Arizona Cardinals: David Johnson could be star of playoffs

The Arizona Cardinals masterpiece of a 2015 regular season campaign ended in embarrassment with a 36-6 loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks, and this loss came just a week after the Cards thrashed Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers 38-8 in front of their home fans. Despite the sour end to the season, David Johnson and the Cardinals remain one of the NFL’s scariest teams, and the Northern Iowa rookie could be the one to help lift his squad to the Super Bowl.

Tomorrow, the rival Seahawks will take on the Minnesota Vikings- a team they demolished in the regular season- but the Arizona Cardinals are safely in the divisional round as the NFC’s No. 2 seed. It’s easy to love the Cardinals resume on paper, because they have a bona fide MVP candidate in QB Carson Palmer, the NFL’s best trio of wide receivers, an excellent defense, a competent offensive line, and a sensational rookie running back David Johnson.

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The merits of the Cardinals passing attack and defense are well-regarded, as the Cards were first in the NFL in net yards per pass attempt and fifth in the NFL in yards per game allowed on defense. These two units have players- such as Palmer, future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald, and elite shutdown CB Patrick Peterson– who regularly earn big-time plaudits, and that’s all for good reason. Even without Defensive Player of the Year candidate Tyrann Mathieu, that defense is still strong, particularly if veteran pass rusher Dwight Freeney can put in some postseason performances akin to the big game he had against Green Bay.

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Perhaps Johnson isn’t an overlooked man in the Cardinals backfield, since he has been a regular on highlight reels due to his long runs and awe-inspiring ability to shake off would-be tacklers.

However, with all of the love St. Louis Rams rookie Todd Gurley and fellow NFC West standout rookie Thomas Rawls have received this season, I sometimes wonder if Johnson has unfairly fallen too far out of the Offensive Rookie of the Year discussion. That award seems like a two-man race between Gurley and No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston with No. 2 pick Marcus Mariota lurking, but Johnson’s impact has truly been profound.

Need some evidence of Johnson’s greatness in his first season? Here’s one stat to get you started.

Johnson ended his rookie season with just 25 yards on 11 carries in a dud of a performance against a notoriously stingy Seahawks run defense, and yet he was still able to come away with “Offensive Rookie of the Month” honors for December. As a whole, Johnson averaged 4.6 yards per carry on the ground, crossed the end zone a whopping 12 times, and turned his playing time into 36 receptions for 457 yards.

If you ask me, Johnson is the one somewhat under-the-radar skill position player who could take the NFL by a storm and become the star of the postseason. I mean, who can forget that 187-yard, three-TD performance he had against the Philadelphia Eagles this season? Or the 88 receiving yards he put up on the Packers, courtesy of one jaw-dropping catch-and-run down the right sideline that included some only-in-Madden moves?

Few players are as electrifying as Johnson, who is the definition of a game-changer. How else can you describe a 6’1″, 224-pound beast of a running back with 4.5s wheels, a 41.5-inch vertical, a 6.82 cone drill, and 25 reps on the bench? The definition of a SPARQ star, Johnson has every athletic tool a back needs in his arsenal, and he throws in elusiveness and all-purpose ability into the mix.

Whoever the Cardinals face in their first playoff game, Johnson will be sure to give them trouble, and it only takes one play for him to change the entire complexion of the game. A missed tackle here, a missed tackle there, and all of a sudden he’s in the end zone for six. Again, he scored 12 times in the regular season on just 161 touches, and that’s not even including his kick-off return TD in Week 2 against the Chicago Bears.

Ever since Chris Johnson went down with an injury and David Johnson was pegged as the Cardinals starter, the rookie has blossomed into one of the league’s brightest stars. John Brown and Michael Floyd are more than capable of generating big plays for Palmer and the offense, but Johnson is the man who can produce something out of nothing.

12.7 yards per reception at the running back position? That’s almost unfair. Heck, players like Jeremy Maclin and Demaryius Thomas don’t even average that many YPR as “X” receivers in their offense.

So if you want a new star player to root for this postseason, look no further than one of the players that made the Cardinals one of the league’s most exciting teams in 2015, even if he and his team didn’t have the best of Week 17s (to put it mildly).

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They’ll be back with a vengeance in their postseason game, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson led the charge with his fifth game with 100 yards from scrimmage since the start of December.