 Marc MorehouseHi, I'm Marc Morehouse. I've covered sports for more than 15 years, mostly in Eastern Iowa. I've had Hayden Fry [...] |
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Iowa receiver in the Insight bowl and DJK’s NFLness
Iowa wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos walks away from the Johnson County District Court House following his initial appearance Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 in Iowa City, Iowa on a variety of drug charges after investigators found cocaine, marijuana and other prescription drugs in his Iowa City home. (Brian Ray/ SourceMedia Group News)
Who takes over for DJK in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 28 against Missouri?
Senior Colin Sandeman will get the first shot.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder started two games this season, both ahead of Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, including in the season finale against Minnesota. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said the reason Sandeman got the start was because he had a better week of practice than DJK.
Sandeman has 17 catches for 183 yards and two TDs this season. He sat out the Northwestern game after coming out of Iowa’s date at Indiana with a sprained foot, sprained ankle and turf toe, according to Iowa radio play-by-play voice Gary Dolphin. The injuries kinked Sandeman’s production to just one reception over Iowa’s final three games.
Sophomore Keenan Davis could be another candidate, but he has pretty much exclusively played the other receiver spot behind junior Marvin McNutt. Davis has 10 catches for 126 yards and a TD this season.
What do this do to DJK’s draftability?
At the very least, Johnson-Koulianos cost himself money. At the worst, he cost himself a career in the NFL.
First, his rocky relationship with Ferentz won’t help. Ferentz spent six seasons as offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens organization. He’s also been courted heavily by the NFL since 2002, when Iowa went 8-0 in the Big Ten. Ferentz has a contract that pays him $3.7 million through 2020 because there is a market for his services with NFL money driving that market.
Ferentz runs an open campus with NFL scouts, opening the Hayden Fry Football Complex and video rooms to NFL scouts from across the league. Iowa even serves them lunch.
If Ferentz’s word isn’t platinum in the NFL, it’s at the very least gold.
Obviously, Johnson-Koulianos’ drug charges are giant red flags. He took a urine test upon his arrest and tested positive for marijuana and cocaine. If he is invited to the NFL Combine in February and passes the drug test there, he wouldn’t start his NFL career in the league’s substance abuse program.
But because of his history, he would be subject to more tests.
Where was DJK going to go in the April draft and where would he potentially go now?
“I thought he was a mid round guy,” Wes Bunting, the National Football Post’s director of college scouting, wrote in an e-mail this morning. “Now this is bad. Later rounds is best case, wouldn’t be shocked if he’s a free agent.”
The hard math:
There are seven rounds in the NFL draft. In 2010, Cincinnati’s Mardy Gilyard was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the first pick of the fourth round (No. 99). He signed a contract for four-years and $2.342 million with a $552,255, a signing bonus, the only guaranteed money in this deal.
With pick No. 222, the Tennessee Titans selected Marc Mariani, a wide receiver out of Montana. Mariani has shown promise as a kick returner, averaging 25.6 yards a return for the Titans this season with one TD. He has yet to catch a pass in a game. This season, Johnson-Koulianos leads the Big Ten with 29.3 yards a return and returned one for an 88-yard TD in Iowa’s season finale against Minnesota.
Mariani signed a four-year deal worth $1.849 million with a signing bonus of $59,400.
Take Gilyard the fourth rounder’s $552,255 signing bonus and subtract Mariani the seventh rounder’s $59,400 and you get $492,855.
You could make a strong argument that Johnson-Koulianos lost nearly half a million dollars Tuesday.
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If Michael Vick can play in the NFL, some team will find a roster spot for DJK, who only blew dope. He didn’t strangle any dogs…
I agree. NFL has and has had far worse. I just wonder what now is his entry point.
If he becomes a free agent he could opt for the CFL. Less money but could jump to the NFL if he performs well there and stays clean. But not sure if a minor drug conviction would disqualify him for admission to Canada.
The problem here is, DJK is not Mike Vick, nor is he even close. Any team will take a chance on franchise felon like Vick, and he’s proven his metal in terms of football results.
DJK was a mid-round NFL’er at best before this. There are plenty like him entering April’s draft, who are fast and catch a ball, most of the time. Most of them don’t do drugs, and therefore don’t present that risk to an NFL franchise.
He isn’t that great to start with, and he just lowered his value hugely.
Mid-rounder, but he has a chance to open eyes at the combine.
If he gets to the combine.
His history with KF won’t help, either.
