Dynasty and Redraft: David Johnson RB Houston Texans

[Faust 5,652]

Rotoworld:

Cardinals third-round RB David Johnson (hamstring) has resumed practicing in full.

Johnson's return comes one day after the Cardinals signed Chris Johnson, which was due in part to disgust with the current backfield's inability to stay healthy. Johnson has gotten in extremely little practice since the start of camp three weeks ago. He's likely not in good enough shape to suit up for Saturday's preseason game against the Chargers.

Source: Darren Urban on Twitter

Aug 18 - 2:13 PM

[Shutout 2,013]

Maybe I am a glutton for punishment but I love this scenario where a highly drafted FF rookie kind of gets forgotten with an early injury that sets them back. People start forgetting about them as soon as their name isn't in the media everyday getting praised and then, when the real crucial time comes in (week 2 and 3 of the pre-season), they re-emerge and people have to make decisions on them.

I think Johnson is a great candidate to be one of these guys that lost some luster but is worth watching closely now.

[Raiderfan32904 470]

I don't know by what "watching closely" means here? Is that throwing out preemptive lowball offers at David Johnson owners? Pretty sure they invested a pretty penny to obtain him, and are likely disappointed to this point. Add in the Chris Johnson signing and it looks like a full blown RBBC. Not to mention the injury to Iupati and I'm not sure there is much to keep tabs on.

[Shutout 2,013]

I don't know by what "watching closely" means here? Is that throwing out preemptive lowball offers at David Johnson owners? Pretty sure they invested a pretty penny to obtain him, and are likely disappointed to this point. Add in the Chris Johnson signing and it looks like a full blown RBBC. Not to mention the injury to Iupati and I'm not sure there is much to keep tabs on.

It means the opposite of what you just painted the picture for. Everyone's off him right now and he is worth watching because he might be worth acquiring.

I'm not meaning to tear down your perception of him by any means. It may be dead on. I'm just saying it can be a great place for value. I don't really want to make an ODB comparison because that's a little over the top but it does tend to happen that every year there are several players that get a bit of "out of sight, out of mind" and turn out to remind us of why people were interested in them so much, initially.

[mlball77 11]

Finally some good news regarding David Johnson...

(Rotoworld)The Cardinals' website said "no one has really been able to cover" rookie RB David Johnson out of the backfield.

Analysis: Johnson just returned to practice on Tuesday, but he has already made quite an impression. Johnson can be a timid runner at times out of the backfield, but he has the skills to be a legitimate threat as a receiver. With David Johnson back at practice and Chris Johnson signing this week, Andre Ellington's grip on running back touches has loosened.

[Fireinside 53]

It's about time, now just enjoy the ride

[Faust 5,652]

Rotoworld:

Cardinals RB David Johnson (hamstring) will be active for Saturday's preseason game against the Chargers.

Johnson just returned to full practice two days ago, but the Cardinals want to see what he's got. He'll reportedly play the entire second and third quarters. Johnson has made waves as a pass catcher in camp, but has a ton of work to do on his inside running.

Source: Mike Jurecki on Twitter

[Fireinside 53]

From Cardinals blog:

http://blog.azcardinals.com/2015/08/20/david-johnson-shows-receiving-skills/

[Milkman 2,348]

Just stay under the radar a little longer........

[Zyphros 2,029]

Anybody who bought him this offseason, through rookie draft or whatever likely really likes the guy. It wouldn't matter if you wanted to try and steal him away cause it's a "low" time for his value, his owner's dont see it that way. They drafted him ~2 months ago and they are going to wait for his chance. I don't understand "selling low" on a guy you just drafted unless you don't like him as a prospect and got him cheap in the first place.

[Milkman 2,348]

Anybody who bought him this offseason, through rookie draft or whatever likely really likes the guy. It wouldn't matter if you wanted to try and steal him away cause it's a "low" time for his value, his owner's dont see it that way. They drafted him ~2 months ago and they are going to wait for his chance. I don't understand "selling low" on a guy you just drafted unless you don't like him as a prospect and got him cheap in the first place.

