Breaking: Duke Johnson Jr. Traded to Houston

Here's a little bit of fantasy news this morning. As predicted, Houston has acquired a true backup, and likely tandem, to their backfield. They have traded their 4th round pick in the 2020 draft, which can become a 3rd rounder, to the Cleveland Browns for Duke Johnson Jr.

The impact on the Houston Texans:

The Texans have found a perfect fit for their backup running back position and compliment to Lamar Miller. As I mentioned following the release of D'Onta Foreman, fantasy owners shouldn't get too excited about the Lamar Miller situation, as he provides very little beyond his consistent, yet mediocre, rushing yardage. Bringing in Duke Johnson Jr. will provide them with an excellent change of pace back and dynamic receiving threat out of the backfield. His stats don't tell the whole story, as the Browns simply didn't use him right. However, even in his limited usage, he made a large dent through the air -- he compiled, on average, nearly 60 receptions and 550 yards per season for the Browns. I remind you, for the majority of his career, this was all alongside dysfunctional coaching, poor QB play, and major logjams at the running back position. Now, entering an offense with a clear need for his skill-set, an excellent quarterback who will need to dump the ball off quite often behind a suspect offensive line, and the limited depth at the position -- Johnson's upside is enormous. Automatically, I am bumping him up into my top 30 in PPR RB rankings, and he has the opportunity to become a top 15 RB in PPR scoring by the season's end.

The impact on the Cleveland Browns:

This certainly frees up the running back log jam up a bit for Cleveland, and it does carry a slight impact on Nick Chubb, but not as drastic. I will likely move him up a spot or two. He isn't quite the receiving back; but then again, he never really needed to be one over his career at Georgia or on the Browns, especially with Sony Michel and Duke Johnson Jr., respectively, baring these loads. Johnson's receptions certainly may be absorbed throughout the offense, to the likes of OBJ, Landry and Njoku, but Chubb should also see an uptick in receiving for the time being. The biggest beneficiary to the trading, though, is Kareem Hunt. After serving his eight game suspension, Kareem Hunt will be the true receiving compliment in the backfield. In his 11 games for Kansas City last year, he averaged over 10 yards per route and 7 TDs -- IN ONLY 11 games! He will move up in my rankings a bit as well, but having him sit on the bench over the eight game suspension will be a hard pill to swallow for fantasy owners, but he could be a true difference maker for cheap.