Keep ****ing doubting Rishaw Johnson.

[Direckshun]

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2014/3...-johnson-guard

Kansas City Chiefs G Rishaw Johnson impressed late last season
By Joel Thorman
on Mar 19 2014, 8:44a

Regular readers may have noticed that we recently posted an item on Chiefs safety Sanders Commings and whether he could end up being the answer at free safety. Right here we have another post wondering if an in-house player is the answer at a position of need.

The position is guard and the player is Rishaw Johnson.

As a refresher, Johnson was an SEC recruit at Ole Miss in 2008. He was there until 2010 when he was kicked off the team. He then went to California (PA). He joined the Seahawks in his first season in the NFL then came to Kansas City his second year. The league lists him at 6'3 and 313 pounds. Last year's starting guards are listed at 340 pounds (Geoff Scwhartz), 306 pounds (Jon Asamoah) and 305 pounds (Jon Asamoah).

Matt Conner included Johnson in our in-house players series earlier this year but I came across a couple more of items on Johnson that warrants another look-see.

Last week, I saw this from Lance Zierlein, sports talk radio host in Houston and football writer:

Lance Zierlein @LanceZierlein

@bkissel7 @Schottey Chiefs believe Rishaw is ready to take over. They LOVED how he played vs. SD at end of the year.

Johnson was among the Chiefs backups that played in Week 17 against the Chargers while the starters rested but a backup throughout the season. That caught my interest for obvious reasons being free agency week and all. If the Chiefs believe they possibly / maybe / could have a potential starting guard on the roster, they probably wouldn't go out and spend big money on a guard in free agency, right?

Terez A. Paylor @TerezPaylor

This is true. Did well vs SD RT @ArrowheadPride: Seems like a long shot but Chiefs do have an in-house option at OG http://sbn.to/1jxEmMw

But wait! There's more!

Schwartz, who is now with the Giants in New York, went on The Drive with Danny Parkins on 610 Sports on Tuesday. Danny asked him what the Chiefs have in the guys who were behind him on the Chiefs line last season.

"Rishaw played really well in the Chargers game," Schwartz said. "He's a guy that has a lot of talent and he really developed as the year went on. He's strong and explosive off the ball. Sometimes it takes guys a couple of years to get comfortable where they're playing in a game. He did a great job against the Chargers."

Another mention of the Chargers game ... interesting. This led me to asking Chiefs GM John Dorsey on our call yesterday how important that Week 17 game was for the coaching staff and front office, getting the youngsters a shot to play.

"Anytime you can get another opportunity to evaluate the players that don't get to contribute on a week-in, week-out basis, that's very helpful," Dorsey said. "What it does is it helps the coaching staff get a degree of comfort that those guys in the personnel department as they build this thing. That's what the communication between the coaches and the personnel staff does. It's always an advantage to get those guys to play and those guys showed very well on Week 17 of the NFL schedule."

Unfortunately, Dorsey wasn't giving us an in-depth scouting report on Johnson but he did say this: "He's going to come in here and he's going to compete. He's showed that he can play the game of football, and I'm just excited to see how much stride he has made here this year."

It's a long way to the season opener with more free agency and the 2014 NFL Draft to acquire more talent as well as evaluation opportunities such as OTAs and training camp to evaluate existing talent. Rishaw Johnson is one of those existing talents that is one to keep an eye on.

It's almost like the Sanders Commings situation. You have hopes that this guy can come in and take over the job next year. But he's probably too young and inexperienced to hand the job to him. Competition and veteran insurance (Jeff Linkenbach?) is needed.

My gut has been telling me for a while that the Chiefs first round pick will be an offensive lineman. That would obviously shake things up.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

And Johnson has started a game and looked damn good doing it.
Also got a ringing endorsement from the guy he's going to be replacing, who said, he improved tremendously throughout the season.
Dorsey hit on some young castoffs like Cooper. He very may well have done it again.
G is probably the position of lowest positional value, and they seem to think this guy can do. I'm very interested in seeing if they are right.
G isn't like T. Sometimes all you need is JAG at those positions.