Some drafts haven't started yet.......I want to grab this guy but the price will go up if he flashes this weekend.

[Gianluca 10]

8 carries 40 yards 1 rec 6yds. Glad to see him out there. Hopefully he plays a couple more possessions. ( 11 left in 2q )

Edited August 23, 2015 by Gianluca

[Milkman 2,348]

Stat line looks good. Need to watch the game later.

[Gianluca 10]

He had a 4yd carry then Stanton threw a pick. 6:10 left in 2q.

9/44. 1/6.

Longest run was 13 yards. He's looking nice. Running hard.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Gianluca

[kutta 5,582]

He looked good. Fast and strong. I thought he missed a hole on his first carry (or second), but overall I liked what I saw.

[Gianluca 10]

He looked good. Fast and strong. I thought he missed a hole on his first carry (or second), but overall I liked what I saw.

Yeah he should've hit the hole but bounced it outside. He definitely redeemed himself.

12 carries 60 yards currently and just caught a pass on 3rd and 6 for 9 yards.

__________

Final Stat Line ( 1st half ) = 13 carries 66 yards & 2 rec 15 yards.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Gianluca

[Loan Sharks 2,063]

DJ is real. He is a NFL caliber RB.

[Football Jones 1,461]

DJ looked REALLY good & he can't be in top shape yet. Sky-high on this kid. Big, fast, strong, good feet, good quickness, nice stiffarm, & he's an elite receiver (probably the best receiver I've seen coming out of college). Tremendous ceiling in both PPR & non-PPR leagues, IMO.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Football Jones

[Milkman 2,348]

He's going to be starting for AZ barring injury before the end of the year imo. RB1 upside in this system.

[slackjawedyokel 147]

I dropped him for Hillman in a "roster 4 RB" league. Both kind of in a similar situation but DJ is more talented. I'm thinking of picking Johnson back up.

[Gr00vus 12,000]

He looked good, but he didn't seem particularly fast to me in NFL RB terms tonight. He's got some nice moves, got a couple of effective stiff arms in that freed him up when it looked like he was going to take some losses. Seems pretty strong.

[mlball77 11]

Post-game interview with Johnson: http://www.azcardinals.com/videos/videos/Johnson-It-started-slowing-down-a-little-more/7c9bba4e-f07b-4cf2-bd81-b3aa56934d2c

Liked what I heard him say in this interview and am encouraged by how he looked after being out for a couple of weeks with the hammy issue.

[zed2283 610]

Well... I bought in at 1.8, ahead of Yeldon and Duke. Hope it was the right move...

[Alex P Keaton 4,300]

Well... I bought in at 1.8, ahead of Yeldon and Duke. Hope it was the right move...

1 year from now, all of these guys are going to be viewed as in great situations.

[Milkman 2,348]

Well... I bought in at 1.8, ahead of Yeldon and Duke. Hope it was the right move...

1 year from now, all of these guys are going to be viewed as in great situations.

Maybe but DJ is a better prospect than those two.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Milkman

[werdnoynek 166]

Hmm I don't know if this is an error, but PFF has him with 10 missed tackles rushing in that one game??

I didn't see it so have no idea if that's correct.

[Manster 822]

I know its been said before, but this dude is Matt Forte light. He looked pretty good running the ball. Ran with some power. He did miss a couple reads, maybe bounced outside too much, but overall, he looked pretty impressive.......add in the receiving ability, great potential, especially in ppr.

The only thing is, he needs to work on pass protection. He seemed a bit overwhelmed in pass pro last game. Maybe just due to being a rook? He's gonna have to be trusted to protect old ### palmer.

[Run It Up 916]

I know its been said before, but this dude is Matt Forte light. He looked pretty good running the ball. Ran with some power. He did miss a couple reads, maybe bounced outside too much, but overall, he looked pretty impressive.......add in the receiving ability, great potential, especially in ppr.

The only thing is, he needs to work on pass protection. He seemed a bit overwhelmed in pass pro last game. Maybe just due to being a rook? He's gonna have to be trusted to protect old ### palmer.

Its gotta be the speed of the game, he had elite pass protection ability in college, might have been the best in this class.

