Chris Johnson A Trade Option For The Cardinals?

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk makes the case for the Arizona Cardinals to trade for Titans RB Chris Johnson.

After losing Ryan Williams for the season because of s shoulder injury and Beanie Wells for at least a large portion of the season with an injury of his own, the Cardinals are expected to turn to LaRod Stephens-Howling and William Powell for the foreseeable future. Beat writers close to the team have reported that they could look to sign a free agent in the coming weeks, but the available options aren’t exactly what you would consider to be impact players.

Florio writes that Chris Johnson won’t be back with the Titans next season because they can get out from underneath his massive contract if he’s released before week after the Super Bowl. This would save them $10 million in 2013 as well as prevent them from guaranteeing him another $9 million.

So if Florio’s correct in his assumption that the team will move on without him, it would make sense for them shop him around the league. It’s hard to argue that Chris Johnson wouldn’t be an upgrade to the Cardinals current group of running backs. The NFL has pushed back the trade deadline to Week 8, which should allow teams that are in contention at that point to consider mortgaging their future in the hopes of making a run in this year’s playoffs. The Cardinals have started the season off great, so you’d have to think that they would look to address some issues by the deadline if they’re still in the hunt.

The Packers have issues at running back now that they’ve lost Cedric Benson for an extended period of time, but they seem unlikely to trade draft picks in return for a running back.