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http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer...in-a-drive-by-shooting-is-ready-to-play-again
Chris Johnson is going to play in the NFL again.
I don't know when. Or exactly with which team it will be. But it's going to happen.
After surviving a harrowing drive-by shooting that left him in the hospital with gunshot wounds to his right shoulder and claimed the life of a close friend sitting next to him, Johnson isn't ready to give up on his passion.
From the moment he was able to begin running and, eventually, start lifting weights, Johnson has been consumed about getting back on the field, and enough NFL teams are monitoring his progress to suggest his story is far from over.
Certainly, his big-money days are over in the league, but it's not about that at this point for Johnson, particularly after this spring's life-altering events. Eventually he will find his market-value as the right player, at the right time, at the right price. And, call it a hunch, but I wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being Dallas, whether at some point during training camp or the regular season.
“Right now is kind of a dead period,” Johnson said when I interviewed him on CBS Sports Radio this week, “but things should pick back up when (camps start). I've just been working hard, getting back healthy, getting in shape. Now it's just waiting and working out and seeing what my next situation is going to be.”
Nothing this offseason has gone as Johnson would have imagined.
The Jets, who Johnson believes misled him under their prior regime about what his role would be in 2014, did not pick up his option (though I've spoken to several evaluators who believe his burst showed well on film and thought he was New York's best back last season). Then, in March, things took a dramatic turn for the worse just as the NFL's free-agent market was about to begin.
Johnson and a close friend were driving to a music studio in Orlando to check out an artist on Johnson's record label before the former Pro Bowl running back headed to the West Coast. What seemed like another mundane errand turned fatal when a vehicle pulled up beside the Jeep that Johnson was in. The driver, Johnson's friend, 28-year-old Dreekius Oricko Johnson, was found dead by police inside the car when they arrived.
“It was a life-changing experience,” Johnson said. “It showed you how to enjoy life and how to enjoy every day waking up. Because just as easily as it was one of my best friends that was sitting right next to me – the one that got killed – it easily could have been me. So these days, I'm just enjoying life and making sure I enjoy each day.”
The ramifications went well beyond football, obviously, and it's an incident that would haunt anyone. But it also had a very real impact on Johnson's profession, and the time spent healing up gave Johnson a singular focus. “That gave me motivation and gave me something to look forward to – and that's football,” he said.
The injuries took Johnson, 29, off the just-emerging free-agent market, thrust him into a long recovery and basically eradicated any opportunity for him to sign with a team for training camp, much less their spring offseason program. Johnson was on bed rest for six weeks and says he lost about 20 pounds -- plummeting all the way down to 180 pounds -- before he began more arduous workouts in Los Angeles at Jay Glazer's gym.
“I ended up gaining all my weight back and getting even heavier,” Johnson said. “I got up to 207 pounds and then throughout that just working out and wanting to be right at 200 – I ended up working it back down to get right at 200. Right now, it's just sitting and grinding and working out. I'm just ready to see where my next situation is going to be and making sure it's going to be the right situation.”
Johnson has been cleared for all football activities and is ready to join a team now but the timing is, once again, difficult.
Teams more or less have aligned the players they want to take to camp by now and it may take an injury or two for a need to develop. Still, he's only a phone call away and he's certainly not off NFL clubs' radars.
And while it would be easy for some to discount his productivity given his limited role in New York where he wasn't much of a scheme-fit, the man once known as CJ2K for his 2,000 yard season with Tennessee in 2009 did average a very solid 4.3 yards per carry -- despite not getting the kind of workload it generally takes to hit those long runs he's famous for.
Johnson vows that while he's not running a 4.3 40-yard dash anymore, with age 30 on the horizon, he's still one of the faster running backs in the league. Losing a step in his case is still faster than most guys on NFL rosters. Some NFL execs I've spoken to believe Johnson showed better “burst” on film last year than in some previous years. They said the way he was used in New York did him no favors, though the way Johnson handled the situation might serve to help him this offseason.
“Just going in there (to New York) and talking to them and meeting with them, I was told something different,” Johnson said of his role last season. “But I just got to deal with whatever I had to deal with. We were losing. Me going in there and complaining about the ball, that wasn't going to help anything. I think it kind of helped me last year because I was coming off an injury the year before. So it kind of helped me get my legs back. So on top of that, it helped me mentally. Instead of me worrying about how many carries I was getting, my whole mentality was each carry that I get or each opportunity that I get, I just got to take advantage of it.”
