Fantasy football player profile: Kerryon Johnson
Welcome into the seventh Fantasy Football Player Profile, featuring Detroit Lions running back Kerryon Johnson! Let’s look at how he could finish in 2019!
Fantasy Football season is closer than you think, so to get you prepared we’re going to be doing individual player profiles (Kerryon Johnson here) through the next few weeks! We’ll be recapping the 2018 season, looking at potential best and worst-case scenarios, and see what a dynasty outlook could be.
This is the fun part because I want you to get involved. I’m just picking players as things stand, but don’t be afraid to reach out on Twitter to me @bucn4life or tag me on the @fantasycpr account to let me know who you want to see next!
Be sure to check out the other player profiles on the author page!
Kerryon Johnson 2018 Recap
Johnson finished as the RB35 in 2018, but there’s plenty of reason to think the overall finish didn’t quite do him justice. On a points per game basis, he was the RB17, which is quite obvious a massive gap. So what was the main reason he finished so poorly overall?
It’s two-fold and the first reason is he did miss the final six games with a knee injury. That’s always going to be a risk with a running back in the NFL, so it’s not a main factor heading into the season. That’s even truer when the player reports to camp fully healthy, as Johnson has.
The other 247 pound elephant in the room was LeGarrette Blount. It’s very hard to craft an argument as to why he got 154 carries last year for a whopping 2.7 yards per carry.
Johnson was double that in his rushing attempts at 5.4 and Blount took 37 percent of the red zone carries, leaving Johnson with just 24 percent. That is no longer an issue as Blount is not on the team, which changes the outlook for Johnson.
Dynasty Outlook
Buying running backs can be a dangerous proposition due to the volatile nature of the position. Seeing as how Johnson will likely not come cheaply right now, the risk jumps higher but he’s still a buy in this format.
The upside is one of the best running backs in fantasy, which are not easy to acquire. Even though it takes a leap of faith, you can see the talent Johnson has on the ground. He had 32 receptions last year, so an average of three per game would be over 50 receptions. Only 16 running backs hit that threshold last year.
Only seven of those running backs eclipsed 175 rushing attempts – Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara, Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley, James Conner, David Johnson and Melvin Gordon. Kerryon Johnson is a buy before the price goes up any further.