Why are so many on this board so down on Chris Johnson?

[socaltitan]

On 4/28/2023 at 5:59 AM, nine said:

Chris Johnson circa 2008-2009-2010 was one of the most explosive  and most feared RBs in NFL history.   Certainly one of the greatest runners I’ve ever seen.  
 

But he also seemed to lose that extra  level of his intensity after he got paid.   It’s been a long time since I’ve watched those games …maybe it truly was more about poor OL play than CJ himself.  
 

But I very clearly recall CJ going down on first contact far more frequently that year than ever before.  I even recall a couple plays where instead of challenging a defender, he slid at the guys feet like a QB , which had never ever happened before in his career.  
 

I still think of CJ as one of the greatest pure runners I’ve ever seen.   But he wasn’t the same guy after getting paid.  He still had the physical skills and explosive ability…but to my eye, that extra edge and next-level motivation to be truly great was no longer there.  

The mistake was using CJ like he was Derrick Henry. He should've been continuing to split time with LW. I think after the 2K season though it was hard to go back to that.

 

And people shit on him for holding out. Hey, I say it was a smart move considering what's happened to the RB position. People hated it, but it was a smart business move. He made sure he wasn't getting the Jonathan Taylor treatment and got himself paid.

[Face]

1 hour ago, IowaOiler said:

CJ was force fed his 2K year because Fisher had to take the focus off another disappointing year.  He still could have broken the record if the refs hadn't fucked up the TD run against the Seahawks.

 

That said, he didn't win shit that mattered.  We could have if the ratbirds and Ed Reed had any class, but that's asking too much.  

Totally agree he never should’ve been given that workload. He had well over 400 touches when including catches. I get that he wanted it & it got him paid but he should’ve been used like Jammal Charles. A guy with his wheels & frame just can’t keep the same juice with 300+ carries, especially stacked up over multiple seasons. He would’ve had a way better career with a 100 less touches in ‘09 & then we don’t retardedly cut LaGarrette Blount the next year. That would’ve been an absolutely perfect tandem.

[titansjr9988]

1 hour ago, 2Tone said:

 

Remember our 2 playoff years when we played the Chargers and Ravens and for whatever reason our fat Tightends tried to jump over people and fumbled killing promising drives? Am I remembering that correctly? Bo Scaife and Algernon Crumpler. I still get pissed thinking about that.

I was at that Chargers game with the kids. We were seated right along the goal line where LT barely jumped over the pile for that go ahead TD which won them the game

[charleytolar]

Henry's HR threat with a ton of niftiness.

[freakingeek]

CJ was so much fun to watch. To see him shy away from contact after he got paid was so disappointing. he was so damn explosive. Smash and Dash was pretty productive. Lendale could find the end zone if he only had to run 2 yards

[OILERMAN]

Massively overrated

 

Fisher got him a ton of volume to get to 2k because they were eliminated so early in the year

 

Then after 2010 his drop off was historic it was so bad. 

[No1TitansFan]

2 hours ago, 2Tone said:

 

Lendale ate himself out the league. Walter Payton wasn't very big and played in a more brutal era with less advanced padding and never split carries. He missed 1 game in 13 seasons. All this whining and crying about running Henry too much is a joke. That's all those teams did back then was run the ball. Emmit, Barry etc. There was always 1 primary back. If I was getting paid millions to play a sport for a living you could run me all day. Seeing people cry about the workload of a guy getting paid millions is truly a joke.

A buddy of mine managed the Green Hills Papa John's back then, and Lendale lived on Woodmont Blvd and would order pizza and wings every night for him and his entourage, and the drivers said the place absolutely reeked of really good weed. He was, however, a reallly good tipper .

[nine]

4 hours ago, 2Tone said:

 

Lendale ate himself out the league. Walter Payton wasn't very big and played in a more brutal era with less advanced padding and never split carries. He missed 1 game in 13 seasons. All this whining and crying about running Henry too much is a joke. That's all those teams did back then was run the ball. Emmit, Barry etc. There was always 1 primary back. If I was getting paid millions to play a sport for a living you could run me all day. Seeing people cry about the workload of a guy getting paid millions is truly a joke.

