Is John Johnson an option for the Jets?

Edition #393

Good morning! ☕

Last week I took a quick look at the stats for TJW, finding that we have subscribers from 43 US States and 32 countries. I knew the NFL was an international game, but we have readers from Pakistan, Japan, Nigeria, Vietnam, Peru, and Colombia, the Jets are truly international and hopefully, we do a small part in encouraging that fandom.

I’ve come back to the free safety position a number of times this off-season, I think in part because we really don’t know what the plan is. Are the Jets really going to hand that position over to Tony Adams? Is Chuck Clark going to man it full-time? Will the Jets play a lot of 3-safety packages to get Whitehead, Clark, and Adams on the field?

With OTA’s continuing this week I started thinking about John Johnson, a 6’0 210lb free safety with 6 years of good NFL production. Johnson has yet to sign a deal for some unknown reason and he’s been linked with the Jets by the media, but would that signing make sense?

😂 Earlier this month Sauce attended a Knicks game with his elder (Aaron Rodgers) and met Jessica Alba, without knowing who she is. Mike Jordan who designs custom cleats decided to drop some Jessica Alba-themed Nike Vapors at 1JD for Sauce. The cleats pictured below (via NY Post) show two of Alba’s most famous roles, Honey & Fantastic Four.

🙄 Mike Tomlin spoke to the Rich Eisen show about the Steelers trade-up with the New England Patriots, and while he didn’t confirm the deal was completed by the Patriots just to screw with the Jets, it sure sounds like that’s what happened. I’ll repeat what I said earlier this month, if it’s all true then it just shows how far Bill has fallen: “There was a run on the position starting, I think, with Darnell Wright at about 10 and they were coming off pretty clean,” Tomlin said. “And we had that as a position of priority and we had Broderick, as an individual, as a priority. We knew with the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers, (the Jets) might be fishing in those waters. We did what we needed to do to get the player at a position we coveted. I’m not gonna delve into the relationship between New England and the Jets. Let’s just say I’m glad we found a partner,” he said. “I’ll put it this way, there wasn’t a lot of hesitation on New England’s end.”

🎒 PFF handed out some off-season grades over the weekend and they gave the Jets a solid B: “On the one hand, Aaron Rodgers is the kind of upgrade at quarterback you can only dream of, light years better than any alternative the Jets could have pursued. On the other hand, the trade they had to agree to in order to secure his services seems to reflect that. Allen Lazard, Mecole Hardman, and Randall Cobb were veteran receiver additions designed to make Rodgers happy, while Elijah Moore was traded away to Cleveland to make room. Wes Schweitzer can start along the offensive line if needed and helps give them some depth there.”

🌟 They also listed their breakout candidate for each AFC team. There were a number of options for the Jets, but they ended up choosing guard Alijah Vera-Tucker over running back Breece Hall: “After playing left guard in his rookie season, Vera-Tucker started games at left tackle, right guard and right tackle in 2022 and is expected to be the starting right guard for the Jets in 2023. The former USC Trojan was off to a promising start before getting injured in Week 7 and missing the rest of the season. His 71.8 overall grade was a considerable improvement from his rookie season and ranked 16th among guards in the NFL, while his 76.5 run-blocking grade was good for sixth at his position.”

🎞️ Ty Johnson took to Instagram to explain the reason he was cut by the Jets with a non-football injury designation, just weeks after being signed. According to Johnson, he tore his pectoral while working out, he flew to NY to see the Jets team doctor (I imagine it was Dr. Ken Montgomery, who is the Head Orthopedist with the Jets), who told him to get it fixed. He had the surgery, then returned to NY to find out he’d been cut. Johnson spoke about going through some dark days, but it sounds as though he’s on the right path, hopefully he gets another shot somewhere. It’s unclear whether the injury had anything to do with his release, but it would be somewhat of a coincidence if it didn’t.

📢 Mekhi Becton spoke to Newsday about his excitement heading into camp: "This is the most excited I've ever been going into training camp,”. Becton will be hoping to give Saleh a hard decision over who plays left tackle once camp commences "I don't want to look too far ahead, but I definitely feel way more confident than I've felt these past three years," Becton said. "I feel like we're going to win a lot of games, have a lot of fun, and just the energy and vibe with the players at the facility is uplifting."

