Matt Elam and the rest of the Baltimore Ravens’ secondary will be facing a challenging test on Monday night. His name is Calvin Johnson, and he’s one of the most dominant wide receivers to ever play in the NFL. Johnson is averaging over 100 yards per game this season and has hauled in 12 touchdowns. Elam, a rookie defensive back out of Florida, started out by saying all the right things about Megatron on Wednesday.
“Big, fast, athletic, unstoppable, freak,” Elam said, via ESPN.com.
He should have stopped there. What came out of Elam’s mouth next was a little more bizarre. When asked how he will approach covering Johnson, Elam had the following to say.
“He’s pretty old, so I don’t know how physical he’ll be,” he said. “He’s a big guy, but he’s older. I guess when they get older they’re not going to be as physical, you know what I’m saying? We’re going to have to be physical, make him uncomfortable.”
Players probably are a bit less physical when they get older, but Johnson is 28. Is that considered “pretty old?” His 1,348 yards receiving this season and mind-boggling 1,964 yards last year would disagree. The 6-foot-5, 236-pound Johnson has missed just four games during his seven-year career and is virtually impossible to shut down. He has plenty of physicality left in his 28-year-old body.
“You’ve got to know when it’s time to double him, when it’s time to triple-team him,” Elam added. “You’ve got to keep your eye on him, because (Detroit quarterback (Matthew) Stafford wants to get the ball to him.”
That’s more like it. I’m sure Elam will look back on his “pretty old” comment and wonder why it came out the way it did. All he can do now is hope Megatron forgives him for it.
