It was the third preseason game last season when St. Louis Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson suffered a knee injury that essentially cost him his starting job. It was an injury to another corner, this time E.J. Gaines, that might have given it back to Johnson.
"I don't look at it like that," Johnson said on the team's broadcast. "I pray for the best for him for a speedy recovery. We always say it's always next man up."
Last year, Gaines was the next man up when Johnson went down. Gaines never looked back on his way to an impressive rookie season in which he held on to the job almost the entire season.
Now, with Gaines battling a foot injury that looks like it will keep him out a while, the roles are reversed. And Johnson showed Friday night that if indeed he has to step back into his former role, he's more than ready to do so.
Johnson played only two series in the Rams' 18-3 loss Friday night to the Oakland Raiders, but nevertheless he made his presence felt early and often. Playing in front of about 50 to 60 friends and family members from nearby Stockton, California, Johnson finished with a tackle, an interception and two passes defended. He did have a facemask penalty that cost the Rams 15 yards but immediately redeemed himself by coming up with the interception. He jumped an inside slant route at the goal line to kill a potential scoring drive.
It was a tantalizing reminder of Johnson's physical talent. At 6-foot-2, 208 pounds, Johnson is the closest thing the Rams have to the bigger, more physical corner preferred by teams around the league. Despite that size, Johnson seemed to get lost in the shuffle after his injury in 2014.
By the end of the season, Johnson had 36 tackles and three interceptions in nine games. He played mostly on the outside with Gaines moving into the slot when the Rams went to nickel formations. But Johnson was also never really back to full strength until this offseason. He said Friday night that he's no longer thinking about the knee issue.
"No, not at all," Johnson said. "You can't. It was feeling 100 [percent] on our first break, when we got those four months off after the season. I stayed in St. Louis for the most part, not because I was injured but because I wanted to."
Whether Johnson will get the chance to stay in St. Louis beyond this season remains to be seen. He's scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the year. But with Gaines ailing, Johnson figures to get a shot to regain his job in the short term. And if he can carry over Friday's performance into consistent production in the regular season, maybe even longer.
