Arizona Cardinals: Grades vs Chicago Bears

The Cardinals drafted David Johnson and added Chris Johnson as a free agent this summer as backups for Ellington.

And true to his word, over the first two weeks of the season, David Johnson has seen the field for just 21 snaps, touching the ball a total of seven times. Take that, New England. Colin Kaepernick is completing 69.4 percent of his passes for 500 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Like I said, Johnson is a low risk, high reward player at this point in his career.

And if David Johnson can continue to impress the coaching staff and convince Arians he deserves a larger role on this team, the rookie tailback out of Northern Iowa might just become the most valuable player in this backfield sooner rather than later in terms of fantasy (as well as real life) football value. “But hopefully I can be effective nonetheless”.

They had a great connection against the Bears (0-2), with Fitzgerald catching three of Palmer’s TDs.

Along with Johnson’s team record return on the game’s opening kickoff, there were two long pass-interference penalties by Chicago’s Kyle Fuller and Alan Ball that led to touchdowns for the Cardinals.

The star on offense though belonged to receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

This appears to be the way things will go, too, barring injury.

But as good as the team has been, some changes could be coming this week on the offensive line. How did the playing time look?

Johnson wasn’t in Arizona past year , of course, but he’s apparently a quick study when it comes to team history. Ellington showed some versatility last season and the Cardinals are hoping he is only out for a few weeks.

But that disappointment has been fuel for the Cardinals’ fire thus far in 2015.

Johnson scored on a 55-yard catch and run against the Saints in Week 1.

Cardinals guard Mike Iupati will say hello to his ex-teammates when…

The Cardinals are 15-2 in Palmer’s last 17 starts. He last started this hot in 2005, a decade ago.

In Week 3 of Brown’s rookie season, he caught four passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns against the 49ers. And he doesn’t look anywhere near finished climbing those lists.

Veteran running back Matt Forte has been a huge part of the Bears’ success on the ground, as he has a total of 202 yards and one touchdown on 39 carries in two games, but rookie running back Jeremy Langford also flashed some of his potential in Chicago’s loss to Arizona. That has quarterback Carson Palmer looking forward to watching Johnson get better with each play Sunday, saying, “He is one of those guys that, the longer you feed him and the more opportunities he gets, the better the chances are he rips one off for 30 or 60 yards”. His return is tied for the second longest return in the history of the league. And Johnson largely glided to the end zone without breaking stride.

“It’s a great feeling”, Johnson said. “The kick return team was giving me good holes to read and that’s all I had to do, read where I had to run”.