Duke Johnson
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Randy "Duke" Johnson Jr. (born September 23, 1993) is an
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Th ...
for the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL). He was drafted by the
Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...
in the third round (77th overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft. He played college football at the
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
.


Early years

Johnson attended Miami Norland Senior High School in
Miami Gardens, Florida Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is located north of Downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from I-95 and Northeast 2nd Avenue to its east to Northwest 47th and Northwest 57th Avenues to its w ...
, where he played football and ran track. As a sophomore, Johnson ran for 1,540 yards and 25 touchdowns. In his junior year, he led Norland to a 13–2 record and state runner-up. After beating the Sammy Watkins-led South Fort Myers 44–28 in the semifinals, Norland lost 44–34 to the unbeaten Tampa Jefferson in the class 3A final. During his senior year, Johnson compiled 1,957 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns, 14 receptions for 232 receiving yards and three touchdowns, three kickoff returns and one punt return for scores, as he led Miami Norland to 15–0 finish and state Class 5A championship. In the championship game against Wakulla, he scored five touchdowns. He was also on the school's
track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
team, where he was a standout sprinter and long jumper. He placed 5th in the
long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...
event at the 2010 GMAC Qualifiers, with a jump of 6.60 meters. In 2011, he placed 4th in the
100 meters The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contes ...
at the 3rd Annual Miramar Invitational, recording a career-best time of 10.62 seconds. He finished 3rd in the 200 meters at the FHSAA 3A District 16, with a time of 22.31 seconds. He was considered the best all-purpose running back recruit by
Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...
.


College career

Johnson attended and played college football at the
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...
from 2012 to 2014. In his freshman season, he rushed for 947 yards on 139 carries with ten
touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...
and caught 27 passes for 221 yards and one touchdown. He also threw an additional touchdown in a 41–40 loss to
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. He also played a major role on special teams, where he returned 28 kicks for two touchdowns. In 2012, Johnson won both the ACC Rookie of the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year awards. He became the first Miami Hurricane to win both awards. In 2013, Johnson joined the Miami indoor track team, posting a personal-best time of 6.92 seconds in the
60 meters 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...
at New Mexico Classic. Johnson's sophomore campaign with the Hurricane's football team came to an abrupt end on November 2, 2013, when he broke his ankle against arch-rival
Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...
. Miami lost that game 41–14. Through eight games, Johnson rushed for 920 yards on 145 carries, with six touchdowns. He also had four catches for 77 yards. Johnson returned from the injury his junior season in 2014 to play in all 13 games. During the season, he passed
Ottis Anderson Ottis Jerome Anderson (born January 19, 1957) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants. He played college football at Miami, wh ...
to become the Hurricanes' all-time rushing yards leader. He ended the 2014 season with 1,652 yards and 10 touchdowns. After his junior season, Johnson decided to forgo his senior season and declared for the 2015 NFL Draft. He finished his college career with 3,519 rushing yards on 526 carries with 26 touchdowns, and had 69 receptions for 719 yards and four touchdowns.


Collegiate statistics


Professional career

On December 28, 2014, Johnson announced his decision to forgo his remaining eligibility and enter the 2015 NFL Draft. Johnson attended the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis and performed a few combine drills before sustaining a hamstring injury. Due to his hamstring, he skipped the three-cone drill and short shuttle and voluntarily chose to skip the bench press. On April 1, 2015, Johnson participated at Miami's pro day and chose to perform the majority of combine drills, but elected to skip the broad jump. He improved his 40-yard dash (4.51s), 20-yard dash (2.57s), 10-yard dash (1.58s), and vertical jump (35") and also completed the bench press (18), short shuttle (4.16s), and three-cone drill (6.88s). Scouts and team representatives from all 32 NFL teams attended Miami's pro day, including head coaches
Mike Tomlin Michael Pettaway Tomlin (born March 15, 1972) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). Since joining the Steelers in 2007, he has led the team to ten playoff runs, s ...
(Steelers), Todd Bowles (Jets), and Sean Payton (Saints). He also attended private workouts and visits with the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Johnson was projected to be a second round pick by NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked as the fourth best running back prospect in the draft by DraftScout.com and NFL analyst Mike Mayock, was ranked the fifth best running back by
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
and Scouts Inc., and was ranked the seventh best running back by NFL analyst Charles Davis.


