It was just a short time ago Houston Texans running back David Johnson was all the hype in the fantasy football community.
In the 2017 offseason, after Johnson tallied 2,110 scrimmage yards and 20 total touchdowns in 2016 to earn his only All-Pro to date, the former 2015 third-round pick from Northern Iowa was slated to go No. 1 overall in many a fantasy football draft.
Now, not so much.
Johnson has since rushed for 1,308 yards and scored a total of nine touchdowns. This is in large part because the former Arizona Cardinal has battle availability issues ranging from staying healthy to being phased out of coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offense.
With a fresh start with a new team and a new coach, Johnson is looking to reboot his career. Not only would his career be back on track at 28 years old, but his fantasy football value would be primed for a renaissance as well.
Last season Texans running back Carlos Hyde rushed for 1,070 yards for the first time in his six-year career. While Hyde is not as an elite player in terms of the speed and skill sets that Johnson possesses, it still says a lot about the scheme the Texans and coach Bill O’Brien ran in 2019.
Johnson’s fantasy outlook should be equal if not greater than Hyde’s. With better speed and pass-catching abilities than Hyde there is no reason Johnson shouldn’t have over 1,000 rushing yards and north of 500 receiving yards this season.
Johnson isn’t going to command the same No. 1 overall spot that he did in fantasy football drafts three years ago. However, he is a good candidate for a sleeper who becomes a sure RB1 in people’s lineups throughout the season. And unlike the Cardinals, Johnson will also play in an offense with a quarterback in Deshaun Watson that will help take the pressure off the running back so he can be one of many weapons as opposed to the lone artillery in the offense.