He didn't inhale; he just sucked

As I prepared to board a bus at 11:30 last night, I got an email on my IPod that Ed Johnson had been released. Needless to say, I was a little disturbed, but thought at the time that I had noticed him making a lot of plays. Still, like everyone else, I assumed Big Ed's release was conduct related. Like everyone else, I assumed it would hurt the team at least a little. I was only saved from saying so because I was far, far from home. As comments from the blog began to show up, I noticed some nice film work by "Preston" who wrote yesterday:

I'm sorry but I rewatched all of the first half of the Titans game after this news with the idea of evaluating Ed's play, and i came to the conclusion that he had NOTHING to do with our success against the run in that game. Instantly jumping the the conclusion that we won't be good against the run with him no longer on the team is silly. There were several run plays where Ed got blown off the line of scrimmage and the rest of the d stepped up and did a nice job. In my opinion, he was easily our worst dt in the Titans game, to heavy, not fast, and not particularly strong (didn't use good leverage). He also didn't show good effort. That's my 2 cents anyway.

Preston later followed up his assertions with this post, detailing Johnson's performance

11:20 first quarter, 1st and 10: Chris Johnson gets stopped for no gain, and the Titians get flagged for holding. Ed was on the back side of the play but was blocked up the entire play by Jake Scott and is pushed back 10 yards off the line of scrimmage.
11:00 first quarter, 2nd and 16: gets walled off completely one on one, gain of 8 to his side.
7:20 first quarter, 1st and 10: Screen pass 6 yards to his side, Ed is left virtually unblocked takes a poor angle and doesn't even get close to making the tackle (could have been a play for no gain).
6:40 first quarter 2nd and 3: It is a run to the defensive right he is play side, does a nice job stretching it out along the line of scrimmage, along with the rest of the d. doesn't make a play thou doesn't get penetration or push in the back field. Clint shoots his gap and makes a great tackle.
4:30 first quarter 3rd and 4: Ed gets singled by the center who keeps him nearly on the line of scrimmage in pass pro, which allows the left guard and tackle to double Freeney. Lacey makes a great play on the ball and breaks it up. ed is ineffective on this play
3:05 first quarter 1st and 10: Run to the defensive left. The colts slant their line in the same direction. Ed is in the right tackle spot next to Freeney, Roos gets on Ed and pushes him 10 yards down field all the way to the defensive left sideline the rest of the defense picks up the slack and makes cj cut it back right for a gain of 4, ed is ineffective.
Plays one more play that drive that is blow dead on a false start.

4:58 second quarter 1st and 10: Collins goes back for a pass gets pressure put on him by Freeney stunting inside, while Ed slants outside, he is effective scheme wise getting Freeney free up the middle. This forces Collins to sprint to the sideline and throw it away. Ed chases takes a nice angle and Hagler comes up at the end to force the issue. Not bad not great by any means.
4:50 second quarter 2nd and 10: Ed holds his gap well and Chris Johnson hits it Ed has a chance to stop him for two yards, but he doesn't get off his block quick enough and Chris Johnson gains 7.
4:41 second quarter 3rd and 3: Pass play he gets decent push (he is only single blocked by a guard)(the double Antonio Johnson initially on the play center guard combo then slip the guard off to help with Freeney) has a chance to bat the ball down and misses. Not a bad play at all but nothing special. Results in a big completion down field.
2:15 second quarter 1st and 10: Pass play Ed gets double by the center and right guard not very exciting play gets his hand up when Collins passes short, but doesn't get a hand on the ball.
1:58 second quarter 2nd and 5: Quick pass not much he can do.
1:30 second quarter 1st and 10: Pass play Ed and Mathis slant inside to defensive right while Antonio Johnson loops outside gets pressure on on Collins. Nicely designed play but the coverage downfield is what makes it. The stunt is effective and prevents Collins from holding onto the ball. Nothing special here good or bad.
1:22 second quarter 2nd and 10: Pass play, the one where Lacey makes a great play on the ball on a post route in the end zone. Ed is ineffective gets no pass rush, however Antonio Johnson gets nice pressure up the middle.
Well that's the first half. Ed plays a total of 13 plays. (I'm pretty sure this is exhaustive) I'll let you guys make up your mind on how effective Ed was

Today, the news comes out that Big Ed was cut not because of what he did, but because of what he didn't do, namely make plays. Preston was right, after all. While I had noticed Mookie Johnson a ton, as well as Foster and Daniel Muir this year, other than one play in Arizona, Ed Johnson had been invisible. With Adam Vinatieri out six weeks (talk about the buried lead!), the Colts needed a kicker, and decided Johnson wasn't getting it done. Amazing. Every big time analyst and small time blogger missed the story, as we all (every one of us...from Phil B to Oehser to BBS to me to anyone else you care to think of) jumped to the same conclusion while the truth was on the tape.

