SOMERS COLUMN
Struggling RB Johnson and his hefty contract is weighing down Arizona
There was a time when Cardinals running back David Johnson would spot a sliver of an opening, plant a foot, square his shoulders to the line of scrimmage and accelerate so quickly that few defenders wanted much to do with the 224 pounds heading toward them.
On Sunday in Tampa, Johnson tiptoed. He lumbered. He dawdled. He moved with all the suddenness of a minivan. And he was benched in favor of Kenyan Drake, who has been with the team less than two weeks.
On Monday, Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury covered for Johnson.
Why didn’t Johnson play in the fourth quarter?
“We just felt like with Drake, needed to get something going. Kept him rolling. We felt like he was the guy to try and close the game out with.”
Why we haven’t seen the explosiveness from Johnson that we have in the past?
“He’s obviously been hampered by some of those injuries. He’s still working through those and getting a feel for it.”
Last week, however, Johnson told reporters he had fully recovered from back and ankle injuries. And over the past few weeks, Kingsbury said several times he wouldn’t play Johnson until Johnson was 100 percent healthy.
Players, no doubt, appreciate Kingsbury’s penchant for directing blame toward himself and away from them.
But there was a high level of concern about Johnson within the Cardinals organization before Sunday’s game. And his performance in Tampa should have caused sirens to go off in the biggest offices at Cardinals headquarters.
Johnson has a cap figure of $9.7 million this season and $14.25 million in 2020, including a salary of $10.2 million that’s fully guaranteed. The ties that bind him to the team are made of the world’s strongest substance: money.
Releasing Johnson after this year would mean absorbing $16 million in “dead money” against the cap in 2020. And good luck trading a running back guaranteed to make $10.2 million.
The Cardinals need to find a way to make this relationship work like it did in 2016, when Johnson was young and underpaid.
That won’t be easy, because if anyone knows exactly what’s wrong with Johnson, they aren’t sharing it.
Is he hurt? Is he afraid of getting hurt? Is he uncomfortable in this offense, which has him running laterally more often than he’s accustomed? Has the contract extension signed in 2018 softened him?
Johnson wasn’t available to answer those questions on Monday, but something is wrong, or at least different with him.
It’s been obvious all season: He’s gained 308 rushing yards and averaged 3.7 yards a carry.
It was obvious in Sunday’s game when he gained 2 yards on five rushing attempts.
Three plays stood out to me, not including the fumble late in the third quarter that earned him a spot on the sideline the rest of the game:
1. In the first quarter, Kingsbury played Johnson and Drake together at times, including on first down from the Buccaneers’ 42.
On that play, Johnson moved to the right side at the snap of the ball, apparently trying to draw attention that way. It appears his assignment was to block linebacker Shaquil Barrett.
Drake took the handoff and gained 4 yards. But the gain could have been double that had Johnson decided to either hit, or get in the way of, Barrett.
Johnson didn’t and Barrett made the tackle.
2. In that same possession, the Cardinals gave Johnson the ball on second-and-10 from the Bucs’ 31. Guard Mason Cole and tackle D.J. Humphries pulled to lead Johnson to the left. Granted, there wasn’t a hole created, but Johnson appeared to be moving at slightly faster than a trot. No gain.
3. In the third quarter, the Cardinals ran a similar play the down before Johnson lost the fumble. As Johnson moved to his left, he appeared to be struggling to hit even a middle gear, never mind his top one. A gain of 1 yard.
Those plays, and many others this season, illustrate just how far away Johnson is from being the player he was in 2016, when he set franchise records for yards from scrimmage (2,118) and touchdowns (20).
He hasn’t approached those numbers since. Johnson missed most of 2017 because of a fractured wrist, and like every other part of the Cardinals’ offense, struggled in 2018.
Under Kingsbury, the Cardinals offense is functioning better than a year ago, yet Johnson continues to look like the 2018 version of himself.
Whenever Chase Edmonds returns from a hamstring injury, Johnson could well be the least productive back on the roster.
That’s a startling fact that’s hard for anyone to tiptoe around. Something is wrong with Johnson. If the Cardinals can’t identify it and fix it, they will continue to have a very expensive paperweight on their hands.