[Hoosier16 80]

I know its been said before, but this dude is Matt Forte light. He looked pretty good running the ball. Ran with some power. He did miss a couple reads, maybe bounced outside too much, but overall, he looked pretty impressive.......add in the receiving ability, great potential, especially in ppr.

The only thing is, he needs to work on pass protection. He seemed a bit overwhelmed in pass pro last game. Maybe just due to being a rook? He's gonna have to be trusted to protect old ### palmer.

Its gotta be the speed of the game, he had elite pass protection ability in college, might have been the best in this class.

I don't know about elite. I thought his pass blocking was questionable in the 3 games available online to watch. He barely gave much effort some of the time. But, I don't doubt he become a better pass blocker. It didn't matter much in college. In the pros, he won't be on the field until he can protect Palmer. His effort will quickly get better.

[Run It Up 916]

I know its been said before, but this dude is Matt Forte light. He looked pretty good running the ball. Ran with some power. He did miss a couple reads, maybe bounced outside too much, but overall, he looked pretty impressive.......add in the receiving ability, great potential, especially in ppr.

The only thing is, he needs to work on pass protection. He seemed a bit overwhelmed in pass pro last game. Maybe just due to being a rook? He's gonna have to be trusted to protect old ### palmer.

Its gotta be the speed of the game, he had elite pass protection ability in college, might have been the best in this class.

I don't know about elite. I thought his pass blocking was questionable in the 3 games available online to watch. He barely gave much effort some of the time. But, I don't doubt he become a better pass blocker. It didn't matter much in college. In the pros, he won't be on the field until he can protect Palmer. His effort will quickly get better.

Ellington has been pretty poor at pass protection, I agree and have said a couple times in this thread that D. Johnsons path to the start will likely be heavily tied to his pass protection snaps.

[Bracie Smathers 3,784]

Run It Up, on 24 Aug 2015 - 5:40 PM, said:

Ellington has been pretty poor at pass protection, I agree and have said a couple times in this thread that D. Johnsons path to the start will likely be heavily tied to his pass protection snaps.

Ellington was not very good running the ball last year either:

http://www.numberfire.com/nfl/news/5580/david-johnson-is-worth-the-gamble-in-fantasy-football

...Andre Ellington was the single worst running back according to our Rushing NEP score. His -28.34 score was lower than Toby Gerhart (-14.00) and Darren McFadden (-22.48), just to put this in context.

For a guy who had 201 carries, it is hard to believe that he performed that poorly. Sure, some blame goes to the porous offensive line, but Ellington was just terrible as a rusher last season.

For a historical perspective, among rushers with 50 or more carries in a single season, Ellington had the fifth worst rushing season the Cardinals have had since 2000.

I don't think David Johnson is going to be sitting on the bench as a nice shiny toy in Arians' offensive arsenal.

The biggest criticism of David Johnson's game was he was weak running between the tackles and seemed to avoid contact. If you checked out his game that was legitimate criticism however he ran hard between the tackles in the last game and Bruce Arians noted it with his comments.

Love his, size, speed, and how he tested as one of the best all-time at the combine. Considering how poorly Ellington ran last year and Ellington's small frame and how he struggled to say healthy and that Chris Johnson has been dealing with a hammy when David Johnson has looked good.

I think its a matter of time before he gets a shot a rookie season.

[Milkman 2,348]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

[Bracie Smathers 3,784]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

If David Johnson gets GL carries then its another blow to Ellington who only rushed for 3 TDs last year.

Just saw this from a Cardinal beat writer who thinks DJ can be a three-down RB where he notes pass-pro as the first challenge which is the first challenge for every rookie RB, to prove they can pick up the blitz:

-----------------

Mike Jurecki ‏@mikejurecki Aug 25

David Johnson has the skill set to become a three-down back in the future, his next challenge will be learning different protection schemes.

​

[mlball77 11]

Very excited to see what David Johnson does on Sunday at Oakland. Sort of wish the Cards had a Fri or Sat game...

[TripItUp 4,162]

Really hope he doesn't do much this weekend...would be nice to keep his ADP low.

