I found a good article on Johnson that also includes some interesting stats on RBs after given a big contract.
LJ made it clear today that he wants out of KC. The reasons are simple. He doesn’t feel comfortable or appreciated. It’s pretty basic. He has never fit into our city and you can bet your life, he never will. He knows it just like we know it. He wants to go. We want him to go. This is a divorce made in heaven if there ever was one.
I’ve never really had a strong opinion on LJ as a person – certainly not the vociferous kind the majority seem to have. I would never have felt the need to boo him at a basketball game. That’s just childish. However, I also have never rooted for him – even when he had back-to-back 1,700+ yards in 2005-06. I liked Priest. I wanted Priest and felt LJ was a necessary evil when PH got injured. When it became clear that LJ was our man, I think most of us realized he was nothing more than a temporary fix to an aging team.
Obviously, LJ created much of his own persona with his lifestyle, off-the-field problems, etc. That’s been discussed to death. Nothing new. At the same time, we are partially to blame. We never treated LJ as a star, as someone that we wanted. We never looked at him like Gonzalez or even Green. LJ had the second highest NFL total for most yards in consecutive seasons – and most of us yawned. Jared Allen had just as many off-the-field problems as LJ. He got 15.5 sacks one season and suddenly he was our hero. Can anyone alive make sense out of that? Well, of course, I think we all can make sense out of it. We just don’t want to. We don’t want to hear it from anyone else and we don’t want to hear it from ourselves. I suddenly have a vision of an ostrich.
I have no intentions of giving LJ a free ride. He was never personable or approachable. He clearly has/had a chip on his shoulder. He expected too much from us and he gave too little of himself. At the same time, he performed as well on the field as anyone should have expected over the course of his career. The fact that he didn’t like us and we didn’t like him is secondary. What really gripes me is that he should have been traded after the 2006 season. KC should have begun the rebuilding process right then. I wrote about this issue in King Carl needs to go. Reason #I. The focus was that Johnson should have been traded right then. The fact that he wasn’t traded - instead given a huge contract - just made us dislike him all the more.
Below is a table from that post. I can now fill in 2008 numbers (Yr2).
Rusher Avg Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr4
T. Davis 1,879 211 282 701 0
E. Campbell 1,655 538 1301 190 278
T. Davis 1,644 2008 211 282 701
OJ Simpson 1,627 1125 1817 1503 557
G. Riggs 1,602 1327 875 488 834
P. Holmes 1,585 1420 892 451 0
A. Green 1,562 1163 255 1059 260
R. Williams 1,549 1372 0 743 0
G. Riggs 1,523 875 488 834 475
D. McAllister 1,515 1074 335 1057 92
L. Johnson 1,770 559 874 NA NA
Average 1,614 1,111 667 731 320
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The point of this evaluation was to recognize that when a player has back-to-back seasons with an average of 1,500 yards or more, they are largely used up. We could have traded him while his stock was high. We didn’t and it is part of the reason Peterson is gone and part of the reason we are 2-14 with a high-priced disgruntled running back!
Unfortunately, over the last two seasons fans saw the drop off in production and made the leap that it is a mental function – that he doesn’t try, that he got his big contract and no longer cares, etc. Maybe. Maybe not. All you have to do is look at the table above to realize it was probably inevitable.
I’m not sure there is anything much worse than first being tolerated, second having near record back-to-back seasons and third being vilified for not making it three or four in a row.
I’m not an LJ fan. I never was and never will be. I’m like most of us in this respect. Because of that, if I were LJ, I would want out of here and not soon enough. The problem for the Chiefs is that he will be tough to unload. Instead of building a team, Pioli’s first job may (instead) be tearing it down.
LJ made it clear today that he wants out of KC. The reasons are simple. He doesn’t feel comfortable or appreciated. It’s pretty basic. He has never fit into our city and you can bet your life, he never will. He knows it just like we know it. He wants to go. We want him to go. This is a divorce made in heaven if there ever was one.
I’ve never really had a strong opinion on LJ as a person – certainly not the vociferous kind the majority seem to have. I would never have felt the need to boo him at a basketball game. That’s just childish. However, I also have never rooted for him – even when he had back-to-back 1,700+ yards in 2005-06. I liked Priest. I wanted Priest and felt LJ was a necessary evil when PH got injured. When it became clear that LJ was our man, I think most of us realized he was nothing more than a temporary fix to an aging team.
Obviously, LJ created much of his own persona with his lifestyle, off-the-field problems, etc. That’s been discussed to death. Nothing new. At the same time, we are partially to blame. We never treated LJ as a star, as someone that we wanted. We never looked at him like Gonzalez or even Green. LJ had the second highest NFL total for most yards in consecutive seasons – and most of us yawned. Jared Allen had just as many off-the-field problems as LJ. He got 15.5 sacks one season and suddenly he was our hero. Can anyone alive make sense out of that? Well, of course, I think we all can make sense out of it. We just don’t want to. We don’t want to hear it from anyone else and we don’t want to hear it from ourselves. I suddenly have a vision of an ostrich.
I have no intentions of giving LJ a free ride. He was never personable or approachable. He clearly has/had a chip on his shoulder. He expected too much from us and he gave too little of himself. At the same time, he performed as well on the field as anyone should have expected over the course of his career. The fact that he didn’t like us and we didn’t like him is secondary. What really gripes me is that he should have been traded after the 2006 season. KC should have begun the rebuilding process right then. I wrote about this issue in King Carl needs to go. Reason #I. The focus was that Johnson should have been traded right then. The fact that he wasn’t traded - instead given a huge contract - just made us dislike him all the more.
Below is a table from that post. I can now fill in 2008 numbers (Yr2).
Rusher Avg Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr4
T. Davis 1,879 211 282 701 0
E. Campbell 1,655 538 1301 190 278
T. Davis 1,644 2008 211 282 701
OJ Simpson 1,627 1125 1817 1503 557
G. Riggs 1,602 1327 875 488 834
P. Holmes 1,585 1420 892 451 0
A. Green 1,562 1163 255 1059 260
R. Williams 1,549 1372 0 743 0
G. Riggs 1,523 875 488 834 475
D. McAllister 1,515 1074 335 1057 92
L. Johnson 1,770 559 874 NA NA
Average 1,614 1,111 667 731 320
-
The point of this evaluation was to recognize that when a player has back-to-back seasons with an average of 1,500 yards or more, they are largely used up. We could have traded him while his stock was high. We didn’t and it is part of the reason Peterson is gone and part of the reason we are 2-14 with a high-priced disgruntled running back!
Unfortunately, over the last two seasons fans saw the drop off in production and made the leap that it is a mental function – that he doesn’t try, that he got his big contract and no longer cares, etc. Maybe. Maybe not. All you have to do is look at the table above to realize it was probably inevitable.
I’m not sure there is anything much worse than first being tolerated, second having near record back-to-back seasons and third being vilified for not making it three or four in a row.
I’m not an LJ fan. I never was and never will be. I’m like most of us in this respect. Because of that, if I were LJ, I would want out of here and not soon enough. The problem for the Chiefs is that he will be tough to unload. Instead of building a team, Pioli’s first job may (instead) be tearing it down.
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