ExtremeRavens Posted Friday at 12:00 PM Posted Friday at 12:00 PM In less than 18 months, Cumberland native and University of Maryland graduate Ty Johnson has ingratiated himself into the community surrounding the Buffalo Bills. He has a home there and recently added a second dog to his family. But if there’s one minor detail Johnson can’t stomach, it’s residents’ devotion to blue cheese and ranch dipping sauces for their famous wings. “I hate blue cheese and ranch, but it’s a thing here,” he said with a chuckle. Asked what he dips his proteins in, Johnson replied, “They already have sauce on them. So you don’t need anything else.” Wing etiquette aside, Johnson has probably already won over many Bills fans. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound running back contributed to Buffalo’s run to the AFC East title and could be a key cog in Sunday’s game against the Ravens at 6:30 p.m. in the AFC divisional round. Johnson has emerged as the team’s primary back on third downs and obvious passing downs, catching 18 passes for 284 yards and three touchdowns and carrying the ball 41 times for 213 yards and one score. He slid to grab a pass from quarterback Josh Allen for a 24-yard touchdown on fourth down in the third quarter of the Bills’ 31-7 trouncing of the Denver Broncos in the AFC wild-card round Sunday. JOSH ALLEN. TY JOHNSON. WOW : #DENvsBUF on CBS/Paramount+: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/mG8n29QALD — NFL (@NFL) January 12, 2025 “I’ve been saying it all year long. Ty Johnson’s the best third-down back in football,” Allen said after the game. “He just makes plays, and Josh has a lot of trust in him as you saw,” coach Sean McDermott said. Johnson’s journey from Western Maryland to Western New York is one of highs, lows and a persistent mother. He grew up rooting for the now-Washington Commanders because his mom Tracy Johnson is a fan. “I was a big Clinton Portis guy,” he said. In June 2014, Johnson, a soon-to-be senior at Fort Hill High, caught the attention of Terps coach Randy Edsall when he clocked a time of 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash at a camp in College Park. During lunch, an assistant coach beckoned Johnson and took him to Edsall’s office where he received an official offer. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he said of being summoned by Edsall. “A whole bunch of guys I was sitting at a table with, they were like, ‘Oh, he’s about to get offered.’ I was like, ‘Maybe?’” Tracy Johnson was thrilled by Maryland’s proposition. “It was a dream come true,” she said. But six games into Johnson’s freshman year in 2015, Edsall was fired. DJ Durkin was hired as the next coach, and Johnson considered walking away from football. “It was one of those things where I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t know if I can keep going,’” he said. “It felt like I was beat up just from camp, the physicality, all that. But then my mom said, ‘You better keep your ass there.’ And I did.” Tracy Johnson was naturally worried about her son, but implored him to stick with it. “He called me one day and said, ‘I can’t do this,’” she said. “I said, ‘Yes, you can. You’re stronger than you think. You have it in you. You don’t want to give up this dream. You’re almost there. Don’t walk away from this.’” Former Terps running back Ty Johnson, shown in the team’s 2017 spring game, considered walking away from the program before encouragement from his mother. (Staff file) As a sophomore in 2016, Johnson set a school single-season record by averaging 9.1 yards per carry. In four years, he amassed 4,196 all-purpose yards to rank third in program history. Those numbers helped Johnson get selected by the Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL draft. After a rookie campaign during which he carried the ball 63 times for 273 yards and caught 24 passes for 109 yards in 16 games, he was waived by the team on Oct. 1, 2020. The very next day, Johnson was claimed by the New York Jets and spent three years there. His best season was 2021, when he ran 61 times for 238 yards and two touchdowns and caught 34 passes for 372 yards and two scores. But shortly after signing a second contract on March 28, 2023, Johnson tore his pectoral muscle during an offseason workout. While rehabbing, Johnson was waived by the Jets. That decision took a toll on Johnson, according to his mother. “It was a pretty dark time as far as depression and fear of the future and where he was going to go and what was going to happen,” Tracy Johnson said. “It was an ugly time.” Four months later, Johnson was signed by the Bills and worked his way to complement starter James Cook and fourth-round rookie Ray Davis in the running back room. Reflecting on the Jets decision, Johnson said he is thankful. “It didn’t happen to me, it happened for me,” he said. “It was just one of those things where I was put in a spot where I had to hone in on my mental health and work on my strength. Just put in the time and effort and got myself prepped to go wherever was next, and that just happened to be the Bills.” Johnson’s emergence this season has coincided with his development as a blocker and pass-catching threat from the backfield. It is a far cry from his second-to-last start for the Jets against the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 12, 2021, when he dropped three passes in the first quarter. “I just had a really bad game in 2021, but other than that, it’s been up ever since then,” he said. “So I’m really just working on it.” In one of the bedrooms of the home in Cumberland that Johnson bought for his mother in 2020, he keeps a white board with only two written messages. One reads, “Miss you Cassius Clay,” a reference to one of his dogs who died last year. The other reads, “Get that Ring and rest all you want AFTER.” “That’s one of the boards where I have my affirmations,” he said. “This year, doing a full OTAs, doing a full camp, doing a full preseason, going through an actual year of playing and everything, it’s tiring, and it’s a long year. But I want to keep going and stay present and get a ring, and then I can rest all I want.” Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun. View the full article Quote
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