[Milkman 2,348]

Lol good luck with that. They want him to prove he can handle it. Lots of work this game and then they'll cut Chris Johnson if they're believe in him.

[Ilov80s 31,099]

Lol good luck with that. They want him to prove he can handle it. Lots of work this game and then they'll cut Chris Johnson if they're believe in him.

Yeah, I can't imagine they want Chris Johnson around any longer than he has to.

[Bracie Smathers 3,784]

Final preseason action update.

DJ started out rough with his first run for -4 yards where he really never had a shot as four defenders were in the backfield before he got the ball but after that he had a nice game with 4 receptions for 40 yards and 1 TD.

So in the two games he saw action he has put together back-to-back impressive performances.

That Arizona offensive line needs work with the run blocking though.

[BigTex 859]

He looks really good.

ETA: He wasn't on my radar before but he is now.

Edited August 31, 2015 by BigTex

[RBM 4,899]

I'm not seeing any reason to believe he won't beat out Ellington very soon.

[cstu 6,086]

Got offered Alfred Morris for him - and took it.

[Milkman 2,348]

It's happening! Took him in the 1st round ahead of some promising WR in my rookie draft. That senior bowl tape was impressive. Then he comes out and kills the combine and gets drafted by a team that wants to throw him the ball. With his skill set? It's the perfect storm.

[Chaka 6,241]

I'm not seeing any reason to believe he won't beat out Ellington very soon.

No. He won't beat Ellington out. Arians clearly plans to lean heavily on Ellington.

However he does look like the very clear handcuff to a fragile starting RB.

[Chaka 6,241]

Really hope he doesn't do much this weekend...would be nice to keep his ADP low.

You sure run this line quite a bit. Y'know sometimes players who don't do much in the preseason just aren't that good and deserve low ADPs. Not sure about Johnson, but still.

[jurb26 926]

Really hope he doesn't do much this weekend...would be nice to keep his ADP low.

You sure run this line quite a bit. Y'know sometimes players who don't do much in the preseason just aren't that good and deserve low ADPs. Not sure about Johnson, but still.

It's especially odd because the players he doesn't like, see Yeldon, who don't do much have this used against them.

[Crazysight 21]

Remind me more of L. Murray, superb athlete with size coming out of division 2 school. Will need some time but not much competition in Zona right now to begin with.

[Dr. Octopus 17,079]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

Robert Hughes looks to be the short yardage back, so I'm not sure about that. As a Johnson owner, I hope so but despite his size he's not a great power runner.

[addicted2ff 19]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

Robert Hughes looks to be the short yardage back, so I'm not sure about that. As a Johnson owner, I hope so but despite his size he's not a great power runner.

I think DJ is big enough and elusive enough that he will stay in at goal line when they're 3-4+ yards out, but if he can show that the rumor about him not being enough of a power runner is a myth he might just gobble them all up.

Edited September 1, 2015 by addicted2ff

[Shutout 2,013]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

Robert Hughes looks to be the short yardage back, so I'm not sure about that. As a Johnson owner, I hope so but despite his size he's not a great power runner.

This is true and probably never will change.

Just my eyeball/gut but I like David Johnson more than Ellington long term in Arizona for whatever reason. He just looks like a guy I could see being out there the most and doing the most with it.

[Shutout 2,013]

He's a perfect fit in this offense too. 4-5 catches a game is possible. Combine that with the likely event he will be used at the GL and all that's in his way to being a strong RB2 is a 199 pound RB that ran for 3.3 ypc last year.

Robert Hughes looks to be the short yardage back, so I'm not sure about that. As a Johnson owner, I hope so but despite his size he's not a great power runner.

I think DJ is big enough and elusive enough that he will stay in at goal line when they're 3-4+ yards out, but if he can show that the rumor about him not being enough of a power runner is a myth he might just gobble them all up.

It's not a myth. One thing about David Johnson is don't let the size fool you. He is LONG documented by every credible scout that has written on him that he simply is not a pile pusher.

But what he IS can still make the case for him because he catches so naturally that he could easily be lined up in GL and then put into motion and still be a viable threat.