Tuesday, May 23, 2000

Saints DE Joe Johnson

ProFootballWeekly.com asked contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum about Johnson’s chances of making a full recovery.

Q: How do you expect Johnson to play this season?

Buchsbaum: It’s unrealistic to think Joe Johnson can get back to where he was in 1998 one year after the type of knee injury he had.

Q: How good was Johnson in ’98?

In ’98, he was one of the best defensive ends in football, one of the three or four best. He was the only defensive end to beat Larry Allen of the Cowboys, who was playing left tackle that year. Johnson had very good strength, good speed, good explosiveness off the ball and good reaction and was an up-and-coming player who had improved every year in the NFL.

Q: What if he’s not at full strength this season?

Buchsbaum: If he’s 75 percent of what he was in ’98, he’s better than more than half of the defensive ends in the league and is an upgrade over what the Saints played with last year.

Q: What about the rest of the Saints’ defensive line?

Buchsbaum: The major upgrade is inside if they can keep DT Norman Hand motivated and in shape. When motivated and in shape, Hand is a dominating player against the run who can give you some power pass rush. He needs to keep his weight down and conditioning up. That was the key to his success in San Diego after his failure in Miami. The Chargers were able to motivate him. It’s going to be interesting to see, with the big, fat contract Hand got, if the Saints can keep him motivated. One thing that may help is that the Saints are going back to Louisiana for training camp this year, and if you’re out of shape in Louisiana with that heat, you’re going to get awfully sick in training camp. So that may be a motivation for him to stay in shape.

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1999 - 2000 Season