Roschon Johnson Lives Up to Draft Reputation

Roschon Johnson looks to continue sudden upward trend established in first Bears preseason game.

Roschon Johnson made good on his reputation in the preseason opener.

By doing it, he seems to have reversed his training camp trend and now attempts to take it a step beyond when the Bears play Saturday against the Colts in the second preseason game.

"It was definitely a game to build off of," Johnson told reporters at Indianapolis after practice. "There were some things I wish I could have had back. But yeah, it's a starting block."

Johnson's stock in the running back battle seems to have done a complete reversal. He was down heading into the preseason but now Trestan Ebner is missing practices and it's Johnson who is on the rise.

Johnson's ability to run through tackles was well known when the Bears drafted him, and he reinforced this with his 24-yard run through three tacklers on a toss play left, to the weak side of the field. It started the Bears on a drive to a game-tying field goal in the third quarter.

"I mean I'm a guy who likes to use his body as a weapon and just kind of play off of that," Johnson said. "So definitely that's a tool in my tool box that I try to use."

Of course, when players weren't in full contact situations it wasn't as easy for him to show this off. Speed is definitely not his thing like power is.

It seemed coming into the game that Ebner was outperforming him, based on recent practice runs and also the Bears family fest scrimmage.

Johnson had a minor injury of sorts at the worst possible time during camp and was listed as the fifth running back in a five-man battle when the "unofficial" depth chart was released. However, the big run against the Titans and Ebner's subsequent absence from both practices since the opener seem to have changed this.

Against Tennessee, Johnson led the Bears in rushing attempts with 12 and yards gained with 37. He also had more receptions than anyone with three, but for only 2 yards with those catches. It left something more to prove Saturday.

Johnson's ability to battle in a five-man group for time and show skills in the passing game both as a receiver and blocker are working on his side. His skill set seems ideally suited for the NFL. 

"That's a credit to my coaches that I had at Texas, Tashard Choice and Stan Drayton," Johnson said. "They either coached or played in the league."

Drayton was the Bears running backs coach under John Fox in 2015-16, a time when Jordan Howard was another Bears power runner who flourished.

He also brought in special teams skills in coverage and blocking on returns from Texas, and plays coverage and return units with the Bears.

"We got guys across the board that can do a lot of different things and do them at a high level," Johnson said.

The first game didn't satisfy Johnson with his efforts and production, only with progress.

"There's a couple of runs that I had that I felt I could have hit smoother, a couple of routes that I ran that I felt I could have been more sharp on," he said. "On special teams there were a couple of assignments I felt like I could have executed better."

Now he'll try to continue a trend rather than reversing one.

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