David Johnson thinks he can 'definitely' handle 30 touches a game for Cardinals

No NFL player has averaged 30 touches per game since 1984

Thirty-three years ago, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back named James Wilder was heading into his fourth season at age 26. Wilder wasn’t a complete unknown (he’d been a second-round pick just a few years earlier), but he wasn’t exactly a household name, either. How could he be? He had just 1,334 rushing yards across three NFL seasons to that point. 

But in 1984, the Bucs worked Wilder more than any running back in NFL history had been worked before. He received an incredible 407 carries that season, with which he gained 1,544 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. Not only that but he also caught 85 passes for an additional 685 yards. That’s 492 touches over the course of 16 games, or 30.75 per game. 

In the ensuing 32 NFL seasons, not a single player has topped 30 touches per game while playing 10 games or more. The closest anyone has come is Ricky Williams’ 292 touches in 10 games with the 2000 New Orleans Saints. 

Fast forward to this offseason. To last week, to be exact. Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said he is aiming to get his star running back, David Johnson, 30 touches per game during the 2017 season. “He’s still too young to overuse,” Arians said.

This week, Johnson agreed with that assertion. “I’m still young,” Johnson said, per the team’s website. “I’m still on my first contract. So I feel I can definitely handle 30 touches. I did it last year, basically, with running the ball and catching it out of the backfield.”

Johnson’s claim that he “did it last year, basically,” is, of course, slightly off. Johnson totaled 293 carries and 80 catches in 16 games for the Cardinals, though he did leave the final game early due to an injury. If we take his numbers across the first 15 games (288 carries and 77 catches), he averaged 24.3 touches a week. He’d have to touch the ball around 90 more times over the course of a 16-game season to average 30 a week. 

Regarding the assertion that he’s too young to overuse, well, Johnson is about to head into his age-26 season as well. It should be noted that after handling 492 touches in 1984 and 418 in 1985, Wilder experienced injury issues and became far less effective throughout the rest of his career. Johnson is already a far better player than Wilder ever was, but better players have handled lesser workloads and experienced sharp drop-offs in production as well. There’s a reason the so-called “370-carry rule” exists. 

The Cardinals have a special talent in Johnson, and he should be a foundational offensive player for them for a long time. He can be just as important and just as impactful handling 22-25 touches a game as he can with 30, without the added risk of breaking down his body.