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RICK STROUDBucs will be paying for break with Keyshawn Johnson for years to come.
TAMPA - The real cost of shelving Keyshawn Johnson cannot be measured in lost catches, yards or touchdowns.
In fact, the Bucs will continue paying for their bold maneuver with the high-priced receiver for years to come.
The world champions invested two first-round draft picks to acquire Johnson from the New York Jets before the 2000 season. He will leave the Bucs having earned more than $20-million for 31/2 seasons.
When Johnson is traded or released before next season, the Bucs will absorb about $5-million on the salary cap because the remainder of his $13-million signing bonus will be accelerated.
And, the team will have to use another draft pick, millions of dollars or both to replace a receiver of Johnson's caliber.
"You can sit here and look at it that way, and when you write it down, it seems insurmountable to overcome that," coach Jon Gruden said Wednesday.
Since Johnson would have cost the Bucs more than $6-million in base salary next year, even with the salary cap hit, the team would actually save $1-million.
That sounds good until you realize the Bucs won't have the player.
"You've got to replace him in some way, shape or form," general manager Rich McKay said. "Remember, you've only got so big of a pie. It depends on how you're going to determine the replacement. Are you going to replace him with a high-priced free agent, low-priced free agent, medium-priced free agent, college, trade ... what are you going to do? And to me, that remains to be seen. You've got a lot of options."
Gruden and McKay discussed several options before deciding to deactivate Johnson for the remaining six games.
They could have suspended and fined him, which likely would have put the Bucs and Johnson in a grievance hearing at the NFL office in New York. They could have benched him, which they feared would result in a postgame tirade before the media.
That's why Gruden sought and received the approval of the NFL Management Council before making the move Tuesday.
Johnson told the Bucs he didn't want to play for Gruden after the loss at San Francisco. He did not return home on the team plane and his agent, Jerome Stanley, criticized Gruden for not making better use of Johnson.
But it wasn't until Johnson carried his feud with the coach into the locker room that the Bucs felt their hand was forced.
"Early in the year, I think we were taking a stance that some of the things Key was saying weren't a distraction," cornerback Ronde Barber said. "But the reality of it was they were distractions because they were taking us away from what we were trying to do, which was concentrate on winning football games."
On the field, Johnson would have helped the Bucs do that. He led the team in receiving for three years and only Colts receiver Marvin Harrison reached 600 career catches faster.
"I look at it now and say, "Do you want more?"' McKay said. "You always want more. Would you like to have another year or two? Yeah, you'd like to have another year or two.
"The design of the contract, as Key knows and Jerome Stanley knows, it was never designed to be an eight-year deal. It was designed to be a five-year deal and then we would look at it after that. Did it work out as both parties would like? No. But I still think the player has been a productive player for us."
Finding a player to take his place won't be easy. The Bucs already forfeited four first- or second-round draft picks to the Raiders for Gruden.
"There's been a couple receivers picked very highly here in the last three or four years that are no longer playing and we overcame that," Gruden said.
"At the same time, the salary cap is something that, if you spend your life with numbers and with the cap, the salary cap might not be as intimidating as people think. We've got to work through that, obviously; we've lost some good players.
"Losing Jamie Duncan, Warrick Dunn, Donnie Abraham, Dexter Jackson, Al Singleton was quite honestly due to the salary cap. Those are good players. Some are harder to replace than others, obviously."
Included among those in 2004 could be defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who becomes a free agent. Cutting ties with Johnson gives the Bucs less money to re-sign players like Sapp.
"It's not a win. By the same token, I like the player," McKay said of Johnson. "We had a plan when we traded for him as to what we needed from an offensive perspective. We needed a receiver who could change the game, that could make first downs and help us win by our design, which was win with defense and move the ball on offense. I thought the deal made sense at the time. I still think the deal made sense. He was a very productive player for us."
It didn't appear that every player was glad to see Johnson go. Gruden met privately with the team captains Wednesday to explain his decision.
"I don't want to talk about what we confer about in private," Gruden said. "Those discussions are indeed private and that's why we call them private. You know, I'm very confident in Rich McKay. There are Internet reports all over the place that we're not working well together or whatever you want to say. But I'm very confident the right decision was made. We felt this was the appropriate thing to do.
"We realize it's inconvenient, it's uncomfortable in a lot of ways. We regret that, obviously. But this gives us a chance to move on, it gives Keyshawn a chance to move on. We think it's a good thing."