Draft Note by John Paulsen
The touches (308) were there for Johnson in 2018, but his efficiency was down across the board. Most of the blame can be directed as the offense as a whole, but things should be a lot better this season with the arrival of Air Raid guru Kliff Kingsbury, dual-threat quarterback Kyler Murray and an improved receiving corps. This should put Johnson in a better position to succeed. Murray’s arrival should especially help. During the rookie seasons of Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson, their teams saw an increase of 18% in rushing attempts, an increase of 48% in rushing yards, an increase of 151% in rushing touchdowns and an increase of 26% in team yards per carry. Johnson’s ADP should be solidly in the first round.
  • David Johnson
  • RB
  • , Arizona Cardinals
  • 28
  • 224 lbs
  • 6' 1"
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195941750446

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Draft note
by John Paulsen
The touches (308) were there for Johnson in 2018, but his efficiency was down across the board. Most of the blame can be directed as the offense as a whole, but things should be a lot better this season with the arrival of Air Raid guru Kliff Kingsbury, dual-threat quarterback Kyler Murray and an improved receiving corps. This should put Johnson in a better position to succeed. Murray’s arrival should especially help. During the rookie seasons of Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson, their teams saw an increase of 18% in rushing attempts, an increase of 48% in rushing yards, an increase of 151% in rushing touchdowns and an increase of 26% in team yards per carry. Johnson’s ADP should be solidly in the first round.

Latest news

Cardinals Beat: RB David Johnson could get 30-35 touches
AZCentral.com
·
Jul 15 · 6:46 PM EDT

By all accounts, David Johnson will be a fixture in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense this year and it won’t be a shock if he averages 30-35 touches a game.

“My role this upcoming season, from talking to the coaches, is that I’m hopefully going to get the ball a little bit more,” Johnson said. “… I’ve talked to guys (familiar with Kingsbury’s offense) like Christian Kirk and he said a lot of people have heard (Kingsbury) doesn’t run the ball, but he told me personally that that their running backs have gotten the ball a lot. I’ve heard he’s really good at putting his guys in open space, especially running backs, and giving them open space to try to get the yards catching the ball and doing things like that.”

Fantasy Impact: 

Kingsbury hasn’t divulged any real details about the offense, but did say of Johnson, “I think he’s going to be really excited with what we do.” The story added during his six seasons as the head coach at Texas Tech, Kingsbury’s running backs ran the ball a ton, but only twice did anyone top the 1,000-yard mark. Johnson’s goal is to obliterate the 1,000-yard rushing mark in 2019 and do what he almost did three years ago, which is to also top 1,000 yards or more as a receiver.

All news

Scouting report

by Bob Harris
· Jul 16 · 9:20 AM EDT

ARI RB David Johnson - 2019 Fantasy Football Outlook

Fantasy Upside
The hiring of new HC Kliff Kingsbury and selection of QB Kyler Murray in April's draft will lead to considerable change, but getting David Johnson back to his 2016 level of production will be of great importance for the Cardinals. As ESPN.com pointed out, Johnson has averaged a 75% carry share and 17% target share in the 40 games since taking on lead-back duties in Week 13 of the 2015 season. But he needs to be put in a better position to excel. "He's a mismatch in space," Kingsbury said. "I can't wait for our offensive coaches to be able to get their hands on him."

Fantasy Downside
Texas Tech used multiple running backs in Kingsbury's years there, but the most catches a running back had in any season was DeAndre Washington's 41 in 2015 (and that was the fourth-highest total on the team). However, as AZCardinals.com's Darren Urban suggests, coaching at the NFL level can change things.

2019 Bottom Line
Right now, even with Larry Fitzgerald returning, Johnson could battle Christian Kirk to be the second-best pass catcher in a wide-open, pass-first Arizona offense. But again, the Cardinals are in the same spot with Johnson that they found themselves in 2017 and 2018: They need him to be great. Kingsbury has to create ways to make that happen. Either way, fantasy owners will need to expend high-end draft capital to find out if the new coach can pull it off. Our ranking of Johnson assumes the efforts will be a success.

Past Scouting Reports

2019 Strength of Schedule - ARI
W1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10W11W12W13W14W15W16W17
23
DET		2
@BAL		7
CAR		22
SEA		29
@CIN		25
ATL		30
@NYG		3
@NO		11
SF		27
@TB		11
@SF		BYE13
LAR		5
PIT		21
CLE		22
@SEA		13
@LAR

Schedule difficulty based on schedule-adjusted, positional defensive ranking. Top DEF = 1, bottom DEF = 32.

2018 Game Stats
WeekOppRuAttRuYdsRuTDFumYPCRecRecYdsRecTDTgtsYPRSTDPPRSnaps%
1WAS937104.11530096.0012.717.736/5367.9%
2@LAR1348003.6913023.005.16.135/4577.8%
3CHI1231002.58430147.5012.116.143/5086.0%
4SEA2271113.233410413.6715.218.255/6091.7%
5@SF1855203.06216038.0019.121.148/5194.1%
6@MIN1855113.06215057.5011.013.055/5894.8%
7DEN1439002.793310310.337.010.048/6672.7%
8SF1659003.694410410.2510.014.053/6680.3%
9BYE--------------
10@KC2198104.677851912.1430.337.356/7376.7%
11OAK25137005.481170317.0015.416.443/5479.6%
12@LAC1763003.71216038.007.99.937/4778.7%
13@GB2069003.4513023.007.28.252/6283.9%
14DET1549003.278120101.506.114.162/7088.6%
15@ATL1133103.003680622.6716.119.134/6949.3%
16LAR1035003.501321532.0012.713.740/5375.5%
17@SEA1762003.6536042.006.89.852/6678.8%
Per game16.1358.810.440.133.653.1327.880.194.758.9212.1715.2946.81/58.9479.77%
Totals258941723.65504463768.92194.7244.7749/94379.77%
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