RB Duke Johnson Announces Retirement

Boasting an eight-year career spanning time with five NFL franchises, running back Duke Johnson is now known as one of the league’s best receiving backs in recent history. Having not appeared on an NFL roster since the end of the 2022 season, the now 30-year-old Johnson has made the decision to officially hang up his cleats, announcing this retirement decision on Instagram.

Johnson came to the league after a storied career at the University of Miami. A five-star recruit, Johnson became an immediate factor as a true freshman, rushing for 947 yards for 10 touchdowns and adding one score through the air and two more on kickoff returns. After a junior season that saw him rush for 1,652 yards and 10 touchdowns and receive for 421 yards and three touchdowns, Johnson announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the draft.

Johnson left Coral Gables as the Hurricanes’ all-time leader in career rushing yards, despite only playing for three seasons. The school has produced such NFL rushers as Chuck Foreman, Ottis Anderson, Cleveland Gary, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, Najeh Davenport, Willis McGahee, Frank Gore, and Lamar Miller. Johnson outgained them all at the collegiate level and holds that record to this day.

Johnson was selected by the Browns in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He was the sixth rusher taken off the board behind Todd Gurley, Melvin Gordon, T.J. Yeldon, Ameer Abdullah, and Tevin Coleman and was taken just nine picks before David Johnson.

As a rookie, Duke split starting duties with second-year back Isaiah Crowell while also serving as the team’s primary receiving back. The two would continue in those roles for the next two years. Johnson made the most with the carries he was granted, averaging 4.3 yards per carry over his years in Cleveland, but he truly shined as a receiver for the Browns.

During that 2015 season, Johnson finished third on the team in receiving yards behind only tight end Gary Barnidge and wide receiver (and fellow Hurricane) Travis Benjamin. He was third on the team in 2016, as well. In 2017, though, Johnson was actually the Browns’ leading receiver with 74 catches for 693 yards. His 348 rushing yards that year helped him to lead the team in scrimmage yards, and his seven total touchdowns were the most on Cleveland’s roster that year. His efforts earned him a three-year, $15.61MM contract extension.

In 2018, the arrival of a rookie Nick Chubb and a veteran Carlos Hyde saw a huge cut to Johnson’s carries, though he still averaged 5.0 yards per rush. He still proved a major asset as a receiver, as well, with 62 catches for 429 yards, but with the emergence of Chubb, Johnson became an unnecessary cost. Cleveland traded Johnson to the Texans in exchange for a conditional fourth-rounder that ended up turning into the third-round pick the Browns would use to draft Jacob Phillips.

Hyde would follow Johnson to Houston and would take RB1 duties, though Johnson would still contribute with 410 rushing yards and 410 receiving yards. The Texans would trade for David Johnson in 2020. A talented receiving back in his own right, David’s acquisition led to diminished usage of Duke. Houston would cut Johnson at the end of the season.

Over the final two years of his career, Johnson saw minimal usage as he spent time on the Jaguars’ practice squad, started four of five game appearances for the Dolphins in 2021, and was a practice squad elevation for one game for the Bills in 2022. Those final two years were the first of his career in which the running back had more rushing than receiving yards.

That fact perhaps underlines the feats of Johnson’s career. Despite his rushing pedigree at Miami, Johnson came into the NFL and provided his talents as a bailout option for the league’s worst team at the time, getting utilized early and often. Since his arrival in Cleveland in 2015, only Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, and Amari Cooper have more receiving yards for the Browns over that period.

Circumstances prevented Johnson from ever taking a leading back role in his career, but the 30-year-old made the most of every opportunity he was granted, regardless of the role he was assigned. Though other backs tended to earn carries over him, Johnson was hard to keep off the field thanks to his impressive receiving abilities. He ends his NFL career with 2,265 rushing yards for 11 touchdowns and 2,870 receiving yards for 12 touchdowns.