George Johnson: A Late Bloomer?
April 9th, 2015
Is restricted free agent DE George Johnson a hidden gem?
News pumped out late Tuesday night from the Air Glazer private jet somewhere over Jameis Winston’s home state of Alabama that the Bucs signed restricted free agent defensive end George Johnson.
The Bucs’ brass surveillance team could have heard Joe’s yawn in Hernando County.
Johnson, 27, put up modest numbers with the Lions last year (27 tackles, six sacks), and Joe suspects Detroit likely could match Johnson’s Tampa Bay offer sheet, as their team’s defensive line was devastated by offseason defections.
Thomas Bassinger of the Tampa Bay Times, however, a numbers cruncher, is of the mind the Bucs may have found a late bloomer.
#Bucs RFA target George Johnson started slow in ’14. 1st 5 gms: 5 pressures/87 pass rush snaps. Michael Johnson: 8 pressures/118 snaps. But
— Thomas Bassinger (@tometrics) April 9, 2015
Over #Lions‘ final 11 gms, George Johnson had @PFF‘s 5th-best pass rush productivity rating among 4-3 DEs. 34 pressures/224 PR snaps. #Bucs — Thomas Bassinger (@tometrics) April 9, 2015
One can hope Bassinger’s data is a harbinger of things to come. After all, in his previous stint with the Bucs, Johnson was, well, forgettable.
If the Bucs believe Johnson is the steal Bassinger seems to think he may be, then perhaps the Bucs will indeed draft an offensive linemen with their second-round pick.
April 9th, 2015 at 7:22 am
Detroit LOST Suh, so it is hard to imagine them letting George Johnson get away.
I am holding my breath, biting my nails, hoping we get to keep him.
April 9th, 2015 at 7:25 am
Detroit Lions reporter (name eludes me) said that the 3 years $9 million that the Bucs signed Johnson to is the same contact Willie Young had and the Lions didn’t match it, so we will see.
April 9th, 2015 at 7:27 am
George Johnson is not the answer
April 9th, 2015 at 7:43 am
mavsmoney is on the money with that one…..it’s all bad when you start comparing him to Michael Johnson. 6 sacks isn’t exactly a breakout season considering that jac smith was a late addition to the bucs and ended up with 6.5 sacks.
April 9th, 2015 at 7:53 am
He played at Rutgers under Schiano, so George knows how to get his toes on the line. Sounds like more depth signings to help with the influx of rookie talent the Bucs add on both lines after trading out of the number 1 spot this April to add many many picks. I’ve seen it in my mind’s eye yesterday when I was on my second tall glass of Sam Summer over at Hooters.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:01 am
I would of rather had claynorne at the same $$
April 9th, 2015 at 8:08 am
if he’s the answer, i don’t want to know the question.
why do we throw 9 mill at a guy who had a few good games. kind of like last year, but not as expensive
April 9th, 2015 at 8:10 am
It feels like they are guessing with these “No Name” DE’s. Law of averages say one of them will end up being the pure “Diamond on the Rough”. The choice last year was a blank. So what runs out 1st?
Bucs salary cap from guessing incorrectly.
Or
The tenure of the current coaching and GM.
This feels like they are throwing excrement onto the wall to see what sticks.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:17 am
we have a bunch of prove you can do it players this year and GMC cant be happy about it but now that I think about it, we’re not great but light years ahead of the days when we let Michael Bennett walk to start daquan bowers who came to camp out of shape got benched and replaced by daniel te’o nesheim. this defense isn’t filled with star power but considering how bad it was with revis I think it is better across the board. not a top defense by any means but compared to what we have put out on the field we have depth atleast
April 9th, 2015 at 8:22 am
@ bucs4lyfe
2013 defense ranked higher than the 2014 defense in just about every good D stat, so either you aren’t paying attention or just hate Schiano/Sheridan (more likely). I’m not sure how you’re coming up with we’re light years ahead of a team with arguably the best CB currently playing, but hate can make all of us say crazy stuff…peace fellow Buc’s fan/JBF blogger
April 9th, 2015 at 8:25 am
Michael Bennett, whom many people around here pine for incessantly, had seven sacks last year. Bennett probably played more snaps than Johnson too. But I’ll bet a lot of fans around here would be really excited if the Bucs resigned Bennett. Two former Bucs FA targets, Trent Cole and Derrick Morgan had 6.5 sacks each. A lot of fans seemed excited about the prospect of getting one of them. Tamba Hali, Chandler Jones, Muhammad Wilkerson were among others who had 6. Here are some with less than 6 whom many fans would probably be excited to acquire: Jared Allen (5.5); James Harrison (5.5); Cliff Avril (5); Justin Tuck (5); Anthony Barr (4); Dwight Freeney (3.5); Bucs target George Selvie (3); Tyson Alualu (2); Haloti Ngata (2); Jabaal Sheard (2) etc. etc. etc. Point is, based on last year, a concept which is used a lot by linear thinking, conventional wisdom lovers like Yawning Joe and Joe’s good friend on afternoon drive time radio, the Bucs probably OK if they get Johnson.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:28 am
How long do the Lions have to match the offer?