Johnson played all of 2013, his last with the Titans, with a painful and significant hip injury -- and has played in 16 games each of the past six seasons. He had a career low total in rushing attempts last season – which should also have him fresher this season. For a scheme-savvy club, Johnson might make a lot of sense and end up being a bargain.
“He's an outside-zone runner; you don't want him slamming between the guards,” said one evaluator who is very familiar with Johnson. “And you need to feed him. He still needs 18-25 carries, because you're going to need some volume to get him going and hit those home runs. It might be 2, 1, 3, 5, but then it might be 71, 19. I actually thought he was the best back on that team last year. He'd be a good fit with some teams that run a lot of outside zone. You have to use him right and give him a chance to break the long ones, and he's got to be decisive and hit the hole. He can still play. He's not the guy he was, but he can still play.”
Several other execs brought up Dallas as a possible destination, with the Cowboyscurrently hoping that a trio of backs will replace the elite production of DeMarco Murray. If a team like Baltimore or Kansas City were to lose their starting running back, I'd keep an eye on both as landing spots for Johnson. Denver could make sense over time and New England as well.
He's rushed for 1,000 yards or more six times in his career and was on pace to do so last season as well had the Jets allowed him to carry the ball more than sporadically. Since being drafted in the first-round by the Titans in 2008, on the heels of running a combine record 4.24 40-yard dash, the only running back with more yards than Johnson in the NFL is Adrian Peterson (8,849 yards to 8,628 on a similar number of carries). And only four backs have more touchdowns than Johnson's 51 in that span (Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, Michael Turner and Arian Foster). Johnson's 4.55 career average per carry is very strong as well.
At the very least Johnson is worth a look, and until that time comes, he will continue to appreciate what he has and savor an opportunity that he knows will come at some point. What happened last March will always be with him, but he's not inclined to let it curtail his future or alter his ambitions on the field or off.
“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Johnson said of the shooting. “So it's nothing to really be paranoid about or anything like that. I still live my life. I live my life to the fullest. Right now, my main focus is on working out and spending time with my family and my kid.”
Chris Johnson is going to play in the NFL again.
I don't know when. Or exactly with which team it will be. But it's going to happen.
After surviving a harrowing drive-by shooting that left him in the hospital with gunshot wounds to his right shoulder and claimed the life of a close friend sitting next to him, Johnson isn't ready to give up on his passion.
From the moment he was able to begin running and, eventually, start lifting weights, Johnson has been consumed about getting back on the field, and enough NFL teams are monitoring his progress to suggest his story is far from over.
Certainly, his big-money days are over in the league, but it's not about that at this point for Johnson, particularly after this spring's life-altering events. Eventually he will find his market-value as the right player, at the right time, at the right price. And, call it a hunch, but I wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being Dallas, whether at some point during training camp or the regular season.
“Right now is kind of a dead period,” Johnson said when I interviewed him on CBS Sports Radio this week, “but things should pick back up when (camps start). I've just been working hard, getting back healthy, getting in shape. Now it's just waiting and working out and seeing what my next situation is going to be.”
Nothing this offseason has gone as Johnson would have imagined.
The Jets, who Johnson believes misled him under their prior regime about what his role would be in 2014, did not pick up his option (though I've spoken to several evaluators who believe his burst showed well on film and thought he was New York's best back last season). Then, in March, things took a dramatic turn for the worse just as the NFL's free-agent market was about to begin.
Johnson and a close friend were driving to a music studio in Orlando to check out an artist on Johnson's record label before the former Pro Bowl running back headed to the West Coast. What seemed like another mundane errand turned fatal when a vehicle pulled up beside the Jeep that Johnson was in. The driver, Johnson's friend, 28-year-old Dreekius Oricko Johnson, was found dead by police inside the car when they arrived.
“It was a life-changing experience,” Johnson said. “It showed you how to enjoy life and how to enjoy every day waking up. Because just as easily as it was one of my best friends that was sitting right next to me – the one that got killed – it easily could have been me. So these days, I'm just enjoying life and making sure I enjoy each day.”
The ramifications went well beyond football, obviously, and it's an incident that would haunt anyone. But it also had a very real impact on Johnson's profession, and the time spent healing up gave Johnson a singular focus. “That gave me motivation and gave me something to look forward to – and that's football,” he said.
