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Movin' on up Johnson looking forward to impending freedom
The way Brad Johnson figures it, he was last in this position about 14 years ago. It was February of 1987 when Johnson enjoyed his most recent taste of free agency. "This is the first time I've had my own shot since choosing Florida State," said Johnson on Monday. "Since then, it has always been someone else's call." Make no mistake, Johnson, as the NFL's most coveted free-agent quarterback, will be making the call this time. And when March 2 arrives, rest assured the calls will be flooding in. From any number of interested teams. All in all, it's a good time to be Brad Johnson. He and his wife, Nikki, are expecting their first child in late April, and the couple is moving into a new home in Tallahassee this week. The only mystery is what color jersey will the Johnsons wrap their first-born in? While the odds still strongly favor the purple and black of the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, as many as seven or eight teams are showing signs of maybe coming after the former Washington starter. After enduring the misery that came with being a Redskin in 2000, Johnson is about a month away from putting Snyderville completely in his rear-view mirror. "I'm excited about it," Johnson said of free agency. "For me it's a new lease on my career. I feel like I've played winning football throughout my career, in Minnesota and Washington. Now I'm looking to go help another team out." Johnson's name is the headliner among the crop of free-agent quarterbacks, and that includes Baltimore's Trent Dilfer, the man he might replace, and the loser of the Doug Flutie-Rob Johnson stare-down. Taking a break from moving his weight sets into his new house on Monday, Johnson made it clear that he won't wait around long after free agency opens to make a decision. "We're not going to drag it out," he said. "I hope and expect to have something done within the first five or six days. I want to just get that out of my mind and not have to worry about it, and I want to start learning a new system." Asked if that precluded making free-agent visits, Johnson said: "I would hope we could do it as is. I have a clean bill of health, and I think I've been around long enough that people have already judged me. But if they would like to meet me, then I would welcome it." Where will Johnson wind up? While Baltimore makes the most sense, there will be no shortage of suitors. Here's an updated synopsis of the potential bidders:
The one team that's not on the list, of course, is Washington. New Redskins head coach Marty Schottenheimer officially ran up the white flag last week after receiving a call from Johnson's agent, Phil Williams. After taking the job, Schottenheimer had briefly clung to the hope that maybe Johnson would reconsider and re-sign with the Snyder-men. Or that maybe Washington could still franchise Johnson, at a cap cost of almost $7 million this season. There was probably, however, a better chance of Bush conceding to Gore based on a fit of conscience regarding that popular vote thing. "I think that call just took the cloud away that was over me," Johnson said. "And if other teams were wondering what the Redskins were going to do, it took those clouds away too. Now everyone, including myself, can make decisions and position ourselves." Clouds were everywhere when Johnson looks back at the second of his two years in Washington. The toast of the town in 1999, when he led the Redskins to their first playoff berth since 1992, Johnson was just toast in 2000. And almost all of that was Snyder's doing. "For the whole team, it just kind of went downhill," Johnson said. "For me, I went from the [knee] injury that took me out of three games, to getting benched by the owner for two games, and then I got to play the last game. I've never been part of something like that. I've never seen anything like it." The Redskins (8-8) in the final month of the season were one of the sorriest spectacles in recent NFL history. After the firing of Turner, you could count the players who hadn't given up on one hand. And then of course, there was the Pepper Rodgers era, in all its glory. "I enjoyed a year ago, but once Snyder got involved, I didn't enjoy it," Johnson said. "And it started long before they signed Jeff George. In February, when they wanted to talk contract extension, they asked for a number. We gave them one, but they never called us back. They wouldn't talk to me, and then they pulled all their stunts in August and September, and the whole year really. "You look at their cap numbers, and they can get by this year. But they're going to struggle after that." For Johnson, the struggle of 2000 is finally past. In a matter of months, he'll have a fresh start on a new team, with a new house and a new baby, to boot. "Nikki is due in late April," Johnson said with a laugh. "So whoever I sign with, I may be missing that first minicamp." Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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