Duke Johnson – December 23, 2021
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Thursday, December 23, 2021
RB Duke Johnson
(I followed you during your career at UM and I’m puzzled where this pass-catching, scatback specialist reputation comes from considering you’ve proven yourself as a runner. Does it bother you to be viewed as a pass-catching back?) – “No. Not anymore. When I was younger, when I came out of college and I did what I did in college, I thought I proved myself that I could do it and I didn’t get the opportunity to do it when I was younger. Yeah, it used to bother me when I was younger. But as I got older and more mature and more years in the league, I learned that I can’t control that. There’s nothing I can do about that. So whatever role I do have, I have to embrace it and move forward. That’s kind of what I did.”
(Where do you think that came from?) – “Which?”
(The pass…) – “No idea. To be honest, I really can’t tell you. I don’t know. I think it’s because I can catch the ball. That’s something I can do. I really couldn’t give you a definitive answer on why or how that came about. I can’t.”
(How important is it for you to prove that you can be a running running back?) – “I don’t think it’s important for me. At this stage in my career, not really. My thing is just doing whatever they ask – whether it’s running, catching, special teams. I don’t really care to prove anything to anyone anymore because I know who I am and what I can do. That may not be what the team needs. No, I’m not at a proving stage anymore.”
(You said a second ago you know who you are and you know what you can do. The obvious question is who are you and what can you do?) – “I’m Duke Johnson and I can do what the team needs. (laughter)”
(Well, tell me about your confidence in being able to run between the tackles because we saw you getting some tough yards the other day and maybe it opens some eyes. Where does that ability come from, do you think?) – “To run the ball?”
(Yeah, just in terms of your determination, strength. What is it the enables you to be as effective as you are getting tough yardage?) – “It’s a mixture of things. I think it’s not mainly just me. I think it’s a mixture of play-calling, blocking and whether it’s just me trying to be as physical as I can to get every yard that I can. But it’s not just me. It’s not just a Duke show. I know it’s getting portrayed as I did everything but that wasn’t the case.”
(What are your expectations? Now that you put up the 107 yards last week, what are your expectations for yourself moving forward in this offense?) – “The same expectations I put on myself every year. Make the plays when my number is called. Whether it’s 22 carries or two carries, it’s just make the plays and be as efficient as I can when my number is called.”
(Can you talk about the dynamic of the depth at running back on this team all of a sudden? What’s it like now being in a more crowded running back room between you proving you need to be on the field, RB Phillip Lindsay coming back – we know what he’s capable of – RB Myles Gaskin, RB Salvon Ahmed now having more time under them since their return?) – “I wasn’t even thinking of that kind of direction. I was thinking more of last week we had three healthy bodies and now we have nine. I wasn’t thinking of the actual talent around the backfield. It was kind of depleted last week and now we have nine guys. I don’t know. We all have the same mindset, which is do what we need to do, do what we’re asked and do what the team needs. It doesn’t matter who is in or who is coming back or who is not here because we all believe in the same thing, and that’s doing what we need to do to help the team win.”
(This Saints defense is obviously very good against the run. They just came off a shutout of the defending Super Bowl champs. What stands out to you when you watch them?) – “The way they depend on each other. They’re very sound in what they do. They know that if one guy fits the A-gap, the next guy will have the B-gap. There’s not too many people trying to do more than what they’re supposed to. They play fast. They play physical. The biggest thing is they believe in each other to the point where they do their job and only their job.”
(I wanted to ask you – your career, seven years. Obviously that’s a nice, long, healthy span for a tailback. How much do you feel like you’ve still got left? I know you feel like you don’t have anything to prove but it doesn’t look like you’re done.) – “Yeah, that’s hard to say. I haven’t thought about retiring. I haven’t thought about that in no way, shape or form, so it’s really hard for me to tell how much I have. I think for me, that’s really a day-to-day thing because I think in the game of football, something could change in 24 hours. As of now, I’m not sure how much I could give you. I just know I feel good and I’m happy.”
(We haven’t asked you yet about being signed to the active roster. Tell me when you’re walking off the field after your performance against the Jets on Sunday. Are you kind of thinking to yourself, ‘Somebody is signing me to their active roster after this, no question?’ And take me through the process of how it came about.” – “No. So actually, after the game, I was really just overwhelmed with the way the game went and just being happy with the way I played and we winning the game and still moving forward. I really wasn’t too concerned with the active roster because again, that’s not up to me. I did what I had to do and that’s not my call. I was just kind of focusing on what I can focus on and control what I can control. That’s one of the things that I can’t, so I didn’t really put too much thought into it. I just let it happen as it happened.”
(That said though, once you did get the call…) – “It was a great feeling. Definitely a great feeling.”
(Did you feel like almost, I don’t want to say disrespected but the fact that you should have been on active roster all along maybe?) – “Not really. I don’t take everything as disrespect. There’s 32 teams and none of them felt at the time that I was ready. I didn’t take it as disrespect. I just took it as get better and move forward.”
