Duke Johnson hires Drew Rosenhaus, which could work, so long as he stays doesn't give up control

Duke Johnson has opted to change agents, going from Kristin Campbell to signing on with Drew Rosenhaus. The change in representation doesn't seem like it will have much impact on his stance of wanting to be traded from the Cleveland Browns. Ironically enough, changing to Rosenhaus may well be in no small part to make his situation quieter.

According to Locked on Browns host Jeff Lloyd in conversations he's had, Duke did not like how Luther Campbell, Kristin's husband, took to social media drawing the wrong kind of attention to the situation, especially doing things like tweeting at Baker Mayfield.

That would only make it so Duke has to answer questions about his agent's spouse's activity on Twitter, which isn't where anyone wants to be. And it only served to further the ridiculous notion that there was rift between Duke and his teammates, which doesn't exist.

This should remind people that Duke is exactly the professional he said he is. Whatever distraction people were worried about would arise from this, Duke just nipped it in the bud. And Rosenhaus isn't the carnival barker that he was a decade or so ago.

Rosenhaus will still be forceful in negotiations with the Browns, because he doesn't get paid until Duke signs a new deal with new money for his fee. But simply hiring Rosenhaus doesn't force the Browns to do anything unless Rosenhaus can convince another team to pony up a big enough offer that John Dorsey feels compelled to trade him before he wants.

For all the baggage that comes with Rosenhaus, he has a massive roster of clients and not a ton of support staff. In other words, outside of negotiations, Duke is largely on his own, which given what he just went through with Campbell, might be the big attraction to someone like Rosenhaus.

The one thing it does suggest is that Duke isn't likely to change his mind about wanting a trade. Nothing about that ever seemed to be agent driven and it's something that Duke decided he wanted and, as a player should, told his representation what he wanted and had them work toward that end. The unnecessary side show was the breaking point.

The best thing Duke can do for himself is continue to stay in control of his situation and remember that Rosenhaus works for him, so he doesn't end up like Terrelle Pryor, who got fooled into chasing big money that wasn't there and ended up with nothing.

Rosenhaus can be effective, but it's incumbent on the players he advises to understand that he's willing to risk big and lose because he's got such a large stable of clients that he's only concerned with hitting on fees, so they have to understand when to put their foot down.