Keep in mind, today’s players are so much bigger and stronger than players in Payton’s era, there’s really no way to make a reasonable comparison.  
 

Consider this:  

 

William “Refrigerator” Perry was renowned for being just unbelievably huge, right?    On the ‘85 Bears defense, Perry was 65 lbs heavier than any other DL on the roster.     
 

But get this:  William Perry was 335 lbs.   Their next biggest DL was Steve McMichael at 270 lbs,   
 

For the Titans last year, Naquan Jones was 338 lbs…that’s 3 pounds heavier than “The Fridge”.     The Titans had 4 DL at  300+ lbs….the lightest DL on the roster  was Demarcus Walker at 280 lbs…ten pounds heavier than Steve McMichael in his prime.  
 

300-lb DL were a rarity until maybe 20 years ago;  nowadays 300 lbs is basically  the league standard.    
 

By no means am I  trying to diminish anyone’s accomplishments;  Payton was arguably the greatest runner of that era…Derrick Henry  is arguably the greatest RB of the modern era.  
 

But I suspect most would agree that being tackled 300+ times in todays game is probably more physically taxing than it was 40 years ago when defenders were 30-40 lbs lighter.  

[NashvilleNinja]

3 hours ago, 2Tone said:

 

 

They had a Dave's Triple on a string and were pulling it up the field as fast as they could.

[abenjami]

I for one have never gone down on Chris Johnson.  There are several here who I'm sure would jump at the opportunity though.

 

 

[Callidus]

3 hours ago, nine said:

Keep in mind, today’s players are so much bigger and stronger than players in Payton’s era, there’s really no way to make a reasonable comparison.  
 

Consider this:  

 

William “Refrigerator” Perry was renowned for being just unbelievably huge, right?    On the ‘85 Bears defense, Perry was 65 lbs heavier than any other DL on the roster.     
 

But get this:  William Perry was 335 lbs.   Their next biggest DL was Steve McMichael at 270 lbs,   
 

For the Titans last year, Naquan Jones was 338 lbs…that’s 3 pounds heavier than “The Fridge”.     The Titans had 4 DL at  300+ lbs….the lightest DL on the roster  was Demarcus Walker at 280 lbs…ten pounds heavier than Steve McMichael in his prime.  
 

300-lb DL were a rarity until maybe 20 years ago;  nowadays 300 lbs is basically  the league standard.    
 

By no means am I  trying to diminish anyone’s accomplishments;  Payton was arguably the greatest runner of that era…Derrick Henry  is arguably the greatest RB of the modern era.  
 

But I suspect most would agree that being tackled 300+ times in todays game is probably more physically taxing than it was 40 years ago when defenders were 30-40 lbs lighter.  

Iv tried making this argument before and the old crowd just won't have it. Those boomer blinders just won't let them look at things objectively if it doesn't make the good old days so much more bad ass.

[Face]

19 hours ago, OILERMAN said:

Massively overrated

 

Fisher got him a ton of volume to get to 2k because they were eliminated so early in the year

 

Then after 2010 his drop off was historic it was so bad. 

I thought he even dropped off a lot in 2010.  But in fairness he was absolutely awesome his first 2 years, especially ‘09. He never had great vision but he was so much more aggressive in ‘08 & ‘09. A lot of his big runs came right up the gut or were quick bursts off the edge. After that he was basically a yawn fest, just pathetically bouncing everything outside.

 

I know we talked about this a few years ago but LenDale was actually a way more instinctual runner than CJ, he was just such a pathetic fat slob that he probably couldn’t break a 5.0 40.

[OILERMAN]

31 minutes ago, Face said:

I thought he even dropped off a lot in 2010.  

 He did, Hines Ward called him out for quitting against them in 2010 after he got lit up, he did too

[Come on Titans]

got paid...laid down

[WG53]

On 9/3/2023 at 1:35 AM, Callidus said:

Iv tried making this argument before and the old crowd just won't have it. Those boomer blinders just won't let them look at things objectively if it doesn't make the good old days so much more bad ass.

It is the same argument that I make to people in regards to Jim brown. He was always bigger than everybody on the other side of the field from him. So that sways my opinion of him because he was bigger than everybody else in that era.