Cowboys safety Matt Johnson was drafted by the team in the fourth round of the 2012 draft, but they still don’t really know what they have in the Eastern Washington product.
This is because since coming to Dallas, Johnson has been limited to preseason action--and he’s barely seen any of that. Johnson has appeared in a total of two preseason games. He missed his rookie season with persistent hamstring issues and then, last year, he spent the season on the IR once again after spraining a foot in the Hall of Fame Game.
So going into 2014, Johnson is fully aware that he has quite a lot to prove.
“I have to own it, there’s no other way,” Johnson said, per ESPN Dallas. “I’ve been hurt. I haven’t proven myself. I haven’t proven why they drafted me.”
Johnson believes he’s gotten better over the past few years from the mental side of things--he just hasn’t had the opportunity to take what he’s learned onto the field for any extended period of time until now.
“Mentally is the only way,” Johnson said. “I’ve tried to get better at my footwork when I’ve been out there, but I’m grasping the game better. It’s slowed down for me definitely from my rookie minicamp to now. The game is a lot slower. I want to get in a groove each day. I see myself progressing whereas before it was progress, progress, progress, have a setback. It would be nice to keep it going for a while.”
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