The Bears parted ways with their leading rusher from last season this offseason and rookie Roschon Johnson is one of the players who will be competing for time in the backfield this summer.
Johnson joined the team as a fourth-round pick in April after running for 554 yards and five touchdowns as a complement to Bijan Robinson at Texas last season. He’ll be competing with Khalil Herbert and D’Onta Foreman for a role in the Bears offense and he shared one thing he believes will help his cause in an appearance on NBC Sports Chicago’s Under Center Podcast.
Johnson was a quarterback in high school and he thinks that experience “helps me diagnose things better to put myself in the best position” to succeed in his current position.
“Ultimately, from a character standpoint, I feel like you’re going to get a leader at the position who has played quarterback,” Johnson said. “So, it’s kind of like that element of leadership that comes from a quarterback but at the running back spot that you normally don’t get from other guys. Running backs aren’t necessarily trained to look at defenses like that.”
It remains to be seen how things will stack up in Chicago’s backfield, but Johnson should get plenty of chances to show he can contribute once the Bears get to training camp later this month.