April 9th, 2015 at 8:31 am
@ToesOnTheLine!
oh man here we go early in the morning we have a greg schiano fan comparing the defensive ranking of a 4 win team to a 2 win team. they both sucked if your going to talk about stats schiano had historically horrible pass defense, he ran a 4-3 defense in which the freakin will linebacker was 2nd on the team in sacks. man you are that sensitive about schiano? whatever as long as you know your saying the combination of Adrian clayborn, daquan bowers and daniel te’o nesheim better than what we have now
this isn’t about defensive ranking, we have more depth across the board. you drafted lavonte david, great pick but you also drafted mark barron and noflyzone was non existent. you paid 16 mil to rehab revis and you had one good corner in banks….our cornerback depth, linebacker depth and defensive line depth is better than anything schiano had and we still have the draft to look forward to
April 9th, 2015 at 8:36 am
Tampa2 requires constant pressure that we were not getting with last years bunch. I like J SMith but we need to have a good rotation and Johnson would fill that need.
Leonard….post is dead on…fans around here looking for the big splash name (Cole/Bennet etc) vs a guy who simply gives quality snaps and gets to the qb.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:37 am
This guy is not a starter. If the Bucs go into 2015 with only Bowers, Smith, Gholston, and Johnson as their DE’s I’m going to be pretty upset.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Johnson from Lions fans, but only that he was really good when being rotated into the line, not playing a lot of snaps.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:43 am
Good signing, he will do better than that one guy we signed last year, cant remember his name he was so forgettable, though I do remember he was quite ghostly even ghastly.
George Johnson wont be a double digit sacker, but its still a plus addition. and helps us on the DL so we can focus on OL in the draft. Next year we can get the Pass rushing DE beast we need in the draft, and then Jaq and George can share time at the other DE spot, in 1 year we will have depth on the DL. A defense thats adjusted to the tampa 2 and playing like a top 5 D. and we will have a Franchise QB entering his second full season and ready to lead the team to the playoffs.
Fire the Cannons baby
April 9th, 2015 at 8:45 am
trent cole would have been a big time signing but as a free agent if you reviewed the bucs season in 2014 who would you sign with indy or bucs lol im sure that will be our issue going forward unless we turn the season around this year
April 9th, 2015 at 8:54 am
all this rotation blah. blah….
we need a guy who we can count on on 3rd down to get to the QB period. One that eats raw meat and comes alive when it counts. tough to imagine another simeon rice, but we need someone like that we can count on and make that qb scared, knowing he’s coming and their aint $hit the LT can do about it.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:54 am
We replaced a non-bloomer with a late bloomer and we’re paying him less. Count that as a win and an improvement but it’s not a long term answer. Pretty sure they’re not looking at it as though it is and they’ll continue to try to get that long term RDE solution. In the meantime, they’re just improving the team without overpaying for mediocrity. They’ve, meaning the personnel office, been head and shoulders better than they were at this time last year.
April 9th, 2015 at 8:57 am
I dream of the day when the Bucs will feature a 3-4 defense – a radical change. Living in the past is not healthy.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:06 am
Stop gap, not an answer. Still don’t have a single guy on the roster who is a 10 sack guy or who’ll command attention from defenses. They can still double GMC and dare everyone else to beat them.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:07 am
Leonard Scarnesi you are dead on target.
I also read that the Lions only had $3.6 million in cap space left with the draft coming up, so this is another problem for them to keep him.
If we are only paying him $3 Million a year, that is less than we are paying players to players to play somewhere else.
With him and the rest of the DL, we could have something with GMC leading the charge.
Joe you are on top of the cap space issue, what say you?
April 9th, 2015 at 9:12 am
Joe, you say Detriot’s Dline was is devastated by players going to other teams, but that is almost entirely at the DT position. They are deep at DE and my thinking is that the Lions will not match Tampas offer sheet.
My opinion is the Bucs have the money and Johnson gives us some additional depth so he is a good signing. Is he going to be the second coming of S Rice? No. But he might be the second coming of M Bennett and we need that until we find better.
