Roughriders’ Johnson is looking to ’cause havoc’

Micah Johnson has a simple goal for the 2019 CFL season.

“I just want to continue to be a game-wrecker,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defensive tackle said Thursday after Day 5 of training camp at Griffiths Stadium on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

Johnson certainly was a problem for offences during the 2018 campaign.

The 6-foot-2, 278-pounder posted 14 sacks for the Calgary Stampeders in 17 regular-season games, finishing one sack behind Roughriders defensive end Charleston Hughes for the league lead.

Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive lineman Micah Johnson during a training-camp workout on May 23, 2019. (Wray Morrison/650 CKOM)

Hughes and Johnson were teammates with the Stampeders from 2013 through ’17 before Hughes was dealt to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and then to Saskatchewan prior to the 2018 season. When Johnson signed with the Roughriders as a free agent in February, he got a chance to rejoin Hughes.

The two reportedly have a friendly wager on the 2019 sack race, but Johnson suggested he’s got bigger fish to fry.

“For seasons past, I’ve had numbers and landmarks and goals and things like that,” he said. “This year is kind of different for me, because I’m coming to a new place and to a new system.

“I don’t have a number (of sacks) in my head. I just want to help elevate and contribute and bring pressure and cause havoc and cause mayhem.”

Johnson was a linebacker and running back in high school before playing linebacker at the University of Kentucky. After college, he had looks with a few NFL teams but didn’t stick.

After signing with Calgary, he moved to defensive tackle — and he since has recorded 41 sacks in 81 career regular-season games.

But even with six seasons of experience under his belt, he isn’t satisfied.

“There are so many different things I can get better at and that’s the beauty of football,” he said. “That’s the beauty of still being kind of fresh to the D-line. I didn’t play that in the NFL or in college or high school. There’s actually a lot I can do better.”

Johnson doesn’t have the girth to be a prototypical run-stuffer in the middle of a defensive line, but he has proven to be an adept pass-rusher from the inside.

Last season, Saskatchewan got the bulk of its sacks from ends Hughes and Willie Jefferson, who combined for 25 of the team’s 45 sacks. The defensive tackles, by comparison, registered only six sacks — and those came from only three players (four by Eddie Steele and one apiece by Makana Henry and Zack Evans).

The Roughriders are hoping Johnson’s addition, as well as the use of more four-man fronts, leads to more production from the tackles.

“(The coaches) expect it,” said Evans, who last season was tasked with tying up offensive linemen to help the ends get to quarterbacks. “It’s like, ‘This is not an emphasis, this is just what’s going to happen.’ We know that now.

“It doesn’t need to be an emphasis just because we know what kind of dogs we have out there.”

Head coach Craig Dickenson knows, too, but he doesn’t expect a philosophical change that will make the tackles more productive.

“I don’t know if there will be a big difference, but anytime you have good football players, you want to highlight them …,” Dickenson said. “We think we’ve got some big, strong dudes in the middle so we’re going to really try to cut them loose.”

Johnson noted that he has been told simply to be a playmaker by defensive co-ordinator Jason Shivers. That’s fine by Johnson, but the 30-year-old product of Columbus, Ga., just wants to be part of the action.

He said he thought from afar that the defence’s talent on paper was “ridiculous,” but being on the field has confirmed that for him.

“I remember watching the defence last year on film and I was like, ‘These guys are flying around,’ and it’s so crazy (that) now, the next year, I’m here to be a part of that,” he said.

“I want to elevate as much as I can. I’m trying to get to that quarterback, get our defensive backs more picks and I feel like it’ll go vice versa. With the defensive backs we’ve got, I just can’t wait.”

Thursday’s notes: Dickenson said linebacker Solomon Elimimian is expected to be on the field for the first time with the Roughriders on Monday. Elimimian, who serves on the executive of the CFL Players’ Association, has been touring other teams’ camps to discuss the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement. Dickenson said that once Elimimian returns, he’ll play in the middle and Cameron Judge will line up on the weak side … Receiver Mitch Picton, who hasn’t practised yet during camp, also is expected back Monday. Dickenson hopes that two other rookie receivers — Justin McInnis and Brayden Lenius — also will be back soon … Dickenson said the prognosis is “not good” for defensive lineman Jordan Reaves, who left Monday’s practice with a knee injury. The team’s doctors have yet to read the MRI, so it’s unclear how long Reaves will be out … Dickenson noted that Zach Collaros is the clear No. 1 quarterback in camp, but Cody Fajardo and David Watford are neck and neck for the No. 2 spot.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Wray Morrison