Andre Johnson

[PapaL]

Originally Posted by docbar

aj is looking mortal this season. Hopefully he's saving up his mojo for a major playoff push.

qft!

[76Texan]

Originally Posted by DocBar

AJ is looking mortal this season. Hopefully he's saving up his mojo for a major playoff push.

What's so mortal about that double move he put on the CB on the left side line in the 4th qtr of the Tenn game? It was like 7-8 yards of separation. That, my friend, is called explosiveness.

If Schaub had not been pressured, that would have been the easiest 37-yd TD catch you've ever seen.

Oh, and AJ also had a 12yd catch called back because of a stupid call on Walter.
How can it be a crack back block when the DE jumped right over Walter to get into the backfield? Even Dan Fouts diagree with that call vehemently.

[Ryan]

I don't think this is a good thread for week 5 honestly. I'll revisit it in February after the season is over.

[guichows6]

http://m.nfl.com/news/0ap10000000799...nce-to-return/


I pretty much agree with this article.

Aj is still a beast . A lot of you folk love the drama of the world ending, and its just not the case.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

I have been saying for 4-5 years one defect in AJ's game is aggressiveness back to under thrown balls and on hook routes. He has long not done as much as he could to prevent INT's by getting in between the ball and the DB even enough to interfere.

You're correct. We've discussed this same thing on numerous occasions. But most of these instances involved throws that were thrown short and low and away from the defender with expectations that he would comeback for the reception; not passes that he would stare down at eye level and within reach knowing that if he made no move on the ball, it would result in a sure interception.

[76Texan]

Alright, here's a vid of an INT "allowed" by Calvin Johnson.
It's the third INT.
At the top of your screen.
The Rams were playing 2-deep, zone under.
Courtland Innegan broke off his zone to go to the side line for the INT.
Look at how CJ seems to never make an effort to come back to break up the play even though he can "clearly" see it.

Look for the vid that says Stafford nightmare first half.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/201209...yze=playbyplay

[76Texan]

BTW, TPN, CJ caught 6 passes for 111 yards in this game, but he never beat any double-team.

The Rams played almost exclusively cover 2 zone under.

CJ's longest gain went for 51 yards.
He ran a post route with no CB following him.
One of the safeties was occupied on the other side.
The safety on his side played deep and kept running back and back.
He had depth over CJ throughout the play, but he kept drifting back.
He played like he was satisfied to wait for CJ to catch the ball and then tackle him.
The highlight vid doesn't show the whole field, but if you have NFL Game Rewind, you can see everything really well.

The rest of CJ's catches were into the void of the various zones he saw throughout the game.
(Think Richard Smith and Frank Bush defense.)

[hradhak]

My guess is that we aren't seeing the numbers from an that we are used to is that an is getting reps. He has a history of getting injured they are pulling him for rest during drives. He may not be as fast as he was as a rookie but he's a smart runner. He can get open when he needs to. My guess we will see more of him in other games

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Rick Smith could have care less who filled in for Demeco. He let him go because he thought (rightly or wrongly) his salary didn't match his skills.

And if he lets AJ go, it will be for exactly the same reason. That's what general managers do.

You may be right, but I've got the feeling that Smith will be overruled by McNair when it comes to A.J.

McNair has stated on more than one occasion that Johnson will retire as a Texan. I do not get the feeling that our owner is prone to misrepresenting his thoughts, especially about something so specific.

Obviously, A.J. has to be in agreement with it, but only time will tell if Smith's ax eventually lops his head off, too.

[dalemurphy]

Originally Posted by Double Barrel

You may be right, but I've got the feeling that Smith will be overruled by McNair when it comes to A.J.

McNair has stated on more than one occasion that Johnson will retire as a Texan. I do not get the feeling that our owner is prone to misrepresenting his thoughts, especially about something so specific.

Obviously, A.J. has to be in agreement with it, but only time will tell if Smith's ax eventually lops his head off, too.

A couple things:

1st, AJ looked much better on Monday- a sign that part of his problem was the groin injury he was battling.

2nd, AJ's contract is structured in a way that will make it difficult to dump him, i think.

[Double Barrel]

Sorry, Marcus, but your boy Rick Smith agree with McNair:

“It’s important that Andre have one home — and that’s with the Houston Texans,” McNair said. “He’ll probably be our first Hall of Fame player. We wanted to make sure he went in as a Texan and he played his career as a Texan.”

-----------------

“This will make him a Texan for life,” general manager Rick Smith said.

Source

[leebigeztx]

They need to put the quick slant back in the offense. Its safe, get yds, and aj and schaub in a zone.