Cleveland Browns


2015

The
Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...
selected Johnson in the third round with the 77th overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Johnson was the sixth running back drafted in 2015. On June 16, 2015, the Cleveland Browns signed Johnson to a four-year, $3.10 million
contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...
that includes a signing bonus of $710,092. On August 1, 2015, Johnson injured his hamstring on the first day of the Browns' training camp. He was sidelined for the next ten days, and was inactive during the first preseason game against the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
at
FirstEnergy Stadium FirstEnergy Stadium is a stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, primarily for American football. It is the home field of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL), and serves as a venue for other events such as college and h ...
. During Johnson's first pre-season appearance, he was diagnosed with a concussion and was removed from the game. Throughout training camp, Johnson competed to be one of the primary running backs in the Browns' rotation against Isaiah Crowell,
Terrance West Terrance West (born January 28, 1991) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Towson and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft. West has also played for the Tennessee Ti ...
, and
Shaun Draughn Kenneth Shaun Draughn ( "drone"; born December 7, 1987) is a former American football running back. He played college football at the University of North Carolina. He signed with the Washington Redskins as an undrafted free agent in 2011. In his ...
. Head coach
Mike Pettine Michael Mark Pettine (born September 25, 1966) is an American football coach who currently is an assistant head coach for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. He was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2014 to 2015, an ...
named Johnson the backup running back, behind Isaiah Crowell, to begin the regular season. He replaced Terrance West after West showed up to training camp overweight and was released as part of final roster cuts. He made his professional regular season debut and first career start in the Cleveland Browns' season opener at the New York Jets and had seven carries for 22 yards in their 31–10 loss. On October 4, 2015, Johnson had eight carries for 31 yards and recorded a season-high nine receptions for 85 yards and scored his first career touchdown during a 30–27 loss at the San Diego Chargers in Week 4. Johnson scored his first career touchdown on a 34-yard pass by quarterback Josh McCown in the second quarter. In Week 14, he had a season-high 13 carries for 78 rushing yards in the Browns' 24–10 win against the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
. He finished his rookie season in 2015 with 104 carries for 379 rushing yards and 61 receptions for 534 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 16 games and seven starts. Johnson's 61 receptions are the second-most by a Browns rookie, tied with wide receiver Greg Little. Among rookies, Johnson ranked first in receptions and receiving yards among rookie running backs and second in receptions overall, just under Oakland Raiders'
Amari Cooper Amari Cooper (born June 17, 1994) is an American football wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama, where he was the Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation's top receiv ...
. Johnson was ranked sixth overall among rookies in receiving yards and was one of six rookies to surpass 500 yards receiving.


2016

On January 4, 2016, the Cleveland Browns fired head coach Mike Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer after the Browns finished with a 3–13 record in 2015. During training camp, Johnson competed to be the starting running back against Isaiah Crowell. Head coach
Hue Jackson Hue Jackson (born October 22, 1965) is an American football coach who is the head football coach at Grambling State University. An offensive assistant at both the collegiate and professional levels, he held coordinator positions in the Nation ...
officially named Johnson the backup running back, behind Isaiah Crowell, to start the regular season in 2016. In Week 3, Johnson had a season-high ten carries for 69 yards and also caught five passes for 12 yards during a 30–24 loss at the
Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
. On October 16, 2016, Johnson had four carries for 18 yards and four receptions for 56 yards while also scoring his first rushing touchdown during a 28–26 loss at the
Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...
in Week 6. On October 30, 2016, Johnson caught six passes for a season-high 87 yards and had four carries for 29 rushing yards as the Browns lost 31–28 against the New York Jets in Week 8. Johnson finished the 2016 season with 73 carries for 358 rushing yards (4.9 YPC) and a touchdown and 53 receptions for 514 receiving yards in 16 games and one start. Johnson served as a punt returner in 2016 and had 17 returns for 112 yards. He also had two fumbles and recorded two solo tackles in special teams.


2017

Johnson shared the Browns' backfield with Isaiah Crowell in the 2017 season. In Week 15, against the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...
, he became the first NFL running back since Herschel Walker in 1986–1988 to record at least 500 receiving yards in each of his first three seasons. Overall, he finished the 2017 season with 348 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, 74 receptions, 693 receiving yards, and three receiving touchdowns as the Browns struggled to only the second 0–16 season in NFL history.


2018

On June 7, 2018, the Cleveland Browns signed Johnson to a three-year, $15.61 million contract extension with $7.75 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $3 million. Going into the 2018 season, Johnson shared the backfield with Carlos Hyde and rookie
Nick Chubb Nicholas Jamaal Chubb (born December 27, 1995) is an American football running back for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Georgia and was drafted by the Browns in the second round of the ...
. Through the first six games, Johnson retained his familiar role as a runner and catcher totaling 111 rushing yards and 14 receptions for 164 receiving yards. Before Week 7, Hyde was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars. In Week 9, against the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...
, he had nine receptions for 78 yards and two touchdowns in the 37–21 loss. Overall, he finished the 2018 season with 201 rushing yards to go along with 47 receptions for 429 yards and three touchdowns.


Houston Texans

On August 8, 2019, Johnson was traded to the Houston Texans for a conditional 2020 fourth-round pick that can become a third-round pick if active on the Texans roster for 10 games. Johnson made his debut with the Texans in Week 1 against the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
. In the game, Johnson rushed nine times for 57 yards and caught four passes for 33 yards in the 30-28 loss. Overall, Johnson finished the 2019 season with 410 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with 44 receptions for 410 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns. In the 2020 season, Johnson appeared in 11 games and finished with 77 carries for 235 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown to go along with 28 receptions for 249 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown. On February 26, 2021, Johnson was released by the Texans.


Jacksonville Jaguars

On September 6, 2021, Johnson was signed to the
Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...
practice squad. He was released on September 16.


Miami Dolphins

On October 26, 2021, Johnson was signed to the
Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
practice squad. On December 19, 2021, in his first home game with the Dolphins, Johnson rushed for a career high 107 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-24 win against the New York Jets. The next day, Johnson was signed to the Dolphins’ active roster. He finished the 2021 season with 71 carries for 330 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns to go along with four receptions for 41 receiving yards.


Buffalo Bills

On March 22, 2022, Johnson signed with the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
on a one year deal. He was released on August 30, 2022, and signed to the practice squad the next day.


NFL career statistics


Personal life

He is the cousin of professional basketball player Dewan Hernandez.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Duke 1993 births Living people Players of American football from Miami Miami Norland Senior High School alumni American football running backs Miami Hurricanes football players Cleveland Browns players Houston Texans players Jacksonville Jaguars players Miami Dolphins players Buffalo Bills players