Chiefs’ Derrick Johnson is gaining confidence in surgically-repaired Achilles

When Derrick Johnson turns on the film, he sees the progress in small doses.

“It’s being able to shoot a gap and not get hit because I’m a little bit faster,” said the Chiefs’ 34-year-old inside linebacker, who is still working his way back into form following the second Achilles tear of his career last December. “It’s inches here and there ... I feel like my movement has been better in the box, not that we’re stopping the run better. But my movement has been better.”

Johnson is so competitive that although he should be applauded for returning to full-contact practice only seven months after the injury, it is no consolation for the Chiefs’ all-time leader in tackles, someone who is clearly eager to get back to the daring, destructive and exciting force he was prior to the injury.

“It’s a different process — it’s tough,” Johnson said of his recovery. “It takes time, just because that (Achilles) tendon doesn’t have a lot of blood flow through there. I think I was stronger when I first went back to football the first time, just because I went through offseason training. I was out there through OTAs with the guys. This time I wasn’t. I had to sit down and still rehab, and come back in training camp.”

Remember, the first time Johnson tore his Achilles, which occurred in the Chiefs’ 2014 season opener, he had a full 11 months to prepare, and those four additional months made a huge difference when it came to allowing Johnson to fully trust the leg and train for speed. He also got more time to hone his on-field instincts and figure out what he could and couldn’t do long before the regular season began.

This time Johnson didn’t start practicing until training camp this year and has essentially been learning on the fly. Still, through eight games, he is third on the team in tackles with 41 and remains valued for, among other things, his football knowledge and cover ability.

“I think he’s been fine, you know? He’s played a lot of plays, man,” defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said. “I’m happy with what he’s done. He’s blessed with great instincts — he still does that.”

Sutton also appreciates Johnson’s adapatability on the sideline. He’s played so much football he understands exactly what adjustments Sutton and his staff wants to make on the fly, which allows him to essentially serve as another coach on the field.

“It’s critical —you have to be able to adjust in a game,” Sutton said. “You’ve got to be flexible, and he’s seen enough things that none of that is really hard for him to do.”

Still, there’s no doubt Johnson wants to get back to the player he was in 2015, when he mounted a legitimate all-pro case by racking up a team-high 116 tackles — 38 more than the next closest player — often in dazzling form. It was nothing to see Johnson regularly abandon his gap, dart underneath oncoming linemen and chop down the legs of the surprised running back in the backfield. To borrow a professional wrestling parlance, it was his finishing move, of sorts, and few linebackers in the league were as daring, disruptive or fun to watch as the 6-foot-3, 242-pound Johnson was at his apex.

“Even though I want to be more like myself and get more daring, I still have to make educated guesses — or make the right decisions — at the same time,” said Johnson, who said he has conciously made the decision to not be as daring this year. “It’s like (you learn), here you can take a chance. But here? Can’t do that.”

Sutton, however, said the staff still trusts Johnson to take chances, and added that if Johnson isn’t taking as many chances as he used to, that decision 100 percent lies with the player.

“We want guys to be where they’re supposed to be, but it’s hard to find instinctive guys that can do things,” Sutton said. “Not everybody can, and not everybody’s willing to do those things. Anytime you’re a guy that plays like that, you’ve got to have a high percentage of success ratio. When the risk becomes greater than the reward, then you say ‘Hey, you gotta reel it back in, man.’ If you don’t, that’s where you get in trouble. Defense is about knowing where your help is at. Take calculated risks, not needless ones.”

The good news is that Johnson sees progress. His old cat-like athleticism, he feels, is slowly coming back, and he believes he’ll only get faster as he gains more trust in the surgically-repaired Achilles and continues to train over the course of the season.

Take the Chiefs’ 31-30 loss to the Raiders on Oct. 19, for instance, when he flashed some of his old juice by reading quarterback Derek Carr’s eyes and undercutting a short ball intended for a receiver, tipping it into the air.

“That’s 7 or 8 yards,” Johnson said of the ground he covered on the play. “I may not (have) trusted (the Achilles before), because I wasn’t getting there. It doesn’t hurt, it just, naturally, doesn’t (move) as well. But is it getting there? Yeah, it’s getting there.”

The Chiefs could use a throwback performance from Johnson on Sunday, when he returns to his native Texas to face the Dallas Cowboys at 3:25 p.m. at AT&T Stadium. With left tackle Tyron Smith, center Travis Frederick and right guard Zack Martin — three all-pro linemen in their primes — the Cowboys boast one of the league’s best units up front, not to mention one of the league’s most complete backs in Ezekiel Elliott, who can run over or around you in the Cowboys’ terrifyingly-effective zone-heavy running scheme.

According to Johnson, the Chiefs — who rank 28th in the league in rush defense (131.1 yards per game) — are aware of the emphasis that must be placed on bottling up the league’s second-best rush offense (150.6 yards per game). Johnson understands that he is a big part of that, just like he is every week.

“It’s one of those games where, if you want to have a chance to win, you’ve got to stop the run,” Johnson said. “We haven’t been too good in that area the last few weeks ... but we seem to still pull out the wins. But at some point, we have to bring those (rush) yards (allowed) down. Have to.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Chiefs’ Derrick Johnson is gaining confidence in surgically-repaired Achilles."