What Should the Chiefs Do With Derrick Johnson?

woot

“Pay the man, and Play the man”.

I’d also send our 3rd rounder to Oakland and Kirk Morrison and DJ can be our 2 ILB’s for the next 5 years.

picks up where he left off. He already has the best start to 2010 than any defensive player :)
Heres to Crennel and Co helping DJ turn it around and become the Pro Bowler he can be !

I’d rather have a tough coach than soft players. I’m with team Haley

He’s the best athlete in the linebacking corps and frankly he’s the only big play linebacker we’ve got.

If Haley wants to use that “yo-yo player” excuse again to keep him on the bench, I think it’s fair to question Haley’s ability to coach anyone.

On one of his picks, he was supposed to be RUSHING THE QB. Instead he stayed back and read him. It turned out great because he got the pick and TD. But what if the play was downfield? Instead of getting a pick, DJ instead failed to assist to put pressure on the QB, which increased the likelihood of a completion. The worse thing is that in watching the play, it wasn’t clear if DJ was “free lancing” or simply didn’t have the ability or desire to fight through the block. The only reason I could see for keeping him is to see if Crennel can figure out how to get something out of him.

new regime, we tenderest him a 1st rounder that has to account for something. Hopefully now that Pendergast is gone we will see more from DJ. He did finish the year saying he wanted to stay here and play so hopefully he was sincere.

I think the randomness of Hailey’s wrath hurt our competitive chances last year and nothing illustrates that better than the “What is Up with DJ?” show. What is the deal with this guy? Is it the horrible personnel and systems of defenses past? Is it his work ethic? How are we supposed to find out if he doesn’t play? Haley sat this guy along with Jamaal Charles in the first Raider game. What was JC doing in street clothes on the sideline and why was DJ sitting when we were getting annihilated? Did he hurt Haley’s feelings? Don’t know about Haley, maybe with the bookends of Crennel and Weis will rub off on him and he’ll stop screaming at his assistant coaches on the sideline and sitting our most talented players.

When we never, EVER had to question our LB’s. We were so spoiled in the 90’s.

He IS a freelancer and that isn’t always bad (obviously) however, when you don’t have the talent around you to be able to make some of those plays by taking yourself out of position then your freelancing becomes a liability.

and we run the wheels off of this guy

Every KC defensive coordinator since Gunther vacated to succeed Marty HC has sucked, and in the past few years, the only consistent factor was Herm’s poor coaching staff. I think DJ and a number of other guys have shown they have the talent, but are unlikely to really succeed in team-dependent aspects of the game unless they have some stability in the defensive coaching.

In other words, I think DJ can do it, but KC needs to commit to a defensive system, or he’ll continue to be a yo-yo player.

DJ is far and away the most physically gifted LB on the team, but DJ’s skill set is that of spying the QB, playing in shallows coverage and reading the pass game. Time and again we have seen him pull off a big play when doing just that.

The problem is that DJ is not very good against the inside run, and he’s downright sub-standard at rushing the passer. If there isn’t a 4 foot wide hole on the line then DJ isn;t getting to the QB. He’s decent against the outside run because the can get to the corner quickly, but stuffing the inside run is just not a big part of his skill set.

We really do need DJ on the field. He’s a very talented guy, and the biggest play maker on our defense. The problem is that the ILB standing next to DJ HAS TO BE a selfless guy. Whoever is on the field at the other ILB spot has to be the run stuffer / pass rusher. They have to stay at home, fill the gaps, tackle at the line, not get pushed around, and shoot the gaps to rush the QB. We need a complimentary piece on the field next to DJ in order to allow DJ to stay on the field.

If we would STOP putting semi-ok stop gap players on the field and asking them to stuff the run we could play DJ, and we could play him in the role that he is best suited for. ILB – QB spy, edge run defender, big play maker. We could allow him to spy and roam in shallows coverage just as he is best suited for.

The problem is not DJ. The problem is Williams and Mays. They aren’t nearly as good at playing the inside run/pass rusher as DJ is in playing the role of the QB Spy/Play maker. Therefore, we have to put a second guy on the filed that can try to assist in stopping the inside run and rushing the QB. We end up having no one on the field that is really good at the shallows game, and our opponents get GREAT match-ups in their favor for short passes and dump routes across the middle. It’s been happening for the last 3 seasons with regularity. If DJ is on the field you run it up the gut. If DJ is on the sideline you pass it to the shallows.

The solution for DJ is either we stop futzing around with mediocre talented ILB run stuffers or we trade DJ and get him off the team. We need the complimentary piece on the field next to DJ in order to play DJ, and it’s not likely that were going to find that piece in the bottom of the 5th round.

ILB run stuffer / pass rusher is the second biggest need for the Chiefs. Now that we’ve added a FA NT that should be a 2 year stop gap I would argue that it’s our BIGGEST need. (Maybe ORG is bigger with Smith, Indukwae and Alleman all gone now).

Start looking for ILB’s that can dominate the middle run game, hit like a truck, drive RB’s backwards, read the run game well, and occationally shoot the gaps to take away the QB’s place to step-up in the pocket. They don’t need to play sideline to sideline. That’s what DJ does. They need to stay at home in the middle and let DJ do what DJ does best.

But if we could get another pick in the top 60 or so, then I’d be inclined to bid him farewell.

Do some of you honestly feel it is Haley holding DJ back from his potential? Physically he is the prototypical outside linebacker. He’s fast and closes quickly but DJ has an issue with the mental part of the game. He has a natural instinct at LB and he would even be “great” if he was just average at everything else. This defense is not and will not be good enough to overcome those mental mistakes even with some spectacular plays thrown in. I would take a consistent, “less spectacular” player in a heartbeat. Until then, DJ is making his own bed, not Haley. If he hasn’t put it all together in the first FIVE seasons, what makes you think he can? Sometimes the onvious is right in fron of you – if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck . . .

Consistancy (or lack thereof) is one of the many reasons that Clancy doesn’t work here anymore…IMO Romeo can bring out the best that DJ has to offer, then and only then will we be able to fairly evaluate what kind of player he is.

He’s been here how many seasons now and has underachieved every single season. It’s been the same story for 5 years. Has one game or a few plays where he looks like he’s blossoming into the potential superstar everyone thought he’d be, then disappears or becomes a liability for the other dozen or so.

with crennel on board now, DJ improves. Get him signed…

Make it happen.