The injuries took Johnson, 29, off the just-emerging free-agent market, thrust him into a long recovery and basically eradicated any opportunity for him to sign with a team for training camp, much less their spring offseason program. Johnson was on bed rest for six weeks and says he lost about 20 pounds -- plummeting all the way down to 180 pounds -- before he began more arduous workouts in Los Angeles at Jay Glazer's gym.
“I ended up gaining all my weight back and getting even heavier,” Johnson said. “I got up to 207 pounds and then throughout that just working out and wanting to be right at 200 – I ended up working it back down to get right at 200. Right now, it's just sitting and grinding and working out. I'm just ready to see where my next situation is going to be and making sure it's going to be the right situation.”
Johnson has been cleared for all football activities and is ready to join a team now but the timing is, once again, difficult.
Teams more or less have aligned the players they want to take to camp by now and it may take an injury or two for a need to develop. Still, he's only a phone call away and he's certainly not off NFL clubs' radars.
And while it would be easy for some to discount his productivity given his limited role in New York where he wasn't much of a scheme-fit, the man once known as CJ2K for his 2,000 yard season with Tennessee in 2009 did average a very solid 4.3 yards per carry -- despite not getting the kind of workload it generally takes to hit those long runs he's famous for.
Johnson vows that while he's not running a 4.3 40-yard dash anymore, with age 30 on the horizon, he's still one of the faster running backs in the league. Losing a step in his case is still faster than most guys on NFL rosters. Some NFL execs I've spoken to believe Johnson showed better “burst” on film last year than in some previous years. They said the way he was used in New York did him no favors, though the way Johnson handled the situation might serve to help him this offseason.
“Just going in there (to New York) and talking to them and meeting with them, I was told something different,” Johnson said of his role last season. “But I just got to deal with whatever I had to deal with. We were losing. Me going in there and complaining about the ball, that wasn't going to help anything. I think it kind of helped me last year because I was coming off an injury the year before. So it kind of helped me get my legs back. So on top of that, it helped me mentally. Instead of me worrying about how many carries I was getting, my whole mentality was each carry that I get or each opportunity that I get, I just got to take advantage of it.”
Johnson played all of 2013, his last with the Titans, with a painful and significant hip injury -- and has played in 16 games each of the past six seasons. He had a career low total in rushing attempts last season – which should also have him fresher this season. For a scheme-savvy club, Johnson might make a lot of sense and end up being a bargain.
“He's an outside-zone runner; you don't want him slamming between the guards,” said one evaluator who is very familiar with Johnson. “And you need to feed him. He still needs 18-25 carries, because you're going to need some volume to get him going and hit those home runs. It might be 2, 1, 3, 5, but then it might be 71, 19. I actually thought he was the best back on that team last year. He'd be a good fit with some teams that run a lot of outside zone. You have to use him right and give him a chance to break the long ones, and he's got to be decisive and hit the hole. He can still play. He's not the guy he was, but he can still play.”
Several other execs brought up Dallas as a possible destination, with the Cowboyscurrently hoping that a trio of backs will replace the elite production of DeMarco Murray. If a team like Baltimore or Kansas City were to lose their starting running back, I'd keep an eye on both as landing spots for Johnson. Denver could make sense over time and New England as well.
He's rushed for 1,000 yards or more six times in his career and was on pace to do so last season as well had the Jets allowed him to carry the ball more than sporadically. Since being drafted in the first-round by the Titans in 2008, on the heels of running a combine record 4.24 40-yard dash, the only running back with more yards than Johnson in the NFL is Adrian Peterson (8,849 yards to 8,628 on a similar number of carries). And only four backs have more touchdowns than Johnson's 51 in that span (Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, Michael Turner and Arian Foster). Johnson's 4.55 career average per carry is very strong as well.
At the very least Johnson is worth a look, and until that time comes, he will continue to appreciate what he has and savor an opportunity that he knows will come at some point. What happened last March will always be with him, but he's not inclined to let it curtail his future or alter his ambitions on the field or off.
“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Johnson said of the shooting. “So it's nothing to really be paranoid about or anything like that. I still live my life. I live my life to the fullest. Right now, my main focus is on working out and spending time with my family and my kid.”
