Lions: Calvin Johnson Not at the Beginning of the End
By Zac Snyder
Calvin Johnson will turn 30-years old early in the 2015 season, and while that can be a milestone that marks the steep decline of an NFL career, he feels he still has plenty of big seasons still ahead of him.
Johnson made that clear speaking with reporters at Detroit Lions minicamp last week:
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"No doubt. What’d I miss, four, almost five games last year? Still came up with just over 1,000. So I still have some production left."
There might be other wide receivers I would pick ahead of Johnson if I got to start my own team today (Dez Bryant), but any notion that this is the beginning of the end for Megatron is premature.
Even hampered with injuries last season, Johnson averaged 82.8 receiving yards per game. That average nearly matches his best of his first four NFL seasons (83.2 yards per game in 2008). By that measure, his 2015 season wasn’t much of a down year.
It may have seemed like more of a down year because it came on the heels of three straight seasons of averaging better than 100 yards per game. That run is nearly unprecedented in the NFL, only matched by Lance Alworth from 1964-66. No one else has had more than two consecutive seasons of averaging 100+ yards per game.
Will we see the Megatron we saw for that three year stretch ever again? Maybe not, but that still leaves plenty of room to remain one of the game’s best receivers. The good news for the Lions is that they no longer need Calvin Johnson to carry such a heavy load with the addition of Golden Tate and especially if their revamped offensive line results in an improved running game.
Next: Rajai Davis flashes his golden ticket