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Ian Johnson Undrafted: My faith In Humanity Dashed
Published: April 26, 2009
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This is my 300th post on FFBSU. Seems odd that my 300th post milestone is to announce Ian Johnson, the “face” of the Broncos for the last three years, went undrafted in this weekends NFL draft and I’m not happy about it.
You wanna know why I’m not happy about it? Look at who was drafted. Tom freakin’ Brandstater was drafted! Two Mountain West running backs were drafted that had fewer TDs in their career than Johnson’s sophomore season alone—one of them had fewer career yards than Johnson’s sophomore campaign as well.
You are telling me that Ian Johnson, the very definition of a character player, who scored 58 rushing TDs in his career and finished eigth in Heisman voting as a sophomore isn’t a better pick than UNLV’s Frank Summers? Really, NFL? A guy who posted the second fastest time among running backs at the NFL combine and showed versatility and character throughout his career can’t even make it 10-deep on the “top remaining players” list hours into day two of the draft? Really, “Scouts Inc.”?
What a slap in the face to a kid who played through injuries, always talked to the media and never complained about diminished touches in the backfield. Say what you will—I know that free agents can and do flourish in the league…but a player as decorated and talented as Ian Johnson should NOT be drafted behind two players from 1-AA. A player as valuable to a team and as committed as Ian Johnson should not be drafted after a quarterback from Nebraska-Omaha or a running back from Abilene Christian. The all-time leader in rushing TDs and face of the WAC just got wacked…10 conference mates were picked up by NFL squads—none could take a “chance” on Ian?
Oh sure, Ian will get his shot somewhere…and he has his “foot-in-the-door” so to speak, but the NFL’s system of evaluation leaves much to be desired…and Ian deserved better than what he got. Oh, and I’ll go ahead and throw this out there: Jeremy Childs might have made a “slight” miscalculation.
