Chad Johnson says Stevie Johnson the best route runner ever seen

[BillsFooteball]

One of the few that would enjoy his stay at Revis island 

[below]

5 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

 

30,000 passing yards and over 200 touchdowns show Ryan Fitzpatrick is severely underrated 

 

He was always one of the better players on bad teams.. never the weak link on a good one

LOL no way. We all love Fitz but most of us understand he was not a quality starter which is why his teams made the playoffs zero times. 

[buffblue]

That Jerry Rice guy was a pretty good route runner if I'm not mistaken. Ochocinco is old enough to have seen him🤷

[Buffalo716]

13 minutes ago, below said:

LOL no way. We all love Fitz but most of us understand he was not a quality starter which is why his teams made the playoffs zero times. 

There is not a quarterback in the world who has 30,000 yards and 200 touchdowns that is below average lol

 

What he wasn't was a top tier starter.. he absolutely was a low-tier bridge starting quarterback his entire career 

 

Which is better than 70% of the NFL... 90 quarterbacks on NFL rosters there's about 22-24 worth a damn who you can start and get some wins 

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick was always at the bottom of that 24 but he was always a legitimate bridge starter.. not a throwaway, not a bottom feeder 

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick was always a serviceable bridge starter... Every team he went to he always went to the top of the depth chart which is something most NFL quarterbacks cannot say

 

He literally climbed to the top of the depth chart for like four or five NFL teams which is the opposite of not good... He wasn't a game changer which would be correct 

 

He was serviceable

 

I would take him over a guy like Anthony Richardson if I needed to win a football game.. Anthony Richardson went top five.. I would take him over a guy like Mitch trubisky who went top five 

 

There is a distinction between being an upper tier starter and even being average quality... Even bad teams need a quarterback.. Ryan Fitzpatrick was always the starting quarterback on bad teams typically.. he had maybe one team ever that had playoff aspirations and he had a great season with the Jets and threw an interception on his last drive in Buffalo

 

It doesn't erase his good season

Edited 19 hours ago by Buffalo716

[NoSaint]

52 minutes ago, transient said:

I seem to remember a lot of those picks being thrown when there were still downs to spare, which was the most maddening part. It would have been different if it was last seconds, or 3rd or 4th and long, but I felt like it was always 2 minutes left, timeouts in hand, 2 and 7 and he'd take a completely unnecessary risk and throw the game away.

meh- I’ve gone back and forth and sometimes your best shot doesn’t come on 4th down so you have to take the coin flip for a 30 yard gain on second down if the opportunity arises because you are unlikely to get a better chunk play later and winning one coin flip is easier than winning 3 coin flips. 
 

there were plenty of days I hated in the moment but ultimately like more than seeing a 7 play turnover on downs or failed Hail Mary 

1 hour ago, Buffalo716 said:

There is not a quarterback in the world who has 30,000 yards and 200 touchdowns that is below average lol

 

What he wasn't was a top tier starter.. he absolutely was a low-tier bridge starting quarterback his entire career 

 

Which is better than 70% of the NFL... 90 quarterbacks on NFL rosters there's about 22-24 worth a damn who you can start and get some wins 

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick was always at the bottom of that 24 but he was always a legitimate bridge starter.. not a throwaway, not a bottom feeder 

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick was always a serviceable bridge starter... Every team he went to he always went to the top of the depth chart which is something most NFL quarterbacks cannot say

 

He literally climbed to the top of the depth chart for like four or five NFL teams which is the opposite of not good... He wasn't a game changer which would be correct 

 

He was serviceable

 

I would take him over a guy like Anthony Richardson if I needed to win a football game.. Anthony Richardson went top five.. I would take him over a guy like Mitch trubisky who went top five 

 

There is a distinction between being an upper tier starter and even being average quality... Even bad teams need a quarterback.. Ryan Fitzpatrick was always the starting quarterback on bad teams typically.. he had maybe one team ever that had playoff aspirations and he had a great season with the Jets and threw an interception on his last drive in Buffalo

