Nidan, you're really reading this the wrong way. They were offered the same deal. Neither of them signed. They offered Pace MORE. He signed. So how is it that Johnson was the 'slower horse'? Perhaps if he was offered that SAME deal, the one with EXTRA money, he would have signed?
You're talking about this as if they were offered the same deal. They were not. I'll cut and paste the section that says this:
"Up until Sunday, the Cardinals were on similar negotiating paths with both of their first-round choices, offering each of them guaranteed money of about $4.4 million. But the team's emphasis then shifted to Pace, after team officials reportedly assessed that getting him into camp was more critical, and their offer increased significantly."
Basically, Graves told Johnson's agent that they needed Pace more than him, and cared more about getting Pace in. This was sheer stupidity on the part of Graves. Now if he can't get BJ in on time, he'll have screwed the pooch.