Free agent Chris Johnson 'would love to be back' with Cardinals
Running back Chris Johnson needed the Arizona Cardinals to win one more game this season to get back on the field.
Now, he faces an uncertain future as one of 17 free agents for the Cardinals, whose season came to an abrupt halt with a 49-15 drubbing against the Carolina Panthers in the NFC title game.
“Just praying that the right situation happens for me. Would love to be back here,” Johnson said. “I’m going to take a couple of weeks off and just see where I go from there.”
Signed in mid-August, Johnson was among the league's top feel-good stories of the season before he suffered a fractured fibia at San Francisco on Nov. 29. Johnson was placed on the injured reserve-designated to return list and was not eligible to play unless Arizona advanced to the super Bowl.
Johnson was elevated to the starting job when Andre Ellington was hurt in Week 1. After dealing with an offseason gunshot wound and coming off the worst season of his career in 2014 with the New York Jets, Johnson rushed for more than 100 yards four times in a six-week span.
Once Johnson broke his leg, rookie David Johnson played superbly as the lead running back, rushing for 378 yards in his first three starts. Still, Chris Johnson believes their is room for both players in the backfield.
“Me and David, we’re two different types of players,” Chris Johnson said. “Even like before I got hurt the kind of situation that me and David had, I was doing a lot of the running. He was still coming in doing a lot of the running and doing a lot of the pass plays and stuff like that, so I think it’s something that could work.”
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