 

It doesn't erase his good season

I think a good example of defining terms being important. 
 

below average starter and below average nfl player at his position are very different 

 

I think universally the board would call him a below average starter (ie around 20th) not below average on a roster (say 40th)

[Buffalo716]

15 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

meh- I’ve gone back and forth and sometimes your best shot doesn’t come on 4th down so you have to take the coin flip for a 30 yard gain on second down if the opportunity arises because you are unlikely to get a better chunk play later and winning one coin flip is easier than winning 3 coin flips. 
 

there were plenty of days I hated in the moment but ultimately like more than seeing a 7 play turnover on downs or failed Hail Mary 

I think a good example of defining terms being important. 
 

below average starter and below average nfl player at his position are very different 

 

I think universally the board would call him a below average starter (ie around 20th) not below average on a roster (say 40th)

Nobody would ever say he was a top 10 quarterback during his time 

 

But he's certainly was good enough to always be a starter on one of 32 NFL teams which doesn't happen often.. because top 10 guys don't leave teams and the bottom guys get replaced and don't get another shot

 

Guys like Mitch trubisky with much more of a pedigree are never going to start 15 more games in their NFL career.. but fitz was good enough to start everywhere he went..  guys like Justin Fields probably have one more year starting and then they'll never be given that chance again.. Fitz had a decade of chances

 

That alone shows underrated even if he wasn't a top 10 guy

Edited 18 hours ago by Buffalo716

[Alphadawg7]

8 hours ago, Big Turk said:

Stevie used to make Darrelle Revis look like trash. He was by far the hardest WR for Revis to cover in the NFL, and some of his worst games of his career were against Johnson.

 

No offense - this is complete fan lore off one TD in one game.  His catch % is like 40% against Revis and the Jets in the games Revis played.  The only 100 yard game Stevie had in his career against the Jets was the year Revis played just 2 games that season and didn't play in either Bills game.  

Edited 17 hours ago by Alphadawg7

[Mike in Horseheads]

29 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

No offense - this is complete fan lore off one TD in one game.  His catch % is like 40% against Revis and the Jets in the games Revis played.  The only 100 yard game Stevie had in his career was the year Revis played just 2 games and didn't play that game.  

To me Stevies big game was dropping the TD against Pittsburgh, never forget that

[NoSaint]

37 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

No offense - this is complete fan lore off one TD in one game.  His catch % is like 40% against Revis and the Jets in the games Revis played.  The only 100 yard game Stevie had in his career was the year Revis played just 2 games and didn't play that game.  

yea- he wasn’t locked on revis island but to say he made revis look like trash is definitely mythology surpassing reality 

[Mr. WEO]

Johnson had 3 solid years in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable career.  Fell off a very steep cliff after 2012.  Even in those 3 years his catch % was only 56.  

 

Definitely TBD myth making here...

[holla83]

Stevie as a slot WR in an offensive with Josh Allen would have been something special. Ran great routes in history!

[hondo in seattle]

I swear on some of those deep passes, Fitz didn't throw to designed spot as much as he threw it up for grabs and trusted/hoped Stevie would find a way to get under it.  

[Thurman#1]

10 hours ago, Dafan said:

Stevies routes consisted of "be at x in x amount of seconds".  

 

 

Not even that constrained. A lot of his passes were just "Get open quickly. Pick the side that looks better to you."

 

He really was fun to watch.

 

4 hours ago, below said:

LOL no way. We all love Fitz but most of us understand he was not a quality starter which is why his teams made the playoffs zero times. 

 

 

He was a legit starter, a quality starter. Just not a top ten. 14 - 24 sort of thing, depending on the players around him, the offense, and whether he was behind or ahead. He was much better playing from ahead. More often closer to 14 than 24.

