clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Is Chris Johnson stupid?

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Thanks to New Era Scouting (and our own shake n bake) we have the Wonderlic scores for certain players that attended the Combine. I know people bemoaned Wonderlic two years ago when Vince Young scored a 6 (out a possible 50 points) on the test, but now two years later it is starting to look as if Wonderlic was right. Vince Young still has problems retaining information, and he still cannot run a pro-style offense. While Wonderlic is not an exact science, so to speak, it is a "test" that provides a gauge for a player's ability to retain basic information. Recently, a player many of us want the Colts to draft (Chris Johnson) scored a 10 on his first go around on the Wonderlic and a 25 the second time.

Yikes!

While the first test result causes some concern, this is not something new for Chris Johnson. Take another look at New Era's profile of him:

Football Intelligence: Has shown the ability to play multiple positions and be good. Seems to be able to be able to pick up stunts and blitzes, but because of his size isn't much of a factor there. Had some struggles in the classroom.
CJ is not someone who excelled in school, but his football intelligence has not been questioned (unlike Devon Hester and Vince Young). As I've always said, there is a big difference between being smart and being football smart. The ability to process information quickly in a highly stressful and violent environment is more valuable playing football than a law degree.

Again, the Wonderlic score is a bit of an alarm, but I'm not sure it is as telling an alarm as Vince's score was in 2006. Vince Young is known as a lazy player who pouts and whines when he doesn't get his way. This, combined with his apparent general stupidity (like bad Wonderlic scores and punching his own teammates), is likely one of the reasons veteran scouts like Tom Marino did not think highly of Vince coming out of Texas.

On the other end, CJ is not known as a lazy guy. He's a very hard worker who, despite his sub par classroom work, seems to have a genuine desire to better himself as a player. So, while the Wonderlic score is not all that great, I don't think it's as telling as Vince's score was in 2006. We will see.