One of the best takes on the situation came from Paul Kuharsky who says that the Colts were unfair to Johnson by cutting him without comment.

Considering the fanfare that greeted his return, that he was a starter since he was reinstated from his Week 1 suspension and that there had been no public questioning of his play, the team had to know a release without explanation was going to prompt suspicions he’d done something wrong off the field.

Coach Jim Caldwell admitted as much when he began to address it Wednesday.

“I know some might wonder whether or not it was a character issue,” he said.

If you knew, coach, why wouldn’t you seek to clarify that it was not as soon as possible? Isn’t that what you would have liked for someone to do for you if you were in a similar circumstance?

The team could have simply put out a statement Tuesday or have word passed down from on high that it was a production issue, not a behavioral one.

I whole heartedly agree that it made him look bad, although I suppose that's as much our fault for making assumptions. This also means that possibly Ed could come back if there was injury or need. He was first one on the chopping line, but that doesn't mean he's gone forever, although I think we'd all rather see Moala step and seize the spot that has been handed to him.

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written by A.J., October 14, 2009

Ok. He was doing bad. I accept that analysis. But last time I looked, getting benched was the traditional response to poor play, not getting fired. So yes, I still don't get it.

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written by Anonymous!!!, October 14, 2009

Someone needs to tell Paul Kuharsky to shove it!!!!

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written by DemondSanders, October 14, 2009

That's the tricky part about the 53 man roster.

I take this to mean they have a lot of young guys playing well. A pretty deep team. Just scanning the depth chart the only guy that jumps out is Silva, but I'm guessing his special teams play makes him valuable. Nearly everyone else seems essential for the moment (especially considering the secondary is so banged up).

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written by DZ, October 14, 2009

Yeah, they would have benched him, but they needed to add Stover. Personally, I would have cut Chad Simpson again, but someone had to go, and not knowing Hart's health, I guess they needed 3 backs.

Bad News, Good News, and Pending News
written by BP, October 14, 2009

Obviously this is bad news - not for the reasons we all initially thought (thanks Preston), and news that is not nearly as bad as we thought. But it's bad news nonetheless because Ed simply didn't live up to his potential (for 1 reason or another).

The good news is of course that we shouldn't see a large drop in performance. I say "shouldn't" because I still think that the pending news is whether Caldwell is telling the (whole) truth. He has more than earned my trust following the CJ vs. Ugoh storyline during training camp and so, absent contrary evidence, I do believe him here.

But this just smells funny because Ed was the unquestioned starter prior to this announcement and it is not often (ever?) that a named starter drops off the depth chart entirely in the span of one week absent injury or conduct infraction.

But the proof will come from 1) whether Ed is signed by another team (or even resigned someday by the Colts) and 2) whether the Colts' defense suffers following this move. Those two pieces of evidence will go along way to answering whether Caldwell is indeed telling us the truth. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if (counter to Kuharsky's logic) Caldwell is in fact protecting Ed by not revealing a conduct issue in hopes that another team signs him.

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written by psvirsky, October 14, 2009

I'll be interested to see if he gets picked up anywhere else or if he ever comes back with us. The players obviously liked him and I think the fans enjoyed the redemption story. I would really hate to see him succeed elsewhere. And I loved all the potential wordplay with having two Johnson's up front. But as usual, Polian knows best.

by the way, are you guys watching the Uruguay v. Argentina game? I'm in class following it online but it sounds like a fight could break out at any moment.

Still Skeptical
written by smonroe, October 14, 2009

He apparently didn't suck in camp or preseason since he started his first game eligible. He didn't suck enough not to be the starter since.

Hart - still PS eligible. Again, I simply don't buy 'lack of performance'. I doubt we'll ever know the true Hollywood story on this one.

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written by DZ, October 14, 2009

1. Argentina Uruguay: Yes. I'm watching, and sweating. Maradona looks to be playing for the draw, which is insane. At least Ecuador is losing.

2. I don't understand the skepticism about the Johnson announcement at all. Consider: a. someone had to be cut and b. Johnson wasn't playing well. I don't think Hart is 100% (shocker), so they have to keep four backs.

The bottom line is this: if you think Ed Johnson wasn't the guy to get cut tell me who else is? Cut another player for me.

I don't see what the Colts would gain by lying about this or covering something up. Honestly, the angle I was going to take on this was that it was worth the risk to sign Johnson and his renewed 'fall' was sad, but didn't make anyone look bad but him. As it stands now, we might see him back in a few weeks.

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written by DZ, October 14, 2009

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAL.

1-0 Argentina. 5 min to play.

Thank God. All we need is the tie.

who to cut
written by BP, October 14, 2009

Okay, I'll bite.

