Pro Football Focus is at it again, and this time the football scouting and analytics firm has suggested Duke Johnson is the best Houston Texans running back.
According to Ben Linsey, who ranked his top-25 NFL running backs heading into the 2020 season, Duke Johnson was placed No. 25 overall while David Johnson didn’t even make the list.
Going purely off his grading profile and efficiency numbers, Johnson has a pretty strong case to be higher in these rankings. Here is the list of running backs to play at least 1,000 snaps over the past three seasons and put up PFF rushing and receiving grades higher than 80.0:
McCaffrey does just miss the cut with a 79.9 rushing grade, but that’s the entire list. Of course, the catch is that Johnson has done that in a complementary pass-catching role and didn’t carry the ball more than 83 times in any of those seasons, never truly taking over as the lead back for any extended stretch. Still, it would be nice to see what he could do in that lead role. He has profiled as one of the most elusive running backs in the NFL throughout much of his career.
The theme is one that Adam Rank from NFL.com hit on in early July when he suggested that Duke Johnson was an every down back.
“That’s the biggest thing, especially with a split backfield, or in any case, just making the best out of any opportunity because you never know when you get your next one,” Johnson told reporters on Aug. 17. “In this league, if someone catches fire, you feed them the ball as much as possible. So when I have opportunities to make plays, I just try to make them.”
The Texans do believe they have two three-down backs in Duke Johnson and David Johnson. Regardless of who starts, Houston is hopeful they have enough talent to make the running game a complementary threat to quarterback Deshaun Watson.
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