap and need to resign linebacker Stephen Tulloch or someone like Curtis Lofton or Dan Connor to replace him.

Grade: A