Edited 15 hours ago by Thurman#1

[Buffalo716]

Stevie Johnson did a Buffalo Bills piece of artwork for charity that got auctioned 

 

And my friend won it ... This was years and years ago 

 

 it's actually pretty nice and it's hand signed

Edited 15 hours ago by Buffalo716

[Beck Water]

17 hours ago, Lafromboise said:

I just came across this YouTube short. Didn't think he was regarded like that. Just wanted to share

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/HHygPU_tlUI?si=NBWqtRoB0Oya0uom

 

He's not talking about his route running ability, but his ability to release and get off the line.  Stevie was amazing there, to the point where I heard the coaches didn't want him to practice their release drills.  It was like "whatever you do, we can't improve on it and we don't want to tamper with it"

 

Stevie was not a precise route runner.  He excelled in Chan Gailey's offense where Chan taught "beat your man, get to the spot", not so much in SFO or SDG where the expectation was to run an exact route.
 

6 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

I swear on some of those deep passes, Fitz didn't throw to designed spot as much as he threw it up for grabs and trusted/hoped Stevie would find a way to get under it.  

 

That's how it looked, but a good bit of it was the receiver having options, and needing to be on the same page as the QB (and give the QB good body language) about what he was going to do.

We've seen that with Josh a few times.  There was one notable play where he was actually penalized for "intentional grounding" when it seemed quite obvious to the announcers and most people in the stadium that it was an option route and the receiver and he weren't on the same page.  One of the film guys even diagrammed the route options and what Josh expected and why.

Edited 9 hours ago by Beck Water

[Gregg]

I remember Johnson was the one receiver who gave Revis the most trouble. Revis usually shut everybody down. 

[Big Turk]

10 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

No offense - this is complete fan lore off one TD in one game.  His catch % is like 40% against Revis and the Jets in the games Revis played.  The only 100 yard game Stevie had in his career against the Jets was the year Revis played just 2 games that season and didn't play in either Bills game.  

 

"Stevie Johnson had notable success against Darrelle Revis, a top cornerback, during their NFL matchups. While Revis is widely regarded as one of the best cornerbacks ever, Johnson was one of the few receivers who consistently posed a challenge for him. In their five games against each other, Johnson recorded 15 receptions on 26 targets for 185 yards and two touchdowns, with Revis intercepting one pass intended for Johnson. This level of success against Revis was unusual, leading to discussions about Johnson's unique ability to exploit Revis's coverage. "

[2003Contenders]

I've always likened that 2008 draft in which Stevie was drafted out of Kentucky as an almost after-thought in the 7th round -- but became a much more significant part of the team than the higher profile (and unfortunately late) James Hardy, who was drafted early in the 2nd round -- to what happened in 2022 when the Bills whiffed on Elam late in the 1st but made up for it by landing Benford in the 6th.

 

Regardless of how you view him after all these years, one thing is for certain: Stevie certainly way out-played his draft position.

[FireChans]

20 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

"Stevie Johnson had notable success against Darrelle Revis, a top cornerback, during their NFL matchups. While Revis is widely regarded as one of the best cornerbacks ever, Johnson was one of the few receivers who consistently posed a challenge for him. In their five games against each other, Johnson recorded 15 receptions on 26 targets for 185 yards and two touchdowns, with Revis intercepting one pass intended for Johnson. This level of success against Revis was unusual, leading to discussions about Johnson's unique ability to exploit Revis's coverage. "

5 games for 15 catches and 185 yards is 3 catches for 37 yards average per game.

 

Thats making a CB look like trash?

Edited 7 hours ago by FireChans

[Big Turk]

4 minutes ago, FireChans said:

5 games for 15 catches and 185 yards is 3 catches for 37 yards average per game.

 

Thats making a CB look like trash?

 

He had some key catches on 3rd down/TDs that made Revis look really really bad...specifically remember a short slant for a TD that Revis was running the other direction on