The plight of Calvin Johnson is starting to concern me, and I can see I'm not alone. Earlier today, I asked one league mate how he viewed his underachieving first-round pick, the first wide receiver off the board in that league and No. 10 overall, and it sounded like he didn't want to discuss it: "He's going to be fine. Nothing to see here. (I hope.)"
A few weeks ago, I would have agreed with the premise, but now, I wonder whether it's just wishful thinking. Is there really something to see here, and because everyone trusts Johnson's considerable talent, we're ignoring it? It's not just that Johnson missed the past two games because of a left knee injury that originally didn't seem serious, but even when he has been healthy and on the field, we haven't seen a top-10 wide receiver at work. Granted, before his injury, I didn't consider him one of the signature busts from this season; I thought he'd eventually deliver top-10 WR numbers. Now, I don't see any way we can reasonably rely on a top-10 performance from Johnson from this point on.
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Eric Karabell