🤕 In that same interview, Mekhi seemed to blame the Jets coaching staff for the knee injury that cost him his 2022 season: “It made no sense to put me at right tackle. I hurt my right knee. That’s going to be the knee that I put the most pressure on [while backpedaling in pass protection]. I explained it [to the coaches], but no one cared.” - If you can’t put weight on the knee and pressure on the knee, then you shouldn’t be out there. However, it seems as though the Jets failed to remove him from a practice where his knee wasn’t feeling 100%: “I got forced to play a position I don’t play,” Becton explained to Bob Glauber. “I was pretty much telling them I wasn’t feeling good the whole time throughout camp and I was told I shouldn’t be complaining. Go out there and do it. I was limping throughout the whole practice, and I just took a step and my knee buckled and I got hurt again and had to get reconstructive knee surgery.”

✍️ Former Jets pass-rusher Jacob Martin signed a deal with the Houston Texans.

✍️ Former Jets offensive guard Greg Van Roten signed a deal with the Las Vegas Raiders

A few days ago PFF named John Johnson as the final off-season move the Jets should make to complete their roster. Back in 2021, the former LA Ram signed a three-year deal with the Browns worth $33.75 million with $24 million guaranteed. But it was an up-and-down experience for JJ and few Brown fans were upset to see him cut earlier this off-season.

Cutting Johnson with a post-June 1st designation saved the Browns $9.8 million in 2023, but they will be carrying a $3.8 million dead cap charge in 2023 and an $8.85 million dead cap charge in 2024. So why would the Browns pay over $10 million in dead cap charges to not have Johnson on their team? Does it go beyond the immediate cap saving of 2023?

After all, if you look at the base numbers, Johnson looks like a very good player to be cutting ties with in his prime. He was second on the Browns with 101 tackles, he also registered 1 touchdown and 4 pass defenses while allowing just a single touchdown. He also registered a sack and forced two fumbles while allowing a career-low of 57.9% of passes to be completed into his coverage.

When we talk about coverage stats we often make the mistake of looking at them in isolation. Robert Saleh preaches complementary defense, pass rush aids the coverage, and coverage aids the pass rush. Last season the Cleveland Browns were one of the worst teams in generating pressure, their 18.2% team pressure rate ranked 27th in the league, whereas the Jet’s 25.4% number ranked third. It’s reasonable to believe that John Johnson will improve his numbers with the Jets pass-rush, considering the play we got at free safety last year from Lamarcus Joyner.

So here we have a guy who was all over the field making tackles and was the 8th-rated safety in terms of his 57.9% of passes completed into his coverage (minimum 350 snaps), so why were the Browns so quick to move on? Especially as they’ll be replacing him with Juan Thornhill, who allowed 4 touchdowns and 63.2% of passes to be completed into his coverage while a member of the Chiefs last year.

Having spoken to a few Browns fans the general consensus is that he underperformed relative to his contract. That he was a better box defender than a deep free safety and in the Joe Woods defensive system, he was asked to play deep a whole lot. But if you compare how Joe Woods used Johnson last season and how Saleh/Ulbrich used Joyner, you’ll see a lot of similarities in terms of alignment.

John Johnson (1,056 total snaps) - 689 (FS), 250 (box), 102 (Slot).
Lamarcus Joyner (872 total snaps) - 639 (FS), 122 (box), 91 (Slot).

Now, just because Saleh used Joyner in this way doesn’t mean he’d use Johnson like this, putting players in the best position to utilize their skillset for success is something that is spoken about each off-season. But it looks as though the Jets are looking for an out-and-out free safety.

The Jets need to decide if John Johnson is better than what they already have, depending on who they envision playing that deep field roamer role. Johnson who ran a 4.61 doesn’t have the athleticism of Tony Adams, but he has the experience and the production at the highest level.

We know the Jets are extremely high on Tony Adams, but we also know that Adams has only 118 defensive snaps to his NFL resume, and while he impressed at times in that limited action, it’s a big jump to starting on a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

It also comes down to cost, the Jets still have Aaron Rodgers and several draft picks to fit under the 2023 cap, and they still need to make moves to do that. There’s always a way to fit someone like Johnson, and if Joe Douglas believes he’ll make the team better, that’s what he’ll do. I’m betting Johnson ends up as a LA Charger.