The Lions could have gave Johnson a second round tender, which would have cost the Lions just over 2.3 million. Instead they chose to give him an original tender and now looks like they will lose him to the Bucs.
Personally I think the loss of Johnson will weaken the defensive end position and almost force the Lions to either use a draft pick or try to sign a cheap free agent.
Nearly impossible to judge the decision without actually seeing the structure of the contract.
ReplyDeleteyeah I am guessing due to the Lions cap situation the Bucs were smart and front loaded the contract making it impossible for the Lions to match.
DeleteThat would be smart of them if they really thought he was going to bring it.
DeleteBuc's will find out it was Austin's system
ReplyDeletewhy do you discount Lovie's system so? he's had more success than Austin in the league.. also produced number one defenses.
DeleteUnder Shicano 4-12. Lovie is expected to go 4-12 also, however he goes 2-14 instead. Also Lovie's system let us score 34. Without a significant improvement in 2015 Lovie is going to find himself gone after 2 seasons just like Shicano.
DeleteI find it a feather in the cap that Mayhew found this guy, but then I kind of also feel like the feather was lost by not finding a home for him in Detroit. Not sure what they could've done differently… the second round tender comes to mind but I am interested to hear their official reasoning for making the choices they did… was it Suh and the contract? Was it because they think he's not worth more than $1.5mil? Do they think he was a one hit wonder and product of the system? Is it because they are so high on Webster and Taylor taking the next steps, they see him as on the way out anyways?
ReplyDelete..i know a lot of questions...
Some good questions. First, I know Johnson was an UDFA and somewhat of a journeyman, but Detroit was the first team to actually use him in his proper position 7 tech DE. TB used him as a 4-3 DT, Washington used him as a 3-4 5 tech DE.
DeletePersonally I think if the FO would have just offered Johnson a 2-3 year contract similar to the money TB is offering from the start, he would have signed. But you never know what impact losing Suh and Fairley had on him. We as fans really do not know what personal effect that can have on the other players, especially players from the same position group. What ever loyalty George might have had towards the Lions could have gone out the out the window when those players left.
I really think he will do fine in TB, Lovie runs a Tampa 2 D which fits Johnson's skill set to a T.
if that's the case, then you may also wonder about the current morale of the position group, which did seem tight.
ReplyDeleteNgata is respected, he'll have to lead if others aren;t ready
But is Ngata a leader? I really don't know much about him. The is a huge massive hole in the middle of our defense and until the new guys show up and prove they can get it done I consider that position group a weakness, at least in comparison to what it was last year.
Deletenot sure why they kept Tapp and are probably gonna let GJ go? they do play the same position? or is he a LBer
ReplyDeleteI think they both tweeners really just in different ways. Tapp is more of a LB/DE tweener and GJ is more of a DE/DT tweener.
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