charlie johnson
Charlie Johnson interviewed on 1070 The Fan this morning, and had some interesting things to say about why he signed with the Vikings.
According to Johnson, the Colts were in talks with his agent up until last Thursday. After that, Johnson says they didn't hear back from them until around 11:30 on Sunday night (His deal with the Vikings was announced Monday morning).
Johnson said that the Vikings offered him a deal Sunday, so his agent left a message with the Colts. Again, the Colts didn't get back to him until late that night.
Listening to Johnson speak to Grady and Big Joe, he really seemed disappointed that the Colts didn't seem to put a high priority on him. Johnson said, "It's nice to be wanted," several times, in reference to the Vikings, who had the initiative to call him and try to work out a deal. On the other hand, Johnson was under the impression that the Colts weren't calling him, but that he had to go to them.
I don't know exactly how this went down, or how much Johnson's contract ended up being, but if Johnson's feelings are justified, it's the first disappointed feelings I've had this off-season towards the FO. If they weren't really trying as hard as they could have to get a deal done with Johnson, then I'm scratching my head a little bit.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that losing Johnson isn't a huge blow towards this team. Johnson was a below average tackle, and an average guard at best. If the Vikings really signed him in order to pay him to be a starting left tackle, they are going to be disappointed.
And, to be fair, the Colts were talking to Johnson's agent for four straight days, so it's not like they never tried to get a deal done, they just seemed to stop trying after Thursday. Maybe the Colts realized that they weren't going to get Johnson for the price they wanted, so they focused on their other free agents (Manning, Addai, Diem's contract, etc.)
I'd really like the contract numbers to come out so we can compare what Johnnson got to what Diem's new contract looks like. If Diem got more than Johnson did, I'm going to be angry at the Polians for the first time this season.
