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Seven NFL players were recipients of the franchise tag this offseason, and we now know that at least one of them will play the season on his one-year guaranteed deal. Los Angeles Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson signed the franchise tag tender on Monday, per several reports. 

Johnson’s $16.7 million salary makes him the highest-paid corner in the NFL as of this writing, a fact that is not likely to change at any point this offseason. He played last year on the tag as well, drawing a one-year, $13.95 million total. The Rams elected to franchise him last offseason while letting their other starting cornerback, Janoris Jenkins, leave for a long-term deal with the New York Giants. 

Johnson played fairly well in 2016 despite seeing his interception total shrink from seven to one, but he did not play well enough to the point that he should be the league’s highest-paid corner. The Rams have a ton of cap space to burn, but this contract seems like a solution in search of a problem. There probably weren’t that many teams clamoring to give Johnson a long-term deal anywhere near this salary, and if there were, the Rams would likely be better off getting a compensatory pick than matching it. 

Instead, they’ll have paid him more than $30.6 million guaranteed for two seasons of above-average but not star-level cornerback play, and because the franchise tag is likely to be too onerous for them to give it to Johnson again next offseason, they’ll either have to give him another heap of guaranteed money (and why would he accept less than $30 million after what he was paid the last two years) or lose him.