Between Kush, Rokevius Watkins, and Rishaw Johnson, we need for one of those guys to hit to neutralize losing Schwartz. I'm fine with those chances and it's even possible that one of those guys also unseats Allen or Hudson. And agree... worst case scenario, you have a bad Guard. Least of my worries.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

If they were doing this with just Johnson, that's one thing.

But they're banking on a lot of young unproven guys.

This is literally what the Steelers and Packers have done for so long.

Dorsey has a ton of confidence. He's got balls. I'll give him that.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by O.city

If they were doing this with just Johnson, that's one thing.

But they're banking on a lot of young unproven guys.

I don't see a problem with that. And one of those guys, like Commings, has to be a shade above terrible to be an upgrade over Kendrick Lewis. The only guy we should worry about is Eric Fisher, and there's lots of reasons to believe he won't be as bad as people think he'll be.

[O.city]

With his ability to play center and the fact that he's bulked up this offseason, Kush will end up being the swing guy inside

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

This is literally what the Steelers and Packers have done for so long.

Dorsey has a ton of confidence. He's got balls. I'll give him that.

No, not quite.

They had guys with a little more experience to step in.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I don't see a problem with that. And one of those guys, like Commings, has to be a shade above terrible to be an upgrade over Kendrick Lewis. The only guy we should worry about is Eric Fisher, and there's lots of reasons to believe he won't be as bad as people think he'll be.

Just as there are as many reasons to think he will be just as bad as some think.

They're banking on getting solid production from at least 4 guys right now, at pretty important spots none the less, who haven't really ever produced anything.

Pretty risky

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

The whole "looked good in the SD game" stuff is great and all, but that's a pretty damn small sample size

Agreed.
I'm willing to give the guy a chance before shitting on him though, being the only sample we have is a positive one.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Agreed.
I'm willing to give the guy a chance before shitting on him though, being the only sample we have is a positive one.

So what do we do with Eric fisher?

[beach tribe]

I see no reason, considering they do draft well, which is what our success hinges on that we can't pick up some viable competition at G in round 5 on.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

So what do we do with Eric fisher?

Pray lol

(unless you are Dave Lane)

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by O.city

If they were doing this with just Johnson, that's one thing.

But they're banking on a lot of young unproven guys.

Let them play. If they can't play get rid of them. Stockpiling backups that everyone's high on as long as they're not guaranteed to play is stupid.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

I see no reason, considering they do draft well, which is what our success hinges on that we can't pick up some viable competition at G in round 5 on.

Actually, from all I've read, this years class gets pretty thin at guard after about the 3/4 round

[O.city]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Pray lol

(unless you are Dave Lane)

Ha.

[New World Order]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I don't see why we can't be very competitive next year. If Dorsey does his job. I think our 2015 season if we wait is a hell of a lot better than 2015 if we panicked and spent money this year. I also don't see why we can't be just as good if not better this year than 2013.

2014 will be disastrous. We actually have to play a legit schedule this year

[Floridafan]

Some great observations on this post, but I think we should all keep one thing in mind. Dorsey has a very smart football mind. He gets up everyday and thinks, "how can I make the Chiefs a better football team". We all get up and go do our job and get home and crap ourselves about what hasn't been done. As I said before we really only lost one guy I would have kept, Schwartz. Other than that, with the depth of talent in this years draft, we are going to get some good players out of it. Talented veterans are going to be cut due to money issues and we'll have an opportunity to go after them.

Reid is a good football coach and knows what he needs to build a winning football team. We got a QB that showed us all he has brass balls and is willing to do what he has to to win. The playoff loss was not on Alex. With a good QB and Jammal Charles, adding a couple of decent receivers and a CB and safety we should be in decent shape. No we didn't go after the BIG names like Dungver but I didn't want to. You don't spend the future of your team for short term victory, we were not that close anyway. Dorsey and Reid are doing it the right way, through the draft and waiting for the right veterans to be cut and they will make their move. Guys have a little faith. We finally have a good front office that has knowledge of what we need. Chill and enjoy the off season We just might be really good next year, maybe not win as many games based on the tough schedule, but we will be a better team. Just my 2 cents.