Even assuming that Ed Johnson is the worst DT on the roster (which is a stretch given that he has been the unquestioned starter at the UT position since he joined the team, excepting the suspension game), any of the following players are more expendable then a run-stuffing, pocket-collapsing DT who knows the Colts' system (in no particular order):

1. Simpson. He was cut before (to make room for Hank Baskett, I think) and Hart's health was just as questionable then. What has changed?
2. Hart. He's practice squad eligible and if he's hurting and can't play, what's the point.
3. Francisco. We don't need the depth at safety with Bob on his way back, and he hasn't exactly lit the world on fire as a special teamer (3 tackles).
4. Silva. Better special teamer than Francisco, but the same point re safety depth applies.
5. Hank Baskett. We haven't needed him at WR, he's not made an impact on special teams (1 tackle), and now that I've seen his wife's show, I've lost all respect.
6. Painter. He can go to the PS, and there is less of a concern that some other team will grab him now that most teams' QB situations have settled.

In contrast, as Johnny O points out, we are relatively thin at DT and run-stuffing DTs, even ones that aren't performing up to their potential, don't grow on trees.

Like I said before, I'm with Caldwell on this one because he's earned it. I just see a lot of reasons to doubt the wisdom of the decision. Depending on how things work out, those reasons could look pretty significant in hindsight.

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written by DZ, October 14, 2009

1 and 2 don't work because they like Hart. PS eligible means the player has to clear waivers before he can be resigned to the squad. They don't want to risk losing Hart, and if he's not 100%, then they can't drop Simpson. That same logic takes Painter off the board as well.

I think they'd love to drop Basket, but he's a reserve at this point. The bigger question is what had Johnson done to deserve hanging around.

Other than one time he got pressure on Kurt Warner, he's been invisible. He has 10 tackles in four games. I think we can replace that kind of production.

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written by DemondSanders, October 14, 2009

I appreciate the frustration. We all wanted Johnson to be a difference maker at DT. But I don't see a clear reason to doubt Caldwell's "poor performance" explanation. If it was a character issue, wouldn't they just tell us?

I already bit on the Ugoh benching. I thought Caldwell was bs-ing us about starting CJ. He wasn't. I won't doubt him again.

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written by Preston, October 14, 2009

Thats the thing I've seen him get the chance to make a few nice plays and he hasn't made any of them the play on Warner included. Without even looking for foster or Muir I've seen them make several great plays. I'm not saying Ed hasn't made any plays this year i haven't looked at each snap i'm just saying of the snaps I have looked at in detail (first halves of the Seattle, Arizona ,and Tennessee games)he has left a very high portion of those chances on the field. I'm guessing this is the conclusion the coaches have come to as well.

The idea that since he was a starter he had to be better than the other guys who didn't start has a couple of problems with it. First of all he could have showed up in practice, but ended up just not getting it done on the field. Maybe the coaches though he was just rusty and needed to get a few games under his belt to play to his potential, and once he didn't make any progress after 4 games they decided to move on. This split is made more necessary by the other circumstances on the roster. Also just because he "started" it doesn't been he actually played the first snap of the game (Seattle game) or even the majority of snaps or even the majority of run down snaps.
Also, when people make broad statements like "Run Stuffing" and "Pocket Collapsing" the problem is Ed wasn't doing either... not with any kind of regularity he just wasn't

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

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written by bob patterson, October 14, 2009

The truly cynical view (not saying I believe it) would be that he did something unethical and they wanted to stand by their decision to fire him, but they want the ability to resign him w/o looking hypocritcal come December if the run defense is terrible. Now the colts are character people and I don't believe they would do something like this, but if maybe this is a third chance kind of thing, keep it under wraps for big ed's sake,then perhaps it might make sense.

Then again, if he really wasn't very good, then he wasn't very good, and that's all there is to it. Are you guys planning on doing your own analysis of his performance over the past few games?

Still a bit shocked.
written by coltsfanawalt, October 15, 2009

I would let Fransisco, Baskett and especially Simpson go first, although I sorta understand the need for four RBs with Hart still coming back (I thought he was cleared).

I would think DT depth, as in guys who can play in a pinch and know the system well, would be valuable to keep around as backup. I men, if he could start or at least play significantly all while the defense is performing well, then certainly he holds some value for us.

At the same time and like others have echoed, I do trust the franchise and Caldwell earned the benefit of the doubt after the LT position ordeal.

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written by psvirsky, October 15, 2009

I think it's interesting that Caldwell has earned everyone's trust so far. I guess the whole not ever losing thing helps. And I don't mean to criticize, I feel the same way. It's nice to be able to trust him so quickly. Hopefully he'll keep doing everything right.

Congrats on the Argentina win. Hopefully Uruguay can pull it out against Honduras. Ecuador really choked away a spot in the World Cup. The real question now is how many players can Maradona get in to the game during the Cup.