Also, with the money the Bucs have spent on the Dline vs nothing on the Oline, my opinion is they are drafting Oline with the 2nd rd pick, if not also the 3rd rd pick (or maybe another stupid Sims pick in the 3rd…)
April 9th, 2015 at 9:19 am
this has been a bad team for so long and they are losing so media comes up for reasons why the defense is bad, we are in the bottom of the league in sacks so people think we have a sack problem but the truth is the jags were tied for 6th in sacks but they were 3-13. bucs were tied for 21st in sacks, seattle went to the super bowl they were 20th overall in sacks last year. I don’t care about sacks as much as I care about qb pressure because the sack leading team averaged about 3-4 sacks a game. that’s 304 plays out of about 50-60. all I care about is constant pressure on the quarterback and forcing them into mistakes…..sacks come in the form of dominant pass rushers and then there are coverage sacks. we released Michael Johnson so we’ll automatically end up with more sacks than last year
April 9th, 2015 at 9:24 am
LOL
Bucs4lyfe saying that Lovie has better players but a worst defense than Coach Schiano! But arguing that they are light years ahead! That guy is my favorite poster, Its a good laugh every time!
April 9th, 2015 at 9:24 am
Pretty sure every defense requires pressure on the QB to some degree.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:25 am
He looked fine as a rotational player on a talented D-line playing next to Suh, Fairley and Ansah. He won’t be starting for us, but he certainly will have a similar opportunity to be productive when playing next to good interior pass rushers like McCoy, Melton, McDonald.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:35 am
The Buc Realist Says:
who said I had any respect for schiano’s high school defense? we have better players and better defense and a better coach which isn’t saying much following up on a job schiano had. you know nothing about football and you have no credibility, your the same guy who said Anthony Collins would be the biggest upgrade of all the bucs signings last year. sit there shut up and listen to real fans talk football you don’t deserve a say in this conversation. bucs lost to backup quarterbacks last year but schiano’s weak defense lost to every rookie quarterback he ever faced…..he let geno smith take his defense down the field in the last minute of the second game of his pathetic career and im supposed to give schiano credit for what? first year in this defense was bad but that was schiano’s second year in the defense
April 9th, 2015 at 9:43 am
I guess no one has cared to look at the Lions DE’s… They will not match. Has nothing to do with their DT’s.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:49 am
@Scarnesi – One of the better posts I’ve read in a while , nice work.
Those pining for a 10 sack guy…there aren’t any sitting there in FA, there weren’t any in FA this year with the exception of Hardy if he were able to play a full season.
I’d be perfectly happy with a stable of high motor 4-6 sack/yr guys that aren’t inept in run defense. We only had 1 less sack than Seattle last year and aside from yardage allowed we were pretty much right in line with Seattle last year statistically on defense. The big difference is the +/- turnover ratio and that is mostly because our offense sucked. Assuming the offense is better this year, the defense will be better by default.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:50 am
It is my understanding that the Lion’s only have $9 million under the cap, therefore, will not be able to match the BUCS offer sheet to Johnson. I hope my information is correct!!!
April 9th, 2015 at 9:51 am
I would be surprised if Johnson ever reaches 6 sacks again. Detroit had a great defensive line and that is all he was able to manage?
No…he’d make a great depth signing, which I suggested he could become back when he was with Tampa the first time.
However…at this point, there isn’t much chance we’ll get a stud DE in the draft, unless they strike gold in the mid rounds. So he might just get starting time.
April 9th, 2015 at 9:56 am
@buc4lies
I said that Donald Penn has been bad the last 3 years. I gave on opinion on Collins. if you have something where I said collins was good I would love to see it!
Its funny how we heard that Coach Schiano had all this talent on the roster, and it was his schemes that was the problem. And I “real” coach would have all this talent competing for playoffs! Boy how that has changed from last year!
And not only did 2nd stringer QB’s looked great against Lovie, but so did other teams 3rd string QB’s
April 9th, 2015 at 10:12 am
The Buc Realist
you make no sense but it’s cool that’s how a lot of fake fans are. if you want to act as if you have amnesia then ok. Donald penn may have been fat and towards the end of the season he would be inconsistent but he was a consistently good player who faced the best pass rusher week in week out he’s gone so you disrespect the guy like he never did anything for tampa but talk like you praise schiano who did nothing. I don’t know whats with all the schiano love but his scheme and his coaching method was bad and he was awful on gameday as well much worse than lovie….your a homer and YOU think there’s talent all over roster but there’s not. lovie has been in the league a long time and is implementing his own style his own defense and his own players he thinks he can win with, honestly you sound completely idiotic for talking up a guy who had two less than average years as a head coach, you cant even say he’ll be better next time around because that next time hasn’t come yet. plenty of head coaching jobs have come around since he got fired none have come to him. so stupid I could see defending the guy if he had any kind of decent positive effect on the franchise but it was a freak show and we were mentioned in the same light as new York jets. stfu
read your own stupid comments you made here like everyone here can. you root for your team meaning every player and coach attached to it or your no fan moron
https://www.joebucsfan.com/2014/03/bucs-sign-tackle-anthony-collins/
April 9th, 2015 at 10:18 am
@bucs4lyfe
Good Job, I am impressed! I was wrong and you were right on this one! I am ugly and you are handsome.
