Old? Not Calvin Johnson: ‘I still got it in me, man’

Calvin Johnson turns 30 later this month and has been slowed by injuries the last two years, but Matthew Stafford doesn’t see any signs of aging in the game’s best receiver.

“Besides (him) getting engaged and settling down, I don’t know,” Stafford joked. “He looks pretty good to me. He’s flying around. Running, catching, jumping, doing all the stuff he’s always been able to do. He’s the same old guy to me.”

Johnson missed three games and parts of two others with high ankle sprains last year, and the Detroit Lions struggled offensively in his absence. They scored almost five points fewer per game last year than in 2013, and weren’t as aggressive taking shots downfield.

This year, the Lions have done their part to keep Johnson healthy, holding him out of action the entire preseason with an eye toward Sunday’s season opener against the San Diego Chargers.

Johnson said his body, which was ravaged by knee and finger injuries in 2013, has responded well to the rest, and three years removed from his NFL-record 1,964-yard season he said he once again could lead the NFL in receiving.

“No doubt,” Johnson said. “Yeah, I still got it in me, man.”

If Johnson does lead the league in receiving, he’ll become the first player 30 or older to do so since Muhsin Muhammad had 1,405 yards as a 31-year-old in 2004.

Receivers tend to see their play decline as they approach their 30s according to Pro-Football-Reference.com, just eight players 30 or over have led the league in receiving in the Super Bowl era and young pass catchers like Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Dez Bryant and Odell Beckham dominated the position last year.

But Johnson, who had just 1,077 yards last season, his lowest total since 2009, is still the biggest matchup problem in the NFL, and everyone who’s seen him on the field this summer has come away impressed.

“I’ve got to talk to whoever thinks he’s on the decline. They’ve got screws loose,” Lions safety James Ihedigbo said. “We get caught up so much all the time on how old the guy is. But you have to look at his production. What does he do when he’s on the field? Look at a guy like Larry Fitzgerald. I mean, he’s still a dominant player in this league.”

Johnson was his usual otherworldly self during training camp, skying high for passes and making an assortment of acrobatic grabs.

He and Stafford have shown no signs of rust despite their lack of game reps this preseason “He’s obviously an all-time great, and we have a lot of chemistry out on the field,” Stafford said and along with running mate Golden Tate he’s part of what might be the best receiving tandem in the NFL.

Tate caught a career-high 99 passes last fall and carried the Lions offensively in Johnson’s absence.

“It can be a really dynamic duo,” Johnson said. “You hear that term a lot, but we’ve got some good things going.”

Johnson, who has seven to eight inches on starting San Diego cornerbacks Brandon Flowers and Jason Verrett, said he expects the Lions to challenge defenses more with the deep ball this fall.

“We’re going to stretch the field, that’s all I can say,” he said.

And he said he’s aware of the doubters who’ve openly questioned if he’s the same player he once was.

“Any kind of negativity, guys can use as motivation,” Johnson said. “I know what I’ve done, so it’s not too much for me. I know what I have inside, I know what I can do so as long as I’m healthy and on the field I’m going to produce.”

(Jeff Seidel contributed to this report.)

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