He doesn't appear to have anything in the way of pass rushing moves/techniques. The Dolphins LT completely handled him on their passing plays. Did so with 0 help from other blockers. MJ attempted a couple of very weak, sloppy spin moves. Both of which took him out of the rush, as he gets no lateral movement on the spin. He basically just spins in place and lets the tackle shove him down. Presented his back to the blocker on another rush attempt and was shoved away from the pocket. I have yet to see his speed rush gain even the potential for outside leverage. I don't think he has the body bend to take advantage of the corner even if he got a step. His hips are stiff and his lateral movement is below average. He is pretty consistently the slowest of the 4 down linemen off the snap (which is saying something as AC doesn't have a good jump either). We tried to stunt him a couple of times, but he's just not quick enough to take advantage of McCoy pulling the guard outside a little before engaging the LT. One time I saw him slap the tackle's hands away from his body as the tackle was attempting to reach for him. He wasn't quick enough to take advantage of opportunity, nor strong enough to push through him despite gaining the leverage. His bull rush was the only thing that gained him any positive movement toward the QB, but never enough to affect the pass. Once he had driven the tackle into the backfield a couple steps he could not disengage from the block and make a play on the quarterback. Multiple times he just flat gave up on his rush and milled around the los for a second or two before jumping to try and deflect the pass. But I didn't really expect him to be a beast pass rushing RE, probably more disappointing was his effort against the runs. I don't believe he affected a single run play. He was unblocked on one of their fake read option dive plays, and completely committed to the quarterback letting the runner go right past him. I'm sure his responsibility was the quarterback, but showed no recognition on a play that could have easily been a 2/3 yard loss. Maybe he was excited to finally have a chance to touch a quarterback? Twice he was single blocked by the tight end and completely taken out of the play. One of those was a run to the strong side, but the tight end got into him and Michael could not disengage and get down the los. The other he was play side and driven off the ball by the TE. From what I've seen through 2 preseason games, I do not have much hope that Michael Johnson will be the edge rusher we were hoping for to complement what will be an excellent interior rush. I didn't have very high expectations for that part of his game coming in, yet he has still managed to lower them further with his play thus far.
