Is Charles Johnson overrated?

[Fright]

I don't believe he'll have another year like last season and teams will most likely never game plan in fears of him.

I don't hear many people talking about this guy (outside of Panther fans) even after a good year, so I'd say he's right where he should be.

[panthers55]

He actually didn't know if he was in a contract year. This is year 5 for him but if we had played under the 2010 rules which is what most thought we would do, he would still be a restricted free agent. Under the anticipated new rules he will be an unrestricted free agent.

So to lay all of his success on being a contract year is not correct. He won't know positively that he will be a free agent until the CBA is signed and surely didn't know it last year.

[panthers55]

I don't believe he'll have another year like last season and teams will most likely never game plan in fears of him.

I don't hear many people talking about this guy (outside of Panther fans) even after a good year, so I'd say he's right where he should be.

I agree with you, he will likely have a better year. They might not gameplan for him initially but they will when they watch some film.

[carolinarolls]

I think he is much more over-hyped than he is at this point but that is likely to be coming from how valuable he is to the Panthers right now.

There is a price though.

[Davidson Deac II]

Johnson also was in his contract year... Lots of average players decide to show up in their contract years and then disappear for the next 4 years. Saying Johnson is elite cause he did great in his contract year is plain ignorant.

True, but Johnson also looked good in the past, albeit in limited playing time. He has usually been a good passrusher, but he did improve in other areas this year.

Of course, if we sign him this year, then we will find out how good he really is. Actually I guess we will find out even if we don't sign him, by watching him play for some other team. :)

[Fiz]

several reports have come out about CJ being the best DE in the game last year...

No there haven't.

[tailg8or]

Not too overrated as there isn't much in FA. I would like to see him stay a panther.

Personally, I want to see Hardy get a legitimate chance. Like most rookies, Fox didn't give him much of a look.

[xooberon]

No there haven't.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/05/21/charles-johnson-already-elite/

[Fiz]

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/05/21/charles-johnson-already-elite/

But after watching Charles Johnson dominate right tackles for most of the year – and after watching him impress in both 2008 and 2009 when he was a rotational player – I can’t help but think he’s better than people are saying. That he may just be one of the best defensive ends in the league.

several reports have come out about CJ being the best DE in the game last year...

reading comprehension much?

[pantherj]

I think CJ has a great bull rush, and good but not elite speed and quickness. If I remember correctly, he's noted for being freakishly strong in the weight room for his size. That strength shows up on the field, and I think other teams will have their eye on him.

I wouldn't mind if we payed him a bit more than he might actually be worth. We need to keep the good players we draft because we build mostly through the draft, and not through FA for the most part. It's ok to overpay a bit for proven vets, but it's not ok to dump good players we draft as soon as their rookie contract is up in order to replace them with rookies and unproven players. When you do that you end up around 0-16, unless you have an incredible QB, or a lot of luck is involved.

[xooberon]

reading comprehension much?

All of this is before you even get into looking at how good a player he was in run defense. Extremely active, he has the ability to disengage and locate ball carriers, which is a large part of why he finished with 48 defensive stops (leading all defensive ends). You just need to go through his highlight reel (as I’ve had the pleasure of doing as I write this) to see how disruptive a force he is.

It’s that combined ability that had him at No. 2 in our 4-3 defensive end rankings on the year

pretty close though!

[Fiz]

For 4-3 defensive ends, so it discounts 3-4 OLD who are basically DE like DeMarcus Ware.

Secondly, PFF, while cool, just uses counting stats. They don't actually have anyone on staff with NFL experience. I really like what they're trying to do, but football isn't baseball. The metrics aren't predictive.

[Fiz]

like for example

No defensive end had more combined sacks, hits and hurries than the 81 of Johnson and what’s more, he did it consistently throughout the year

so he had more hits, sacks, and hurries than anyone else, roughly 5 a game.

how many snaps did he have at DE he wouldn't have had on a team with a competent offense? why isn't this done as a percentage instead of hard numbers?

[xooberon]

They did an article on that, developing some kind of formula that takes snap count into account. Johnson came 2nd this year and led all DEs.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/06/20/three-years-of-pass-rushing-productivity-edge-rushers/