Ghostly Status
February 5th, 2015
Just how thin is the ice under ghostly Bucs DE Michael Johnson?
Joe will never forget regularly typing up highlights of training camp practices last summer and getting berated for not including Bucs defensive end Michael Johnson.
Well, to have a highlight you have to make a highlight.
Joe wasn’t just going to write about Johnson for standing on a practice field. There were far too many other things to document.
Funny, at the time, Joe thought Johnson sure was invisible during practices. Turns out he was that way in the regular season.
In a series about disappointing players and their thin-ice status with the Bucs, Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com shines a light through the image of Johnson.
Why he could be on the hot seat: Johnson was signed to a five-year, $43.8 million contract last year and was expected to provide a big boost for the pass rush. But things didn’t work out as planned. Johnson finished the season with only four sacks. He is scheduled to earn $9 million in 2015, but the Bucs can avoid a $4 million roster bonus if they release him before the third day of the league year.
By reading the tea leaves on ProFootballTalk.com, Joe has a hunch that the Bucs may try to muscle Johnson’s agent into reworking Johnson’s contract. (Joe discussed this in Tuesday’s waning moments of the “JoeBucsFan Hour” with good friend “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620)
If that doesn’t work, Joe has an even bigger hunch Johnson will be on the street looking for work.
Given his meager numbers with the Bengals and Bucs the past two years, Joe doubts many teams will chase Johnson with an pen checkbook the way the Bucs pounced on him last March.
February 5th, 2015 at 8:41 am
Yea, there aren’t many stupid ppl like our stupid ppl that would waste that kind of money on Johnson.
February 5th, 2015 at 9:11 am
I am going to miss the days where we made fun of this scrub for being a ghost. He really brought diversity to our team.
February 5th, 2015 at 9:15 am
I went to all the home games and don’t remember hearing his name called out. What number is Johnson?
February 5th, 2015 at 9:19 am
And having Clayborn on the other side it was having ” The Ends of Nothing”!
February 5th, 2015 at 9:22 am
Trade back to #6 with the Jets bolster the amount of trade pics you have and end up getting Dante Fowler jr. And Bryce Petty in the second or Garret Grayson in the third. Since pro comparisons for winston is leftwitch and Eli. The bad Eli. We are screwing up with winston. U don’t always get the no.1 pick. I hope we are smart with it….
February 5th, 2015 at 9:22 am
One of the two needs to happen.
February 5th, 2015 at 9:24 am
Joe i liked the “michael johnson who!” better than the ghost pic.
February 5th, 2015 at 9:32 am
This is the major problem with Lovie, he hasn’t grasped this whole analytical thinking thing fully. Given his history in Chicago and the personnel decisions he made there, you would have thought the Glazers would have picked up on his cognitive weaknesses during the interview process.
February 5th, 2015 at 9:37 am
He’s the Ghost of Football Seasons past….
Lovie is the Ghost of Football Seasons present
Jameis Winston is the Ghosts of Football Seasons future….
Hopefully the three will visit the Glazers in their dreams……
February 5th, 2015 at 9:38 am
Its hard to judge a player when they are playing with injuries… Johnson suffered a serious ankle injury during the first few weeks… Based on his numbers alone he should be let go but you should take into consideration the injury he was playing with… Releasing him just means we waste a bunch of money and it creates a need to fill another hole on a team that is already full of holes…
Johnson did not live up to his potential last season but was there a single Buc that did? Keep Johnson for one more season and hope he can at least double his sack total next year when he is healthy…
If he has another bad year then hit the dump button…
February 5th, 2015 at 9:53 am
Even though he was playing hurt for most of the season, Johnson only had three fewer sacks than Michael Bennett whom many seem to yearn for on this website fairly frequently.
February 5th, 2015 at 10:03 am
what is troubling is he supposedly injured the ankle the year before in Cincinnatti,then reinjured it here.How and when will it finally heal, or will it.
February 5th, 2015 at 10:05 am
It became a game to watch his ineptitude week in and week out.
It was remarkable and kind of inspiring to see jacquies Smith come out of nowhere and produce more than the big money free agent
February 5th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Just another one of the many reasons that the Bucs need to draft Leonard Williams, since there is no franchise QB in this draft
February 5th, 2015 at 11:18 am
I have an idea. We can’t cut him due to a cap hit and why would he agree to less money? Sooooo they should change his job duties from DE to Janitorial engineering. Since he went to college he does deserve a nice title but let him clean toilets and take out the trash at One Buc Palace next season if he does not agree to a huge pay cut. He can be the highest paid Janitor in the world.
February 5th, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Im disapointed in Johnson more than I am Collins or Mccown because I really expected Johnson to make an impact. I didn’t expect 15 sacks but I definitely expected more than four. I expected alot of run support more than anything. Credit for playing tough through injury but iur defense got flat out embarrassed at times and it shouldnt happen to that degree with a 40mil dollar DE on the team.
February 5th, 2015 at 12:29 pm
Clayborn was at least putting pressure on the QB’s before injury (again). Even Clayborn is a better Pass rusher than Johnson and that’s saying a lot.
February 5th, 2015 at 1:36 pm
It wasn’t just the lack of sacks that is so troubling – it was the lack of EFFORT. I saw many, many plays last year where Johnson literally just gave up on the play and quit – in the middle of the play. WTF?
I sure hope Licht learned an important lesson from this Johnson signing…. Do NOT guarantee a bunch of $ to a player that has not proved themselves worthy of it while wearing a(n ugly) Buccaneers uniform. Players like McCoy and L. David deserve big contracts with guaranteed $ because they have proven they are great players every year and will play hard no matter what.
VJax was the 1 exception at FA that got paid big and worked out great – but players like Goldson and Johnson and Collins should have never been signed for Big contracts with so much guaranteed $ that you can’t get away from them without taking a very serious dead cap $ hit. If we release all 3 of those players (which we absolutely should based on performance) – the dead cap $ hit will be $16M. Isnt that the exact same amount we “couldn’t afford” in order to keep the best CB in football? SMH.