Seventh-round draft pick Johnson shows promise at receiver

[shelby]

The Buffalo Bills expected to be getting tangible contributions this season from a rookie wide receiver by this point in the 2008 season.Second-round draft pick James Hardy was supposed to be that guy who was going to ease the burden on Lee Evans and make life a little easier for Trent Edwards, but it turns out it might end up being seventh-round pick Steve Johnson.
Hardy continues to underwhelm and now 10 games into the season he has only nine catches for 87 yards, ludicrously low totals given the fact that he has started three games and played in all 10.
Meanwhile, Monday night in the loss to Cleveland, the Bills opened the game in a three-receiver formation and Johnson — not Hardy — started along with Lee Evans and Roscoe Parrish and went on to catch three passes for 41 yards.
"He has a good grasp overall of what we're trying to do and we think he gives us the best chance of going in there and making some plays," receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said with a burst of honesty not usually found in NFL coaches.
"Steve is a little ahead of (Hardy) as far as the learning curve is concerned, and that's why he got most of the reps in the game this past week. Steve got most of them because of his grasp of the offense.''


more..... (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20081121/SPORTS03/811210326/1026/SPORTS08)

[madness]

This has become apparent as Johnson has earned more playing time in recent weeks. In fact, the only time Hardy was noticeable against Cleveland was early in the first quarter when he was the intended receiver on Edwards' second interception.
While no one on the team has confirmed this, there is a chance that Hardy ran a poor route on that play, which may have led to the interception. After that, he was barely on the field again, which further opened the door for Johnson.

While I think Hardy is going to be a very good receiver he just isn't progressing fast enough to earn the playing time he's been getting. I'd continue to sprinkle Hardy in here and there (especially in the RZ) but Johnson is a much more reliable receiver and deserves more playing time.

I love the quote above because people are quick to blame a QB on an INT when there's heck of a lot more factors involved.