One thing Roschon Johnson is used to by this point is competition. He had the hard luck of sharing the same backfield with Bijan Robinson, one of the best running backs of the past decade in college football. It was a sign of strong character and competitiveness that Johnson stuck around rather than transfer to a different school. He played well enough to still get drafted, only to find himself in yet another crowded backfield. This time he’s fighting for snaps with Khalil Herbert and D’Onta Foreman, both of whom are more proven and experienced.
That doesn’t seem to scare Johnson. Though he is a rookie, the young man has a mature air about him. Part of this comes from his background. Some of it is the lessons he learned at Texas. However, there is one other reason he feels confident that he will find his way onto the field sooner than later. It stems not from a belief in his talent but a belief in how he started football in the first place. Most people don’t know that running back wasn’t where his career began, as he told the Under Center podcast.
“Ultimately, from a character standpoint, I feel like you’re going to get a leader at the position who has played quarterback. So, it’s kind of like that element of leadership that comes from a quarterback but at the running back spot that you normally don’t get from other guys.”
Shortly later, he elaborated on why this is such a big advantage.
“Running backs aren’t necessarily trained to look at defenses like that. It’s like OK, you look at what front you got, where the linebackers are and you can kind of get pigeonholed if you’re not used to looking at safeties and kind of just the big picture. I still look at defenses like that. Of course, the first thing I’m doing is keying the safeties, seeing where the rotation is coming from so I can get a beat on pressure and get a beat on linebacker alignments as well as the defensive front. Just kind of having that same mindset of reading the defense from top to bottom, I think, helps me diagnose things better to put myself in the best position.”
Roschon Johnson isn’t wrong to think this way.
The NFL is full of examples of high school quarterbacks that converted to another position and used that background to great success as a pro. Running backs like Jerick McKinnon, Brian Mitchell, and Michael Bush stand out. So do wide receivers Hines Ward, Julian Edelman, and Freddie Solomon. Many of those names were known for their cerebral approach to the game. Johnson feels he can do the same. If paired with Justin Fields, it would be like having two quarterbacks in the huddle simultaneously, both equally dangerous as runners.
People forget Chicago has already seen this scenario play out before. Cameron Meredith was a breakout star in 2016 with 888 receiving yards. He was a quarterback in college and stated his ability to read what defenses were doing made it far easier for him to get open. That is what Roschon Johnson can do from the running back position. By seeing it from the QB’s eyes, he’ll have a good idea of where the defense will flow on each play, allowing him to develop counters on the fly. It worked well for him at Texas.
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