Cincinnati Bengals
New life for Jeremi Johnson
By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted November 2, 2009 8:11 PM ET
Every time he walks to his locker, Bengals fullback Jeremi Johnson is reminded why he's made every sacrifice to be there. Atop his locker is a picture of his daughter Jai RayAnn Johnson.
She's got a smile that's contagious, a bow on her head and her daddy's heart. Born a year ago, Johnson held her first birthday party on Saturday. Jai had two costumes -- an angel and a devil -- it's a dichotomy her father knows well.
As recently as 2006, Johnson was the highest paid player in the league at his position, but last November the Bengals released him with an injury settlement. Just a month into her life, Jai's father was out of a job after missing all of the 2008 season with a knee injury, suffered in the preseason.
"I was hurt. It was bad," Johnson said, remembering last year's off-week when he was nursing his knee and wondering about his future. "That took a lot of the pressure off, her being born. That took a lot of the pressure off being hurt, her being born. God does everything for a reason."
A year later, Johnson is thankful. Thankful to be back with the Bengals, thankful to be (relatively) healthy, thankful to be a father.
"I want to be successful for her," Johnson said. "I want to continue to be successful."
Johnson's road to the NFL has never seemed very easy. A three-year starter at Indiana, he was released from his scholarship there and finished his career at Western Kentucky.
The Bengals drafted Johnson in the fourth round of the 2003 draft and made the team as a rookie. In the next several years, the Bengals' offense seem to go as Johnson did -- when he was at his best, so were the Bengals. In April of 2006, he was rewarded with a new contract that made him the highest-paid fullback in the NFL.
"If you go back to some of the years that we were rolling pretty good on offense, he was having good years, I'd think that's safe to say," offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski said. "He was staying healthy and in good shape."
And the second part has been the rub. Fullbacks are supposed to be big, but sometimes Johnson was bigger than his coaches would have liked. Coming into the 2008 training camp, Johnson was heavier than he had been told to report and spent weeks working out with the Bengals' strength and conditioning staff instead of practicing with his team. He missed the first two preseason games, then played in the next two before suffering a right knee injury before the first game of the season. The Bengals placed him on Reseve/Injured list and then came to an injury settlement, releasing him in late November.
Johnson was mocked by fans and the media, and isn't too quick to revisit 2008 -- "I'm not getting into that."
The Bengals said they were moving on -- although running backs coach James Anderson and strength and conditioning coach Ray Oliver kept in touch with Johnson out of genuine concern for the player.
Daniel Coats, a converted tight end, played most of 2008 at fullback as the team struggled through a forgettable 4-11-1 season. During free agency, the Bengals signed Vikings fullback Naufahu Tahi to an offer sheet, but the Vikings matched it, meaning their top free agent target stayed elsewhere and the Bengals were still without a fullback.
Several other fullbacks visited, but the Bengals never found the right fit. And then right before the draft, the Bengals resigned Johnson.
"We'd gone through free agency and were approaching the draft and no matter what people think, there's no guarantee you can get what you want in the draft," Bratkowski said. "So we couldn't go in and say we could get a fullback in the draft -- or you could get one and it wouldn't be a guarantee he'd be an NFL player."
The Bengals drafted a fullback -- BYU's Fui Vakapuna -- in the seventh round of the draft and then signed another in the form undrafted college free agents (Chris Pressley). Vakapuna was even listed as the starter on the depth chart as training camp began, with Johnson third, behind even another fullback, J.D. Runnels.
"He could've retired or given up or not worked himself back into shape, but I think he realized how much he loves the game," Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer said. "He realized how small his window is to play and he needed to take every advantage to play that he was given here and he got back into shape, learned the offense again and showed that he has the heart and desire to still play the game."
After an outstanding camp, Vakapuna was released and Pressley was signed to the practice squad, and Johnson was back as the team's fullback.
Although the fullback position was a major storyline on Hard Knocks, the position hasn't been very visible since HBO left town.
"That's good -- you don't want to notice a fullback not playing well," Palmer said. "When you don't notice a fullback, he's playing well."
There hasn't been much to notice of Johnson, instead, you see Cedric Benson challenging for the NFL's rushing lead and the Bengals rushing out to a 5-2 record at the bye week.
"It's an on-going process, his comeback is an on-going process and to this point I'd say we're satisfied with a lot of things he's done," Bratkowski said.
And the Bengals are asking him to do more than ever. As part of the off-season revamp of the offense, the fullback is being asked to play some tight end and vice versa. Johnson, along with Coats and J.P. Foschi, are being asked to line up in the backfield or the line of scrimmage. It's a different role, but one Johnson says he's enjoys so far.
"It allows me to do a lot of different things, things I haven't done before," Johnson said. "(It's) allowed me to show my versatility -- blocking off the line, coming out of the backfield blocking. A lot of guys couldn't do that who have played football their whole life. (It's) allowing me to do things that no other fullbacks in the league do, that teams don't allow them to do. I'm thankful. I'm happy for that, doing things that tight ends do - motioning, being a true fullback. I'm enjoying it. Showing them I can do more than one thing."
More than anything, he's enjoying being back and part of the team and contributing to a winning season.
"I think anyone who has to walk away from the game for a year, six months or even a month, realizes how much they love it. I think he's that guy," Palmer said. "He was at home watching NFL games on his couch and he missed it. He knew he had a lot of work to do to be back on an NFL roster and he's done whatever it takes. He's been in shape, he's played through injuries, he's been banged up and still shown up on Sunday, it's awesome having him around."
Johnson's happy to be healthy (despite an ice pack on his left knee -- "a sprain" he said won't keep him out of Sunday's game with Baltimore) and contributing. This isn't about proving anyone wrong, this is about doing what he needs to do to be successful in football and in life.
"I've got nothing to prove. I'm just playing football. I'm out here," Johnson said. "I've done the impossible. Came back. Done things. Been successful. I'm just enjoying life right now."
Johnson's not one to smile when he talks to the media, he doesn't even smile when he talks about how much he's enjoying life. But the smile made a brief appearance when he talked about Jai's Halloween-birthday party.
"Her grandmother dressed up. Everybody dressed up. She dressed -- she was a devil that changed in to an angel," Johnson said, and the thought of his daughter erased his scowl. "I was Bigfoot. I had a Bigfoot costume, scared the kids. I didn't put it on until late at night. She had a little pitchfork, then she changed. I picked that out for her."
Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, News
Tags: Bengals, Bob Bratkowski, Carson Palmer, Chris Pressley, Fui Vakapuna, James Anderson, Jeremi Johnson, Ray Oliver
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