John Johnson was one of the first draft picks of the Sean McVay era, landing with the Rams as a third-round pick in 2017. Though he wasn’t an immediate starter, it didn’t take him long to become one as a rookie that year.
Since then, he’s only gotten better with each passing year, culminating in arguably the best season of his career in 2020. As a leader in the secondary, he played just about every snap at safety and led the team with 105 tackles.
Johnson will now become a free agent in March and based on the way he’s played, his price might be out of the Rams’ range. He’s set to be paid like one of the top safeties in football and given Los Angeles’ history of not paying homegrown players at that position, it’s unlikely that will change.
A return can’t be completely ruled out, but fans shouldn’t get their hopes up.