The questions were obvious for fans watching the roller-coaster of Bengals cutdown weekend.

They cut Michael Johnson? Wow.

Wait, they re-signed Michael Johnson?

But, I thought …

Why would the Bengals do that?

In short, they did it so they could have a 54-man roster instead of a 53-man roster. Call it a weekend of risky roster gymnastics. I’ll explain.

The Cincinnati Bengals were in a bind with their host of young players they didn’t want to expose to the waiver system. For one, they didn’t want to lose injured fifth-round pick Davontae Harris for the season. They want to put him on injured reserve, with the ability to return in eight weeks. With questionable depth behind the starting three corners, that was imperative.

That meant he had to go through the cut to 53 before going on IR and clearing a roster spot.

So, it’s not hard to see who ended up in the crosshairs: Fan and front office favorite Auden Tate. The team didn’t want to keep seven receivers but didn’t want to cut Mr. Reliable Alex Erickson or special teams asset Cody Core.

Yet, the future for Tate is bright and his talent so clear on tape this preseason, some receiver-needy team would likely pluck him through waivers. Teams were active on the waiver wire Saturday. Four receivers were picked up by three different teams. Not hard to believe any of the young players the Bengals kept – including Tate – would have been claimed as they had been receiving trade inquiries for them in recent weeks.

If you are a young player instead of a vested veteran when you are cut you have to go through waivers and be available to be picked up by all 31 other teams. That is not the case for a vested veteran like Johnson, however, he goes directly to free agency and can pick to sign with any team he’d like – including the Bengals.

The plan on the Bengals end was to cut Johnson, then put Harris on IR-return, then re-sign Johnson. They essentially agree to pay a 54-man roster, instead of 53, but they have accounted for that in cap space. Not to mention all the space cleared from the release of numerous other veterans over the last month, including H-back Ryan Hewitt on Saturday.

Why Johnson? Well, if you are going to do this risky move you want it to be with someone you trust and know can understand the situation rationally.

How much of this was about trust?

"Probably a great deal," Marvin Lewis said on Monday. As for how many current players Lewis would trust enough to even attempt such a swap and expect them to follow through.

"Maybe three or four," he said. "That's about how many veterans we have."

There might not be a more trustworthy, rational individual in the NFL than Michael Johnson. He also plays a position where young talent is overflowing with Sam Hubbard, Jordan Willis and Carl Lawson in the rotation along with recently extended Carlos Dunlap. If he left, this wouldn’t be devastating, but his presence during the week and on Sunday was clearly valued as he was voted a team captain again on Monday.

Even with the most trustworthy, it is still bringing a ton of risk into play. It only takes one team jumping in with an offer and he could choose a different home. When the move hit the headlines on Saturday, there were multiple calls from teams to Johnson’s camp with significant interest.

Another element of this was the Bengals previously had Johnson in the final year of a contract that had a cap hit of $6.11 million, ninth-most on the team. They could have asked him to take a pay cut considering his role has changed since he signed the deal in 2015.

Yet, there is as much respect between Johnson and the Bengals as any player and team in the league. It’s a big part of why he chose to return to Cincinnati in 2015 after a year away in Tampa Bay. The Bengals didn’t want to treat Johnson like that, so they essentially gave him the same deal they terminated on Saturday. Johnson, in turn, passed on other opportunities and took this one-year contract to return to the Bengals.

These transactions were made official Monday morning and the weekend of roster gymnastics stuck the landing.