Warren Report: George Johnson was the Detroit Lions most efficient sack artist in 2014. Why was he traded?
As I promised during Thursday’s radio show and a couple of times today on Twitter, here is my more detailed rundown on why I strongly dislike the trade of George Johnson to the Buccaneers.
And in case you missed my mini rant, you can hear it now:
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The Detroit Lions and their General Manager, Martin Mayhew, continue to baffle me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. As I outlined in my March 11 Warren Report, the track record of Martin Mayhew’s as Lions’ GM leaves much to be desired.
Wednesday’s trade of 2014 free agent gem and restricted free agent, George Johnson, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is no exception.
Johnson, a restricted free agent, was given a “original round tender” offer of $1.54 million by the Lions. This allowed Detroit the right to match any offer Johnson received, but if they refused to match an offer, Johnson was free to join another team and the Lions would receive no compensation in return.
That’s because Johnson was not drafted by any team when he entered the league in 2010. NFL teams receive no compensation for undrafted restricted free agents offered “original round” tenders because there was no “original round” were said player was drafted.
However, if the Lions initial offer last month to Johnson had been just $814,000 higher, that would have put the offer into the second round compensation category. That meant that Tampa Bay - or any other team who offered Johnson a contract - would have had to give the Lions a 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft had Johnson signed elsewhere and Detroit refused to match.
As it turned out, the Tampa offered Johnson a three-year, $9 million offer sheet. That offer included a $2.75 million cash and bonus monies in year one.
As the deadline approached for the Lions to match the offer, the Lions issued a protest to the league office, contesting the terms of the Bucs offer. Speculation began that the Bucs offer included illegal terms, a so-called “poison pill,” that would make the Bucs offer null and void.
However, a NFL source said the Bucs offer contained no poison pill. As a result, Detroit and Tampa Bay worked out a deal for the Lions to sign Johnson to the Bucs original offer - then trade him along with the first Lions’ 7th round choice (231 overall from Baltimore as part of the a Haloti Ngata deal) to Tampa Bay in exchange for the Bucs 5th rounder (168 overall).
The trade frees up more cap space for the cap-starved Lions, as their original tender to Johnson comes off the books, giving Detroit $5.1 million in cap space going forward.
This was already a disastrous offseason for the Lions. With the highly predictable exits of Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, coupled with the Lions failure to address the duo’s possible exit 12 months ago (Aaron Donald anyone?) during the draft, Lions have a gaping hole in their defensive front.
With the exit of Johnson, the Lions have lost their most productive pass rusher from 2014 and their once dominate front four is now a shell of what it was in December.
I can hear you how. ‘Say what?!? George Johnson wasn’t even a starter! How could he have been the most productive?’
Well, let’s take a look at the numbers.
Suh: 853 defensive snaps / 8.5 sacks = Sack per 100.35 snaps
Ansah: 664 def. snaps / 7.5 sacks = Sack every 88.5 snaps
Johnson: 491 def. snaps / 6 sacks = Sack every 81.8 snaps
George Johnson, a man who has yet to start in one NFL game, was the most efficient per-snap sacker of quarterbacks on the Detroit Lions defense last season.
Anyone who saw Johnson from the preseason on last year watched him make plays. He was a perfect situational pass rusher in Teryl Austin’s scheme.
In summary, the Lions defensive line, the anchor of the defense which finished ranked second in total defense (300.9 ypg) and tops in rushing defense (69.3 ypg) in the entire NFL, has lost Suh, Fairley, Johnson and (alleged) pothead C.J. Mosley (26 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble in 490 snaps in 15 games).
In exchange, the Lions have only a 5th round pick from Tampa Bay and Haloti Ngata to show for it. Let’s not forget that Detroit also gave up their 3rd and 4th round picks in this year’s draft to get Ngata.
Of course, considering the Lions used their 10th overall pick last year an underachieving Tight End who is, thus far, more effective sniping at fans on social media than catching passes on Sunday’s, maybe Lions’ fans shouldn’t be upset that Martin Mayhew is discarding draft picks (teams like the Green Bay Packers call them building blocks) is such careless fashion.
After all, in a recent study by ESPN’s Sharon Katz, the Detroit Lions are the NFL’s worst drafting team over the last 12 years when using to the Approximate Value Method developed by Pro Football Reference. Detroit clocked in with a minus-6.2 AV. They were the only team with a minus rating.
The . . . only . . . team . . . with a minus rating. For Bobby Layne’s sake! Even the 31st through 28th ranking teams: Raiders (plus-2.0), Rams (plus-3.8), Buccaneers (plus-6.8) and Browns (plus-9.8) finished on the positive side of the ledger!
The best team? The Seattle Seahawks with a plus-33.9 AV rating.
You remember the Seahawks don’t you? The same Seahawks, whose current General Manager, John Schneider, was recommended to the Lions and William Clay Ford Sr. as a potential successor to Matt Millen by none other NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Of course, in classic WCF Sr. fashion, he elevated Millen’s understudy Mayhew without conducting any outside search.
After replacing Millen on an interim basis in September, Mayhew had, according to the team president, Tom Lewand, “essentially an extended interview with Mr. Ford” by meeting weekly with Ford and Lewand.
Ford did not interview any other candidates, Lewand said, before giving Mayhew the permanent job at the end of the season. - New York Times, Feb. 21, 2009
I can’t wait until April 30th to see what Martin Mayhew will do with the Lions’ pick at #23.
Let the chasing of the tail continue.
Martha Ford and Bill Ford Jr. are now on the clock.
#1957andCounting
