The Lions' "Goal" for Calvin Johnson Doesn't Really Sound that Appealing for Him

Calvin Johnson retirement talk hit the presses for the second time in a few weeks on Sunday. As the Lions told him to take his time with an official decision, none has been made yet, but today Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported on the franchise’s “goal” for the wide receiver:

Johnson is apparently hesitant to play ONE more season, but the team wants him to agree to play for less money next year than is on his current deal, and do a deal for multiple seasons? From the outside, that sounds … ambitious.

Johnson’s cap hit is $21.3 million next season, which, from the Lions’ perspective, is indeed a bit much given that his production has declined the past two years. Thus far, there haven’t been any outward indications that Johnson’s deliberations involve money, but he’s presumably aware of this situation.

Per PFT, these were the details of the new deal that Larry Fitzgerald signed (which Rapoport alluded to) last February:

"Full details of the agreement are still to come, but we know that there are major cap implications for the team in 2015. They’ll get back nearly $13 million in cap space that was originally earmarked for the veteran wideout, who stood to make $16 million in salary and count $23.6 million against the cap under his old deal."

It remains to be seen whether Megatron would agree to something like this, but in order for that to happen the Lions would have to make a compelling case that this would be better than both retirement and securing an outright release which would enable him to have a better shot to finish out his career on a team more suited to win right now.