Expected to Continue Improving in 2015: WR Charles Johnson

During the 2014 NFL season Charles Johnson was one of the most under-the-radar players in the entire league. While he was promisingly productive during the final half of the season, most fantasy football fans likely don’t know much, if anything, about Charles Johnson.

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Some background on the story of Johnson, he played college football at Grand Valley State University and was one of the most productive players in the Division II level his junior and senior year. After college he declared for the 2013 NFL Draft and was selected in the seventh round by the Green Bay Packers. He was then placed on the Packers practice squad, where he would last less than two months before the Cleveland Browns would sign him.

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In 2014, he was signed by the Minnesota Vikings off Cleveland’s practice squad on September 20th. He would play in 12 games for the Vikings, starting in six, tallying 475 yards and two touchdowns.

While 475 yards and two touchdowns in 12 games doesn’t seem overwhelming, it was a good amount of production from a player who only started six games, is in his third offense in two years and is catching passes from a rookie quarterback.

It’s hard to tell whether or not Johnson was talented enough to earn starting time over 2013 first-rounder Cordarrelle Patterson, slot receiver Jarius Wright, and 2013 UDFA Adam Thielen, or if those three players were playing so poorly that Johnson was forced into a starting spot. While the truth might be somewhere in between those two scenarios, what stands out about Johnson is his massive 15.3 yards per reception (YPR) which was good enough for the 16th highest YPR by receivers in 2014. That number put Johnson right behind the likes of Mike Evans and Julio Jones and just in front of Calvin Johnson and A.J. Green. While I’m not saying Charles Johnson is the next Calvin Johnson, it should be noted that his impressive YPR could be indicative of a larger role in the Vikings offense in 2015.

When looking at how productive wide receivers can be, YPR is undoubtedly the most important statistic because while Raiders WR James Jones tallied 666 yards and Johnson tallied 475 yards last season, Jones did so on 73 receptions (9.1 YPR) and Johnson did so on 31 REC (15.3 YPR).

While Johnson showed last season that he has a good work ethic and can be a decent route-runner, which are both huge reasons why he started over the uber-athetlic Patterson, he needs to improve on his ball security. A play where that weakness was on full display occurred in the Vikings Week 14 game against the New York Jets.

In the second quarter, with the Vikings up 14-12 on the Jets 23 yard-line. Bridgewater snaps the ball and Johnson runs from the right slot to the left side catching a good pass at around the six yard-line. It was terrible coverage by the Jets and no player was within seven or eight yards of Johnson but he stalls after catching the ball and then gets tackled from behind before the endzone, fumbling the ball. Luckily Vikings FB Jerome Felton landed on the ball, scoring the touchdown, but it was a play that if Johnson showed hustle and spatial awareness of the two Jets players in his vicinity, he would have easily scored it himself.

That rookie mistake is something that can be corrected, however Johnson is going to be 26-years old during the 2015 season, essentially his second season of significant playing time. It is uncertain as to how Johnson will develop in the NFL, as he is the age of a three or four year NFL veteran and came out of a small school like Grand Valley State.

Entering the 2015 season, it should go without saying that the Vikings coaching staff will start Johnson out as the number two wide receiver behind Mike Wallace. The Vikings are too frustrated with Patterson to give him any significant role in the offense, Wright is a slot receiver, Stefon Diggs is a rookie who also projects as a slot receiver and Adam Thielen, while he is a fan favorite for being a homegrown Minnesotan, isn’t going to threaten anybody’s job on the team and would be lucky if he doesn’t get cut in the preseason. The number two wide receiver spot is Johnson’s to keep as long as he keeps his YPR up and isn’t a liability like Patterson.

Additionally, the continued maturation of the 2014 Pepsi Rookie of the Year award winner, Teddy Bridgewater (and he would have been NFL Rookie of the Year award if Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t have a great catch in a meaningless game for a team that limped to 6-10) should aid the production of Johnson. Cleaner passes, an improved long-ball, and the already elite throwing-under-pressure skill that Bridgewater possesses should mean great things for any Vikings receiver that sees any playing time

If Charles Johnson takes a step forward and plays all season long at the number two wide receiver spot, something along the lines of 50 receptions, 800 yards and six or seven touchdowns should be a fair number to predict as a floor- but as the potential favorite target of Bridgewater, a 1000 yard ceiling isn't out of the question.

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