David Johnson: Dynasty Outlook
I just did a series of posts for the Good fantasy players....now for the bad. For my 3rd biggest bust of 2019, I’m picking David Johnson. What a season for DJ. There was so much hype for him going into the 2019 fantasy season.....and for good reason. I had him ranked 3rd, just one spot in front of Saquon Barkley when I did my final RB rankings. I was all in. Just three years ago he had one of the best RB seasons of all time and now he was being paired to a system that was going to fully unleash him, and for 6 weeks, it was happening. After the first six games of the season, he was the RB5 averaging 20.2 ppr points per game. Had that pace continued, he would have finished as the RB2 behind only Christian McCaffrey. But then week 7 happened and DJ’s season officially ended. No, he didn’t go on Injured Reserve (that would have been better). That week DJ logged 1 carry for 2 yards. It marked the first of a number of “interesting” coaching decisions by head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Was DJ injured? Was he being benched? Was AZ trying to preserve him? We never truly got a satisfactory answer. Then right before the trade deadline, the team traded for Kenyon Drake, and he essentially picked up where DJ left off.
What can we expect from DJ going forward? That all depends on what happens with him and Kenyan Drake. AZ will be on the hook for 19 million dollars if they cut DJ. That’s a tough pill to swallow. It also depends on what kind of market Drake will demand going into free agency. I think there will be a decent market for him. My gut tells me that the team keeps DJ because of his contract and Drake signs with another team. If that happens, then I think DJ is fine. Yes, he’s 28 years old, but he actually has less College + NFL touches than Todd Gurley and Ezekial Elliott. He has only 80 more than Melvin Gordon, and roughly one more season’s worth of touches (352) than Leonard Fournette. He’s a versatile 95th percentile athlete who I think is a great dynasty buy low. This off-season will be one I closely monitor.