While what i said was totally wrong. It was my hate for Penn the 2 years of play. I thought his play had fallen off the cliff and just looking at Collins stats would or just about anyone would be an upgrade. I was wrong as it was just about a wash Collins for Penn!!!!
April 9th, 2015 at 10:21 am
@Leonard Scarnesi
I appreciate the good post brotha.
Keep posting!
April 9th, 2015 at 10:25 am
@The Buc Realist
exactly why the wait and see approach is always the best and I am the exact opposite of you on the Adrian clayborn bust comments because I think he’s a good player. you talk like a prophet and it’s beyond annoying though. the book is still open on lovie, it’s still open on clayborn between you and me but the book is closed on schiano and it ain’t pretty…thanks for being a stand up guy you gotta respect that
April 9th, 2015 at 10:37 am
@Elle
Before their Tampa 2 fame the Bucs were known for great 3-4 def they played to perfection in the late 70’s early 80’s. Watch the Eagles vs Bucs playoff game in 1979 on You tube. The 3-4 Def is nothing new in Tampa it’s kinda old school.
April 9th, 2015 at 10:39 am
@bucs4lyfe
I didn’t predict Adrian Slowborn, It was his track record that said how he would end up. In his first year he had one move for most of the sacks, the bull rush ( 3-4 steps) then he would shove the Tackle and then get a sack. After film study and then injuries and his weight lose. it was easy to see that he would not fit into Lovie’s scheme!
as far as Coach Schiano goes, I do not know if he is a bad coach or good coach. He was over shadowed by a Terrible GM with a garbage roster.
April 9th, 2015 at 10:47 am
I’m tired of hearing “Lovie’s System” screw the system learn how to get the most out of your players talents you stubborn fool that’s coaching. Not being so rigid that you can not adjust to players individual strength and weaknesses. We are going to be stuck with a bunch of broken down system specific players and rebuild do all over again.
April 9th, 2015 at 11:04 am
He had Suh, Fairley, and Ansah……just saying.
Surely they know that…..good grief. Its not like he’s the 2nd coming of Rice! We have GMC and J. Smith (Id start him over Johnson). But hey, lets see whats cooking once the games start. Im just not excited about him.
April 9th, 2015 at 11:34 am
The Buc Realist Says
“@bucs4lyfe
Good Job, I am impressed! I was wrong and you were right on this one!”
Holy crap, bucs4lyfe, you are my hero. You actually got Realist to admit he was wrong!!!!!
April 9th, 2015 at 11:36 am
If Adrian Clayborn had not been so injury prone, I believe he would have done extremely well. But it doesn’t matter, because he WAS injury prone.
Not the fault of the front office though, unless its because they didn’t cut ties sooner.
April 9th, 2015 at 11:49 am
Good signing imo.
April 9th, 2015 at 12:04 pm
@buccaneerBonzai
I will admit when I am wrong, when i am wrong. There is the problem. very few and far between. Now if you admit all your are wrongs, please tell Joe so he can upgrade the server so it will not crash!
Also if you use that logic with Ac then Cadillac Williams would be the greatest RB in Buc history! The bucs could have traded GMC because Brian Price is the best DT in the league!
injuries are part of the game, and injuries can change players. AC is a bust and nothing can change that now!
April 9th, 2015 at 12:07 pm
I still say if NATE ORCHARD is there in the bottom of the 2nd, move up and take him….he probably wont make it past the cowgirls.
April 9th, 2015 at 12:10 pm
@bucs4lyfe
That was extremely impressive! How long did it take you to dig that up? I also believe the book is still open on Lovie andd Clayborn. I think we will regret letting Clayborn walk.
April 9th, 2015 at 12:12 pm
No, he’s probably not the next Simeon but he is young(er) and he should benefit by playing on the same line as Mccoy.
George Johnson lets us focus exclusively on the o line picks 2-4.Maybe in round 6 or 7 we pick up a rookie DE after drafting two guards, a tackle, a receiver, and a safety.
I hope we get to keep him.
April 9th, 2015 at 2:24 pm
Face it, the Bucs need to get lucky on some picks and FA signings, hopefully George is one of the diamonds in the rough and will have a career season (not likely granted, but maybe). If not, 6 sacks is nothing to spit at for a backup.