Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by David Johnson this season. After a relatively strong start to the season, Johnson has been anything but himself in recent weeks. He’s battled back and ankle injuries over the past few weeks, but it’d be one thing to have Johnson sit out and heal up heading into the fantasy playoffs. Instead, the Cardinals insist on activating him and barely using him, burying fantasy owners into the ground in the process. Johnson has just 6 rushing attempts for 4 yards over his last 2 games, and especially heading into a matchup against the 1st place 49ers, likely can’t be trusted moving forward.
It sucks to bench a guy you likely used a top 5 pick on, but it sucks even more to trot him out there and have him put up a negative while the RB3 on your bench hits double digits again and again. Johnson clearly isn’t healthy, and even when he’s gotten chances to fight through the ailments and produce, he hasn’t been himself. Kenyan Drake didn’t look a great deal better in the follow-up to his fantastic debut, but I still trust Drake more than Johnson heading into next week’s tough matchup.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury remarked after the game that DJ has “obviously” been hampered by his injuries this season, and that he’s going to figure out the best role for Johnson and Drake over the next few weeks and then “run with it.” If the past few games are any indication, Kliff will be running with Drake while DJ is used sparingly, inconsistently, and frustratingly little. Johnson still has the lead on The Wolf’s Rest of Season big board, but I foresee that changing very, very soon given recent developments.
