This slipped by yesterday, but I wanted to get it up here anyway: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offer to restricted free agent George Johnson is worth $9 million over three years, according to Mike Garofolo.
The Bucs probably front-loaded the offer to increase the odds that the Detroit Lions would pass on matching the offer they gave the defensive end. The Lions have less than $4 million in cap space right now, although if they really wanted to they could clear up some more room by either releasing players or restructuring contracts.
The Lions have a simple decision to make on Johnson: either they match the offer, or they don't. They can't negotiate. They can't make him a different offer. Just a yes or a no, that's all. Johnson is likely looking at a starting or at least heavy rotational role in Tampa, and it's not clear he'd get that in Detroit, so he's probably worth more to Tampa than he is to the Lions. We'll find out on Monday what the Lions decide to do.