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by Double Barrel

Sorry, Marcus, but your boy Rick Smith agree with McNair:

Well, from your source article, written in Aug 2010, I agree that that is what they said then. But much has changed since then. Wouldn't you agree?

We, the fans, can be as nostalgic and sentimental as we like. But general managers in a salary-cap restricted NFL are not afforded that kind of luxury. Their job is to determine "what have you done for me lately", and make the necessary, and sometimes difficult, decisions in accordance with.

For AJ's sake, I really hope they win the Super Bowl this season, because I think it will be his last season, regardless of what they said two years ago.

[DexmanC]

Rick Smith is shrewd, cold blooded, and is feared/hated/respected by most of the players on this team. Since he came here, the Texans ceased being the easiest paycheck in the NFL. He showed what he was about this off-season.

Originally Posted by Rick Smith

Demeco Ryans. You've been a great leader on our ball club, so we're gonna do right by you and trade you to a team that fits your skillset.

Originally Posted by Rick Smith

Eric Winston. You are an overpaid tackle who spends more time on the radio and at Wingstop than working on your game. No trade. No request for a pay cut. Not gonna put ya on waivers. YOU ARE CUT!!

Bob McNair gets to be the smiling, sweet grandpa. Rick Smith is The Iceman.

Excellent front office you've built, Bob.

[Norg]

the plan is to have AJ healthy for 16 games and playoff games .... nuff said

so i can see why we are lowing his snaps .... so thats the reality we are in


SO what do u guys want to trade AJ next year ...?????? is that what u want ????

but didnt we already give him a big contract ..... i for one want to see ANdre retire a texan but this will really hurt us since we will have 2 draft a True #1 WR with andre still on the team

[TheMatrix31]

Andre Johnson is not retiring after this season, lol. Unless he's forced into retirement from a career-ending injury or something. Not a chance.

[drs23]

Originally Posted by DaTruthExplodes

andre has been done as a elite receiver 2 years ago.

He's been skating by on reputation alone the past couple years.

THENFL, is that you?

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Well, from your source article, written in Aug 2010, I agree that that is what they said then. But much has changed since then. Wouldn't you agree?

We, the fans, can be as nostalgic and sentimental as we like. But general managers in a salary-cap restricted NFL are not afforded that kind of luxury. Their job is to determine "what have you done for me lately", and make the necessary, and sometimes difficult, decisions in accordance with.

For AJ's sake, I really hope they win the Super Bowl this season, because I think it will be his last season, regardless of what they said two years ago.

yeah, like I said, you could ultimately be right. It is a business at the end of the day.

However, I could also see McNair keeping A.J. as a 'legacy' player, something he would not do for any other member of the team.

Bob has a little bit of "old school" mentality to him, more than a lot of the newer owners. His loyalty to Carr, and his undying support of Kubiak, shows that he's not going to make decisions based on the public or media. He admires the stable teams that stick with head coaches for a long time. The Landry-era Cowboys, the Steelers, the Patriots.

While I would not be shocked if they release AJ someday, I also would not be surprised if they make sure that he retires as a Houston Texan.

[steelbtexan]

AJ is a top 10-15 WR.

He's certianly still a #1.

He just needs more help on the other side. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next draft. The WR class is very deep.

[Mr teX]

I've thought about this alot lately and I honestly think that all of the reasons cited in this thread are the reason why he hasn't really looked the same.

1.) he's just trying to make sure he gets through the season playing all 16 games this year...we had some obvious & immediate deficiencies when he went down last year. But he came back against Cincy in the playoff game and beasted.

2.) Yes, he's lost some of his explosion, but it's a combo of him getting older and the hammy injury/surgery he got last year. However, within this offense, he's still capable of putting up numbers if we target him enough. The drops i think can be explained by him just not being in the flow of the game and he's not quite used to being targeted so sporadically.

3.) I think kubes has purposely tried to go away from him a bit more with his playcalling this year in an effort to limit the focus on him. By doing so, this he's in effect trying to forces the other WR's to step up so the opposing teams have start paying more attention to those guys. rather than sitting on AJ.

I strongly believe this 3rd reason b/c we have seen OD be a focal point at times in the offense, But Walter? I don't think i've ever seen him get targeted as much as he has been this season....at least not while AJ has been on the field with him anyway. The numbers and stats presented earlier say that this is true. Everyone on here and elsewhere knew that the achilles heel to our offense was that we had no WR options outside of AJ & OD...it became more obvious when we sent JJ packing.