With Andre Johnson Likely Available, Does Veteran WR Make Sense For Patriots?
BOSTON (CBS) -- Things change when teams win the Super Bowl. Answers that seemed so obvious in past years suddenly don't seem so important, and countless people are proven wrong.
As it relates to the New England Patriots, those folks in the "dead wrong" category would include all of those who shouted, clamored and asserted with great confidence last spring that the weapon-deprived Patriots needed to acquire veteran wide receiver Andre Johnson. In fact, one nitwit went so far as to mock the idea that the Patriots' receiving corps, as it was constructed at the time, was good enough to win a championship.
"Would pinning all championship hopes on Danny Amendola, Aaron Dobson, Julian Edelman and Brandon LaFell really count as doing everything that's possible to win a Super Bowl?" that dummy rhetorically asked in a column that now looks painfully, uncomfortably wrong. (That idiot's name will remain protected at this point in time.)
Obviously, Edelman (9 receptions, 109 yards, game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLIX), Amendola (5 receptions, 48 yards, TD) and LaFell (4 receptions, 29 yards, TD) did just fine this past season, thanks in large part to Rob Gronkowski (6 receptions, 68 yards, TD in Super Bowl; 82 receptions, 1,124 yards, 12 TDs in regular season) staying healthy from start to finish.
As it turned out, Tom Brady had plenty of weapons, and he didn't need Johnson after all.
Now, a year later, it seems like just a matter of time before Johnson gets released by the Texans, free to sign with whichever team suits his fancy.
"If a trade can't be worked out," reported the Houston Chronicle's John McClain, "Johnson will be placed on waivers, making him an unrestricted free agent."
Johnson, who will turn 34 years old on July 11, just posted his worst full-season stats since 2005. He caught 85 passes for 936 yards and three touchdowns. Granted, for the umpteenth time in his career, Johnson had to deal with two pesky realities on a weekly basis: He didn't know who would be throwing him the football, and when he did know, he knew it was somebody who's not particularly great at doing it.
The Texans started three different quarterbacks this past season and played four overall. Ryan Fitzpatrick started 12 games and was thoroughly OK. Ryan Mallett made his first two career starts, and he was ... not excellent. Case Keenum and Tom Savage combined to attempt 96 passes; they completed 55 of them, throwing two touchdowns and three interceptions.
After the season, Johnson was told that the team wants to reduce his role next year, and so after playing in just four postseason games in 12 NFL seasons, he's understandably ready to move on. And because there almost assuredly won't be a team willing to take on his $10.5 million salary and $16 million cap hit, moving on will mean getting released and becoming a free agent.
Last year, the dummies who argued that the 2014 Patriots could not succeed without Johnson wrote lines like this one: "Johnson, for his part, clearly wants a quarterback and a head coach that can get him where he wants to go. The match [with the Patriots] is one made in football heaven."
That still holds true, so it's at least worth wondering whether the Patriots should have any interest in the veteran wide receiver.
Of course, addressing the wide receiver position should not be priority No. 1, or even anywhere close to it, this offseason in New England. With Stephen Gostkowski now franchised, the team's first focus will be on the defensive backfield -- namely, on Darrelle Revis. It's hard to imagine the team will be able to make any significant decisions until Revis is under contract, either in New England or elsewhere. Then it's on to Devin McCourty, Dan Connolly, Shane Vereen -- all of whom are players the team would like to have back at the right price.
At receiver, they don't desperately need to make a move. Sure, if Johnson were willing and able to sign for less than he's worth and then adapt his game to the Patriots' offense, they'd be fools to ignore his availability. Yet if you read Johnson's comments to McClain, it's hard to imagine he's looking to join a team if he's not going to be a featured part of the offense.
"I don't know how you tell a guy who catches 85 balls that he'll only probably catch 40," he said. "I feel like the role they were trying to put me in, I'd be held back from maximizing my talents. I feel like that was the best thing for both sides. Why sit there and be miserable when I can go somewhere else and be able to show my talents?"
That doesn't exactly sound like a guy who's willing to be anything less than a star, which is what he's been since George W. Bush's first term in office.
In that sense, the Patriots were right last year to acquire a younger, more adaptable receiver in LaFell, who took a few weeks to get incorporated into the offense (he was targeted zero times in the first two games of the season) before posting career-bests in receptions, yards and touchdowns. We learned that the Patriots did not need an established veteran at wide receiver, and they instead needed someone with a solid skill set who could alter his game to fit in with what Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady want to do.
So a year later, why would anyone say that things should change? While in an ideal world you'd be better off if you could swap Amendola for Johnson without taking on too much in the way of dollars and or cap hit, that's just too complex a scenario to actually work.
Again, last year, the work required to make sense of the dollars and cents seemed like it would be worth the hassle. Last May, the idiots wrote, "Both the Patriots and Texans would have to be willing to do the headache-inducing work that comes with finagling such salaries. Is it complicated? Yes. Is it impossible? No way."
The imbeciles also wrote, "[The Patriots] must know they need Andre Johnson if they want to once again reign supreme over the NFL. ... It's not hyperbole to say that adding a receiver of Johnson's caliber can be the difference in winning a Super Bowl or having yet another season -- one of the few left for Brady -- end in disappointment."
There are certainly more disappointing ways for a season to end than with a shiny, new Super Bowl MVP trophy to place on the mantel.
One year ago, after seeing Tom Brady throw passes to Matthew Slater, Matthew Mulligan and Austin Collie in the AFC Championship Game, it was easy to assess the situation and say that the Patriots desperately needed Andre Johnson. A year later, it's fairly clear that the need is the other way around, and there's just no way to make the case for Belichick to spend any time thinking about Johnson.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
