Chris Johnson Agrees to Terms with Arizona Cardinals

The athlete formerly known as CJ2K is now CJ1MoreChance, with news that ex-Tennessee Titans and New York Jets running back Chris Johnson has agreed to terms with the Arizona Cardinals.

Desperately lacking both star power and depth at tailback, the Cardinals may have thrust their running back corps into an intriguing preseason battle for the starting position with the acquisition of Johnson.

2013 draftee Andre Ellington may be the only man standing in Johnson’s way, among a class that includes the inexperienced Marion Grice and Kerwynn Williams, as well as speedy rookie David Johnson.

Chris Johnson, meanwhile, is coming off an uneventful season with the New York Jets, in which he was good for just 663 yards, 1 touchdown, and the fewest number of carries in his eight-year pro career. Not helping matters was his role as a running-back-by-committee member amongst a crew of good-but-not-great backs like Chris Ivory, Bilal Powell and John Conner.

Johnson’s obvious career highlight was his 2009 campaign. He became the – at the time – seventh player to rush for over 2000 yards in a season, and broke Marshall Faulk’s single-season record for yards from scrimmage with 2509.

Though his career never reached that peak again, Johnson continued to comfortably rack up 1000-yard seasons in Tennessee, with his yards-per-carry average only once dipping below 4.0.

His speed and elusiveness may have diminished care of carrying a number of terrible Titans teams, but Johnson has been extremely lucky on the injury front. He has every chance of helping an on-the-bubble Cardinals team to multiple playoff berths, in turn stamping a footnote onto a very respectable NFL career.