Derrick Johnson was on pace to become Chiefs' best ILB since Lanier
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Donnie Edwards is the name that immediately springs to mind as a quick rebuttal, but he did his best work -- or, rather, strung together the most consistent stretch of his best work -- in San Diego. Let's face it. When it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs and inside linebackers, there are two categories:
1. Willie Lanier;
2. Everybody else.
But of the latter, Derrick Johnson has probably come the closest -- statistically, at least -- to chasing the shadow of No. 63 here. The glue. The anchor. The one who makes sure all the other chess pieces are in place, the one who almost always finds a way to be at the right dang place at the right dang time.
Outside linebackers, like defensive ends, have their sacks, their pass-rushing baubles, period and end of story. In judging inside 'backers and legacies, though, the numbers get a little more ... nuanced. Subjective. Sure, there are tackle charts, but even those can deceive. Eric Berry recorded a career-high 15 stops in last Sunday's 26-10 dumpster fire of a loss to Tennessee. ProFootballFocus.com graded him out at a -1.5 for the afternoon.
Pro-Football-Reference.com keeps an all-purpose metric for evaluating players at different positions, called approximate value (or AV), a number that usually falls between 0 and 25. Any single-season score in double digits is usually Pro Bowl worthy.
According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, the best four-year stretch for Edwards as a Chief, from 1997-2000, amounted to 38 AV points total, or 9.5 per year. Good stuff, but Lanier generally blew those numbers out of the water; his peak over one four-season sample size was 51 AV points, from 1968-71 -- a stretch that, no coincidence, runs right in line with the Super Bowl IV champs, the height of the Stram dynasty.
From the ages of 28 through 31, Lanier put up 37 AV points.
Flip through our photo album of Chiefs cheerleaders.
Johnson, same years in his career: 47 AV.
Can't replace that with a career special-teamer. Can't plug a hole that size with a guy off the street.
"DJ is a great guy. Great mentor. Good friend of mine," Chiefs linebacker James-Michael Johnson, JMJ, the next man up in lieu of No. 56 and his ruptured Achilles tendon, said Wednesday. "So it's tough to see somebody like that go down. But I mean, he'll be around and help us out if we need help and offer guidance and assistance wherever we need it."
They needed him this week. Big-time. The 0-1 Andy Gang, collective flags knocked to half-staff by the Titans, head to defending AFC champion Denver on Sunday. Which means someone else gets to play Tetris at the line of scrimmage with Peyton Manning. What was supposed to be DJ and Joe Mays setting the table is now the tandem of JMJ and Josh Mauga.
Omaha! Omaha! Omaha!
"It wouldn't bother (me) too much; just focus on what we're doing and just do that to the best of our power," our man JMJ said when asked about Manning's infamous histrionics at the line of scrimmage. "I don't know (what) others have to worry about. I just know what we have to worry about is us playing against the Broncos."
No distractions? No panic? No nerves? Nothing?
"Maybe just not playing your game and doing what you planned going into the game," JMJ countered. "Because you don't want to get caught up in doing something else. You want to make sure you stick to the course on what you planned on, what you've been practicing all week."
Oh, Lordy.
"I have a lot of respect for Derrick, played against him a long time, going back to my days in Indianapolis," Manning said Wednesday. "(He's a) special player. I was watching (the Chiefs game on TV) and I just hate to see that type of injury. And obviously, anytime you lose a quality player, everybody else has to step up and I'm sure the Chiefs will do that."
Sure, pal. Rub it in.
Consider: No. 56 left the field with 51 seconds left in the second quarter against Tennessee. The Titans had 52 rushing yards on 13 carries in the first half.
They ran for 110 on 25 attempts in the second.
Something changed.
"I hate getting into that because it sounds like you're belly-aching up here," coach Andy Reid said. "And that's not what we do. The next guy, we expect to come in and play. But there was obviously something that took place there without (DJ and injured defensive end Mike DeVito)."
And that something was Shonn Greene and Bishop Sankey chewing up real estate at Arrowhead, making the chain gang work.
"It was a little shocking for me, because I know I didn't really expect it going in," JMJ said. "I thought we were going to do a little better than that. I mean, it happened, so now we've got to bounce right back, come back even stronger."
The spirit may be willing, but they're a body short. Johnson's stamp was all over the Chiefs' inner sanctum, and even though the former Texas star is around, it's different now.
There were the intangible things -- keeping the locker room level through the highs of 2013, the insane, tragic lows of 2012, and all points in between. There were the tangible things, too. The signals. The adjustments. Words of encouragement or a kick up the backside, whichever the situation (or player) dictated.
The lateral quickness, the zip to stride from hashmark to hashmark and close in a hurry. The ability, like a good center fielder or shortstop, to know where to set up, to recognize where a play is going, and when. Always being in the right place at the right time isn't just about speed and athleticism (although that helps) as much as it is about instinct, intelligence and preparation.
Combine all of that into one package and you had -- well, No. 56 in his prime. PFF credited Johnson as the NFL leader in "run stops" in 2012; he's never posted a season plus-minus grade lower than +15.6 since 2010. JMJ scored a -1.9 mark on run defense last Sunday in 50 snaps and a -1.7 overall. Last fall, DJ scored a +17.0 in 1,105 snaps; JMJ scored an +0.7 in 67.
It might not be the sheer shock of last year's drop from Hali and Houston to the combo of Zombo and Moses, but it's not that far off, either. You don't know what you've got 'til it leaves the stadium on crutches.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
