New pickup Johnson eager to prove worth
Running back, dealt from Cardinals, used to being overlooked
David Johnson knows all about trying to prove his worth to a football organization and its fans.
Coming out of Clinton High School in Iowa, the stocky, recordsetting running back did not receive a scholarship offer from the University of Iowa, about 90 miles to the west of his hometown.
“Iowa was talking about a grayshirt, (and) Iowa State didn’t even look at me,” Johnson told the Quad-City Times in 2016, referencing the Hawkeyes informing him he could perhaps earn a scholarship once on campus.
Johnson, who accounted for 42 touchdowns his senior year at Clinton High, wound up signing with Northern Iowa, which he chose over Illinois State. From there the Rivals two-star prospect developed into a third-round NFL draft selection of the Arizona Cardinals, and on Monday the Texans traded star receiver DeAndre Hopkins for the one-time Clinton River King.
The Texans also receive the Cardinals’ second-round selection this year and a fourth-round pick next year, while sending the Cardinals their fourth-round selection this year, league sources not authorized to speak publicly told the Chronicle.
Almost four years ago following Johnson’s successful rookie season and at an autograph session at his old high school, former Clinton
High coach Lee Camp marveled at the success of one of the town’s all-time heralded athletes.
“I don’t know if I thought he was capable of reaching this level,” Camp told the Times, “but I knew we had something pretty special when he was here.”
Johnson, 28, a little more than a decade ago led Clinton High to a school record 11 victories and the state quarterfinals. From there it was off to Northern Iowa, where he was so unheralded at the Missouri Valley Conference program that he redshirted in 2010 while practicing at receiver and even some on defense.
The Panthers coaches soon came to their senses and shifted Johnson to his most natural position of running back, and he developed into one of Northern Iowa’s most decorated football players. He turned in exceptional games against Iowa State as a junior and Iowa as a senior – reminding the programs of the talent they missed on – en route to becoming the seventh running back selected in the 2015 draft.
Current Texans running back Duke Johnson was the sixth running back taken in the same draft (to Cleveland), also in the third round and nine picks before David Johnson.
“(David Johnson) played at a high-level program at the NCAA IAA level, and when he did go against quality opponents, he put on a show, either running or catching,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said prior to the 2015 draft.
Around that same time Johnson told the Des Moines Register, “I carry that chip on my shoulder to prove to everyone that I’m able to compete with the top athletes, the top programs. That they shouldn’t have overlooked me.”
Johnson scorched Iowa State for 199 rushing yards and four touchdowns – two rushing and two receiving – in the Panthers’ upset of the Cyclones to crank up the 2013 season in Ames, Iowa.
“He is a Big 12-talented back,” then-Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads said at the time. “There’s no question about that. He’s got size, he’s got strength and he’s got speed.”
Johnson (6-foot-1, 224 pounds) will have to deal with doubt all over again as the “other guy” in the Texans’ trade of the ultra-popular Hopkins, especially with Johnson’s numbers declining in the last three years following a solid rookie season of 2015 and an exceptional 2016 showing: 1,239 rushing yards and 879 receiving yards for a combined 20 touchdowns.
Johnson only played in one game in 2017 after breaking his wrist the first week, and last season he played in 13 of the Cardinals’ 16 games after dealing with back and ankle problems. His overall numbers were his worst outside of only playing in the opener in 2017.
Clinton, Iowa, is best known as the home of Duke Slater, the first African-American NFL lineman, who had a groundbreaking career starting in 1922 with the Rock Island Independents. Slater (18981966) later would become an attorney and judge in Chicago, and is a posthumous member of the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
A part of David Johnson already is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, too, after he became the first player in NFL history to record a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and a touchdown on a kickoff return in the first two games of a career. His jersey and cleats from those two games against New Orleans and Chicago are on display in the hall.
Johnson married Meghan Brock four years ago and the couple has two children: David Jr. and Londyn. Johnson, despite the early negative feedback from a mostly disappointed fanbase, on Monday offered an upbeat message on Twitter to Houstonians that read in part: “See you soon.”