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written by DemondSanders, October 15, 2009

I would expect Johnson to go unsigned. He should be there if they decide they need him later. Of course, you never know.

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written by Dave_H, October 15, 2009

Like most everyone else I would take Caldwell's word about why he was let go.
Is he really the least talented defensive lineman on the roster? Benching, rather than cutting would seem a wiser course of action. Maybe AV's injury forced their hand.
Of all the guys in the roster that I think might be interchangable and replacable, I'd select Chad" the human touchback" Simpson.

...Phil B. vs. Oester
written by Doug England, October 15, 2009

(I'm keeping my Colts colored glasses on and hoping that Moola is just finally ready to play, and will actually make the defensive tackle rotation stronger. After all, the Colts were fine against the Jags without Johnson.)

On another note, am I the only one that gets the impression from reading Oester and Phil B everyday, that Johnny O. makes it a point to write positive things about Ugoh (and point out plays where Peyton just gets the throw off before CJ's man sacks him), while Phil B. trashes Ugoh every chance he gets.

Like all Colts fans, I just want what is best for the team. (i.e. Keeping #18 upright) Still, I find it interesting, that two prominent followers of the team, apparently have such differing views on Ugoh. I sure don't know who is right, and I am not equipped to do a "Preston like" breakdown of left tackle play, but I do wonder even if CJ and Ugoh both stay healthy, if the drama of this situation has played out.

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written by 35er, October 15, 2009

Hey I just recently found this blog through Paul Kuharsky's blog over at ESPN, and I just wanted to say I love it. I'll be checking you guys out weekly from now on. I also want to give a big thanks to Preston for doing this analysis of Ed's play. It was very useful and much appreciated.

I'll be seeing you all around.

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written by WJoel, October 15, 2009

Ed may not be the least productive DT on the roster, but it's totally possible he's the least talented. If you take the heart and hustle of guys like Muir and Foster, and the (perhaps unrealized) potential of Moala, it quite possibly made Ed the most expendable.

If Tennessee was better and we hadn't just played them, I wouldn't have put money down on him ending up on their roster before the end of next week. But sniping ex-Colts might not be a real high priority for them right now, as it has been for so much of the recent past.

Moala
written by Bob M, October 15, 2009

Six months ago we all assumed he'd be a day-one starter. Then with all the success and him not even being activated, I am not sure what I thought--probably that he was more raw than I expected back then. And now they say he's ready. Like we all thought in the spring. Strange world, and I assume Stover's addition had something to do with the cut rather than benching of Ed.

And now it's Fili's turn--if you'll recall, the only man who could stop Freeney in his rookie season was... Dungy. 93 did not start until about his 7th game (and still had more sacks than Peppers). Maybe this is just another case of that and Fili will go on to challenge for DROY.

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written by DemondSanders, October 15, 2009

Yup. Let's be real: It is really unusual for the Colts to be carrying 3 kickers, 3 quarterbacks, and 4 RBs. Other teams, maybe, but it is weird for the Colts. And it has left Ed the odd man out. End of story.

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written by Attila, October 15, 2009

I think Vinatieri should be put on IR and Ed or Santi or Senn ... should get the last roster spot... Ed needs to loose 10-15 pounds, if he wants to come back.

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written by DZ, October 15, 2009

You don't want to IR Vinatieri if you know he'll be back just in time for the playoffs.

I know it's irrational, but I still trust him come January. I want to feel secure my guy won't yack the kick, after years of being sure he would.

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written by DemondSanders, October 15, 2009

Yup. I don't trust AV much right now. But he makes kicks in January which is all that matters to Polian. IRing him seems like tempting fate...

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written by Attila, October 15, 2009

How clutch can a 36 year old Vinatieri be after a hip and a knee surgery, and few months without practice?

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written by DZ, October 15, 2009

I didn't say it was rational. Vanderjagct scarred me forever. I can live with AV missing a kick, I can't live with IRing him and letting someone else miss it when he could have been healthy enough to play.

Sane? Probably not, but that's how I feel. At least I admit it's crazy.

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written by Attila, October 15, 2009

Just to alert you guys, Freeney will be chatting at nfl.com at 5 pm.

Ed
written by killswitch, October 17, 2009

Ed was kicked off Penn states football because a woman claimed he raped her and then locked her in a bathroom.. He was then let back and kicked off once again for testing + on a dope test.. He then then sucked up to Larry Johnson and Joe Pa at penn s tate to beg NFL coachs to get his foot in the door of the NFL.. He then was kicked off the NFL team for being charged with smoking pot in his car... The guy is a joke. He needs to be flipping burgers or in prison. Oh.. by the way.. I played with him for 4 years at Penn State.. Hes a dirt ball and needs his fat a** beat.