Isn’t Nordemann a guy who could work in there, too? Of course, it’d be ‘better’ if Davis could claim some extra playing time. Might be a place where Jordan Cotton emerges. I think we know what we have in Paul Chaney. I don’t recall if Shumpert is working as a safety or a WR?
No doubt there’s going to be something of a loss in ‘comfort level’ but, hey, maybe that ‘discomfort’ becomes something that creates more focus and, somehow, less distraction.
DJK will get a shot but, as you suggest, I would bet it will be mostly on how the Iowa coaches recommendations go. So, he gets his shot. But how many passes do you think he could drop versus the other guy and get the benefit of the doubt? How many workouts could he blow off or cause a Strength & Conditioning coach to get impatient with him? I’m no expert but I’ve been to a practice or two — a WR who drops 3 passes might as well have dropped them all. The last spots on a pro roster are, by far, the toughest to make. Unlike other collegiate players who have similar errors on their charts – DJKs is going to be regarded as pretty much walking into job interview with a bag full of stink in his hat.
I believe Cotton suffered a broken ankle in practice last week.
Fourth-round WRs are cuttable.
I think there’s a different level of acceptance of problems once you are in the league versus still being in college and having issues. If he pulls this stunt in his second year in the NFL, his chances of remaining in the league have to be much better than they are now of even getting in on a practice squad job.
The attitude of NFL teams seems to be changing, too, when it comes to head cases, real or perceived. Belichick sends Randy Moss packing, Ted Thompson sends Favray packing, Jeff Fisher bans Vince Young, Shanahan suspends Haynesworth for the remainder of the season and Pittsburgh sends the SUPER BOWL MVP packing after a drug conviction. It doesn’t look good to say the least
And Santonio Holmes was a WR.
I think WR and S are “dime a dozen” positions. And RB, outside of the Adrian Peterson’s.
Great WRs get paid tons, but there’s always a Jordy Nelson who can do it, too.
Very good work, Marc. And over the last 48 hours as well.
Thanks!
It’s been crazy. I wonder how much oomph this has take out of the bowl game for fans.
I’ve no interest in the bowl game. But I’m old school and bowl games, for me, are rewards for an extraordinary season. The police blotter element just makes it more tedious, wondering if Iowa will finish three games or one game over .500.
The NFL is ALL about the mighty buck. On that basis some team will likely take him in a latter round looking to get a pretty da mn good prospect at a fire sale price plus have free reign to ‘control’ him with drug tests.
Did I mention the NFL is ALL about money? Period.
The NFL is all about the money. That’s why money (as in cash and scouting and coaching resources) won’t be spent on DJK. Time to move along, folks. DJK was a tantalizing prospect who played well but didn’t optimize his opportunities or perfect a work habit. No mystery why Ferentz handled him the way he did. Guys ‘coach’ themselves. Guys ‘bench’ themselves. And DJK, as Marc might say, “pulled himself” big time. The guy deserves some compassion and encouragement to learn from this episode. But…
More interesting, now, is pretty much everything else. Let this one pass through the system.
You nailed it enatlanta.
But I think Paul’s point is good.
Someone might talk themselves into the bargain theory.
Someone MIGHT do that.
The last 48 hours have been an education for me on the NFL drug policy. It’s business first. No coddling and no time for life lessons. Screw up and out.
Unfortunately showing up to court looking like Kanye West isn’t going to help his image, and it seems as though he is relishing this spotlight. NFL scouts may interpret this as a lack of repentance. Hopefully he learns from his mistake and becomes a better person for it.
Was he suppose to show up to court looking like a strung-out crackhead? He dressed nice and thats the way he always dresses. I think the sunglasses are to hide the look of shame and disappoinment in his eyes. I wouldn’t call that “relishing this spotlight”.
Agreed Ashley, DJK is just being himself. He cannot or will not conform to one’s attitude toward dress. Now if he showed up in a pink fedora and a blazing red suit…
If he goes to the combine, he’s going to be looking at a battery of interviews with teams and, oh yes, media.
Will they what DJK is selling? Probably not. Can’t snow the NFL.
Really, talented guys like DJK (without this arrest) are just cannon fodder in the NFL anyway. They come in, they play for minimum wage for a couple of years, they are cut. The average career is less than four years, which means it’s over before some guy who beats the odds and starts can negotiate his second contract.
This was the fundamental error Shonn Greene made, coming out early, because he is one MCL from losing his shot at first round money. And Rex is going to USE HIM UP now that he’s lost confidence in Sanchez.
The comments on how DJK dresses, I think, are just cultural criticisms. We should be careful about that. He’s got a GQ thing going, and it doesn’t matter.