Johnson was traded because he was heading into the final year of his contract, he wasn't going to be re-signed and he felt the Steelers' quarterback situation wasn't going to put him in the position to cash out on another contract next year.
While teams viewed Pickens as a potential hot-head coming out of Georgia, Johnson also had his recent issues. From the confrontations with Mitch Trubisky and Minkah Fitzpatrick to lack of effort, he created enough of his own problems.
Sometimes the most likely explanation is the simplest, after all. We can reasonably deduce that the Steelers had no plans to re-sign Johnson. And we know from both sides that the team liked CB Donte Jackson.
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