Week 6 at Tennessee Titans
Facing a poor Jaguars run defense last Sunday, David Johnson led the Texans with a season-high of 17 carries and 96 yards on the ground. He received all but five of the team’s rushing attempts and will continue to be the workhorse under interim head coach Romeo Crennel. While Johnson hasn’t scored in two straight he has a good matchup this week against a poor Titans run defense. Continue using him as an RB2 play.
Week 5 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
In the home loss to Minnesota last week David Johnson carried 16 times for 63 yards and caught two passes for 29 more yards. The 18 touches were a season high and the 92 combined yards were his highest total since Week 1. Johnson will continue to see the bulk of the action out of the Texans backfield and he has a great opportunity for good numbers versus the Jaguars No. 26 run defense. He should be used as an RB2 option.
Week 4 vs. Minnesota Vikings
At Pittsburgh last Sunday, David Johnson totaled just 46 yards on 15 touches but scored his second TD as a Texan. Houston possessed the ball for only 23 minutes and ran just 42 offensive plays, with Johnson recording 13 of the team’s 15 rushing attempts. Minnesota’s defense has been terrible this year so expect better results at home, making Johnson an RB2 start.
Week 3 at Pittsburgh Steelers
In the home loss to Baltimore last Sunday, David Johnson rushed for just 34 yards on 11 attempts and caught two passes for 16 yards. While he was facing a stout defense, the results were especially disappointing for owners as Duke Johnson was out with an ankle injury. Through two weeks the Steelers are No. 1 at stopping the run, so the Houston ground game has another tough challenge ahead. Johnson is a RB2 option.
Week 2 vs. Baltimore Ravens
For those wondering if David Johnson could still be a featured back in the NFL, he answered that with a 19-yard TD scamper in the first quarter last week at Kansas City. In the loss he led the Texans with 77 yards on the ground and contributed 32 receiving yards as well. After Houston fell behind by multiple scores, Johnson registered only 11 carries, which was half of the team’s total rushing attempts. In their opener the Ravens allowed 138 yards on the ground, so Johnson remains a viable fantasy play.
Week 1 – David Johnson at Kansas City Chiefs
After being traded to Houston for DeAndre Hopkins, David Johnson will be making his debut with the new team on Thursday night. While injuries have hobbled him during his first five professional seasons, he is still a talented player and is expected to receive a good percentage of the Texans' touches out of the backfield. Even though Duke Johnson is considered the receiving RB, David Johnson has over 200 catches with 15 receiving scores in his career. Look for a high-scoring opener, which could result in good stats for Johnson.
Fantasy Upside
As ESPN's Matthew Berry noted, David Johnson moves to Houston in a deal that may have caused those in the NFL to scratch their heads but had fantasy managers rejoicing. Johnson is a very good pass-catcher (he had 36 receptions in the first six games last season and his 52.5 receiving yards per game in that span was second among running backs). Since he entered the NFL in 2015, only he and Christian McCaffrey have logged seasons of 800-plus rushing yards and receiving yards. According to NFL.com, especially with DeAndre Hopkins gone, Johnson has the potential to be precisely the type of weapon Deshaun Watson needs. In turn, the mobile Watson should help Johnson thrive, given that Johnson won't face nearly as many loaded boxes as he did during his best campaigns, when Carson Palmer was under center.
Fantasy Downside
Johnson made just nine starts while dealing with injuries and falling behind Kenyan Drake on the Cardinals' depth chart last season. This coming on the heels of a disappointing 2018 season and a 2017 campaign that was all but erased by a wrist injury.
2020 Bottom Line
Bottom line? In Houston Johnson will be in a position to succeed -- he just has to stay on the field. The argument is this: If Carlos Hyde can run for 1,000 yards in Houston, Johnson is going to light this thing up. Also, for the reason outlined above, Johnson logged just 130 touches in 2019 with the Cardinals, so he should be fresh and ready to handle whatever comes his way.
Week 17 at Los Angeles Rams
David Johnson only had three touches for a total of seven yards last week against the Seahawks. He’s playing behind Kenyan Drake and with Drake looking healthy and active for the season finale against the Rams, there’s no reason to think Johnson is going to get much of a workload to finish the year. Fantasy owners should leave him benched once again and hope he gets traded to the Buccaneers next season.
Week 16 at Seattle Seahawks
David Johnson hasn’t seen more than six touches in a game since mid-October and has been completely relegated to the backup role behind Kenyan Drake. He saw the field for only 21% of the team’s offensive snaps last week against the Brown and with how effective Drake has been, there’s no reason to assume that’s going to change over the final two games of the season. He should be dropped in most leagues.
Week 15 vs. Cleveland Browns
David Johnson only touched the ball five times last week against the Steelers, but he was productive. He had 19 yards on the ground and another 34 yards on a pair of receptions and a touchdown. Johnson is definitely not the player you want to be banking on during the playoffs due to his lack of touches behind Kenyan Drake, but it was good to see the team using him at all after being a virtual non-entity in his previous three games. Still, even in a pretty good matchup this week, fantasy owners should stay away if possible. He's been one of the biggest disappointments of the year for fantasy owners.
