Week 2: Vikings’ LG Charlie Johnson
Separating your sports website’s content from the millions of others is difficult. In order to separate ourselves, Sporting Sota is beginning a new weekly segment entitled, “Minnesota Sports: Bum of the Week”. Each week we will analyze every Minnesota athlete who performed, on and off the field, throughout the specified time frame and determine the player who had the worst week overall. Players will be judged week to week; a history of excellence will not be saving anyone.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the Minnesota Sports: Bum of the Week from the week beginning on Monday September 22nd, 2014 and ending on Sunday September 28th, 2014: Minnesota Vikings Left Guard Charlie Johnson.
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Introduction: In fairness to our beloved Minnesota athletes, this was one of the more successful weeks Minnesota sports teams have seen in recent memory. Not only did the Vikings upset the Atlanta Falcons, but the Gopher football team managed to defeat Michigan at The Big House. Even the Minnesota Twins, who finished a forgettable season this week, won four of their final seven games. Since the Minnesota Wild is in the midst of the NHL preseason and the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ season has not begun yet, these athletes were not really in play for Bum of the Week. For this reason, I was forced to decided on which player was the worst on all the winning Minnesota teams. After reviewing the players and weighing my options, the decision was simple. Even in a game where the Vikings’ offensive line played exceptionally better than in recent weeks, Johnson managed to stick out like a sore thumb.
Why He is a Bum: While Matt Kalil has been the recent face of everything that is wrong with the Vikings’ offensive line, that honor used to definitively belong to Johnson. However, as stated in the explained Bum of the Week rules, Johnson may only be judged by his performance this week. As a whole, the Vikings offensive line did an excellent job, not allowing a sack and opening up plenty of rushing lanes. However, Johnson hardly contributed to any of this. He only allowed one quarterback hurry as a pass blocker, but failed to open up any lanes as a run blocker. The longest rush a Vikings rusher had behind Johnson was six yards on seven attempts. He also was the culprit of a false start penalty, backing up the Vikings offense five yards on first down.
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Not a Bum Yet?: In a game where the Vikings produced 41 points and 241 total rushing yards, Johnson only led the way for 28 rushing yards or 11.6-percent of the total output. According to ProFootballFocus.com, Johnson was the lowest graded Viking by a wide margin. His total score of -5.4 was 4.2 points lower than the second lowest rated Vikings, Matt Asiata, who received a score of -1.2.
Still Not a Bum?: Johnson’s PFF score of -5.4 was the lowest of any offensive guard who has played so far this week. It is also the fourth worst score of any offensive lineman, ranked a mere 0.8 points below Jacksonville Jaguars center Luke Bowanko.
Conclusion: The Vikings are well aware of Johnson’s lack of ability, as they drafted David Yankey to be his replacement in the near-future. However, Yankey has struggled to prove to be NFL-ready, allowing Johnson more time as the Vikings’ starting left guard. With Brandon Fusco out for the rest of the season, and his replacement Vlad Ducasse not performing well, Johnson’s playing time likely will not decrease this season. Johnson may be the best option the Vikings have right now, but he still is eligible to be the team’s weakest link. Congratulations Charlie, you are this week’s Minnesota Sports: Bum of the Week!
Other Bums Considered: Entire Twins Team