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.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

No, not quite.

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

Most of their stars are players they drafted.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Dick Bull

That's a ridiculous comparison. Are you telling me that Payton wasn't capable of winning a superbowl last year?

It's not like at the age of 34 their arm stops working.

Did you not see the difference in Manning's arm from game 1 to game 19?

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

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

Thin just means that there won't be many available. Doesn't mean there aren't any available. Again, it just depends on how well you draft, and how well your scouting department has done their job.
It's also impossible to tell how deep a class was until those players have gotten some play in actual games.
Sometimes it's obvious, like it is with WRs, other times you just don't know from draft evaluations from media outlets.

[Titty Meat]

The backups plate great for 1 ****ing half they scored 3 points in the second half and blew a double digit lead way to go backups!

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Most of their stars are players they drafted.

Ok

So do most teams, but they don't gift positions to players who have a small limited number of snaps in game play starting spots very often.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by New World Order

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

We have no idea how the season will play out.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

Ok

So do most teams, but they don't gift positions to players who have a small limited number of snaps in game play starting spots very often.

Teams that draft well do it all the time.

And there is no indication that this guy will not have to earn his job in camp, so nothing has been gifted as of yet.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

We have no idea how the season will play out.

So we can't discuss how we think it will play out? That's what we are all doing here right?

[RunKC]

I understand that the draft is great, but if you can get young players like Rashaw Johnson, Sean McGrath and Marcus Cooper off the scrap heap and build them up to be quality starters, that speaks very well to your football IQ and player evaluation.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

So we can't discuss how we think it will play out? That's what we are all doing here right?

A little early to get final decisions since the draft hasn't happened yet.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Teams that draft well do it all the time.

And there is no indication that this guy will not have to earn his job in camp, so nothing has been gifted as of yet.

As of right now, he's the starter, along with comings at FS, fisher at LT and likely Kelce at Te.

Obviously this is pre draft and there's more free agency al things can change, but again, what else should we discuss?

And other teams that draft well don't do it that way very often. They start new youn players, but they usually have more experience than the ones we are looking to start.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I understand that the draft is great, but if you can get young players like Rashaw Johnson, Sean McGrath and Marcus Cooper off the scrap heap and build them up to be quality starters, that speaks very well to your football IQ and player evaluation.

So far, 1 of the above is a quality starter, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

So we can't discuss how we think it will play out? That's what we are all doing here right?

Of, course.

But his statement reads as if is a foregone conclusion, which it is not.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by O.city

So far, 1 of the above is a quality starter, so let's not get too ahead of ourselves

1 quality starter off of the scrap heap is great.
1 every off-season would be awesome.
I would not count on that though, but just finding 1 in 1 off-season, with a cpl more who contribute is very promising results thus far.

[mcaj22]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I understand that the draft is great, but if you can get young players like Rashaw Johnson, Sean McGrath and Marcus Cooper off the scrap heap and build them up to be quality starters, that speaks very well to your football IQ and player evaluation.

also speaks very well in being able to put in a waiver claim before a good team does.

we will see if they have that same waiver magic this year at 23, which I highly doubt.