Detroit Lions RB Kerryon Johnson worthy of 20-plus touches a game in 2019

After missing six games with a knee injury last year, and given his head coach's belief in a by-committee approach at the running back position, Kerryon Johnson seems like a good bet to have his workload managed early this season.

But Detroit Lions running backs coach Kyle Caskey said at the start of training camp Wednesday that he won't do anything to artificially limit Johnson's touches.

"Kerryon’s as tough as any of them, so I don’t foresee any problems with anything coming about," Caskey said. "I’m not going to sit there in a game and say, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s got a number of touches, we got to get him out,’ or anything like that. He is one of those guys that he’ll give you everything he’s got. Every player’s a little different when the flow of the game starts hitting them, so we’ll figure it out as we go."

Johnson led the Lions with 641 yards rushing on 118 carries last season, when he spent the early part of the year working behind LeGarrette Blount even though he was clearly the better back.

A second-round pick out of Auburn, Johnson took over as starter in Week 4 and held that spot until he suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 11.

He averaged 15 touches per game last season between rushes and receptions, while the rest of the Lions' running back group – Blount, Theo Riddick, Zach Zenner and Ameer Abdullah – averaged just over 20 touches.

[ Johnson: Darrell Bevell hire 'good news for me' ]

Lions coach Matt Patricia has long espoused the benefits of sharing duties in the backfield, and Johnson has an extensive injury history dating back to college.

Still, he's the Lions' clear-cut No. 1 running back entering camp after finishing second in the NFL with a 5.4-yard-per-carry average last season.

"I think he’s at the spot now where everybody knows he’s talented and now it becomes a mental state of things where he needs to start understanding just the overall game of NFL football," Caskey said. "The speed of things is one thing, but there is a side where once you start understanding what defenses are doing and how they’re doing it, that’s where things can really speed up for him to where he can play faster. And I think that’s where he’s been going."

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Fully recovered from last year's knee injury, Johnson is the most complete back in the Lions' revamped running back room and should be the focal point of an offense geared more towards running the football this fall.

In his previous stops as play caller, new Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell oversaw some of the league's best rushing offenses with the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings. Those teams typically relied on one bell cow running back, though that player – Marshawn Lynch in Seattle and Adrian Peterson in Minnesota – was a more physical runner than Johnson.

The Lions signed C.J. Anderson in free agency and added Ty Johnson in the draft, and Caskey said he plans to give all of his backs – Riddick and Zenner also return from last season – equal opportunity in camp because "there’s not a guy in there that we wouldn’t trust in a game."

As for how the Lions dole out touches once the season begins, Caskey said there's plenty of time to sort that out.

"Nobody’s setting a number, a ceiling, a floor or anything of who’s going to get what touches and all that," Caseky said. "It’s all about getting the running game going and then setting all the other stuff up for us. But whoever the best running back is that comes out of this thing will be getting the touches, whoever’s hot will be getting the touches. And I don’t know who that is right now, but it’s going to be one of those things where they’re pushing each other right now and it’s good because there’s competition."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.