After missing his entire rookie season with a string of hamstring injuries, safety Matt Johnson has changed the way we lifts weights and, in doing so, believes he’s become less susceptible to the sort of injury that kept him off the field in 2012.
“We’ve done more hamstring work instead of putting on 400 pounds and squatting,” Johnson said this week, per the Dallas Morning News. “When I was in college, I did that some. When you get to the pros, and playing at safety, I don’t need to squat 500 pounds. We did more position specific and more dynamic work. You don’t need to be a bodybuilder to play football. I was big enough.”
In his second year in the league, Johnson will compete for the starting job opposite Barry Church and, despite a very limited sample size, it seems the team remains high on Johnson and believes he has a real shot at it.
“His ball skills are incredible,” second-year cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “When the ball is in the air, he knows how to go up and play it.”
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