HOUSTON -- David Johnson knows there's pressure.

Because of who he was traded for -- three-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins -- there’s pressure on the Houston Texans and general manager and coach Bill O’Brien for the running back to have a huge season.

Johnson said he puts the pressure on himself, too -- at least “a little bit” -- but says, “honestly, I think I’ve always had pressure since 2016.

“I like the pressure,” Johnson said. “It makes me want to be better. It makes me want to compete more and do everything I can to prove the doubters [wrong] or want to make [Bill] O’Brien look good and want to make this organization look good.”

The 28-year-old Johnson, who signed a three-year, $39 million extension in 2018, has a cap hit of nearly $11.2 million in 2020 -- significantly more than 2019 starter Carlos Hyde made in his lone season in Houston ($2.8 million), when he rushed for 1,070 yards. Johnson is owed $9 million in 2021, but just $2.1 million is guaranteed. He knows he'll be under the microscope this season.

“We have high expectations for him,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien has said since the start of training camp that Johnson has not only impressed in the way he has picked up the offense, but he arrived “in fantastic shape.” Earlier this month, O’Brien said on the Texans All Access podcast that “pound for pound, [Johnson is] probably in the best shape of anybody on our team” and the focus is just making sure he can stay healthy so he can be fed the football this season.

In his first two NFL seasons, Johnson’s talent was undeniable. He emerged late in the 2015 season, when the Cardinals lost the NFC Championship Game to the Panthers, and in 2016 he gained more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage. But he suffered a knee injury in Week 17 of the 2016 season and then fractured his wrist in Week 1 of 2017 that kept him out the rest of the season.

Johnson, 28, dealt with a back injury early last season before an ankle injury kept him out of most of the Cardinals' Week 7 game against the Giants as well as the following week's game against the Saints. Arizona traded for running back Kenyan Drake the week of the Saints game, and he took over as the Cardinals’ new starting running back.

With those durability issues, as well as potential issues in his efficiency, it’s fair to wonder whether Johnson can be an effective featured back for the Texans in 2020.

Under O’Brien, the Texans have typically had one running back handle the bulk of the work. In his first three years with the team, Lamar Miller served as a three-down back. When Miller tore his ACL last year in the preseason, Hyde was acquired and assumed the largest rushing workload of his NFL career. Miller missed four games through his three years in Houston and averaged 238.7 carries per season.

Even with a dynamic talent like Deshaun Watson at quarterback, the Texans have relied heavily on the ground game in each of the past two seasons en route to a pair of AFC South championships. Houston has ranked in the top 10 in the NFL rushing yards in each of the past two seasons, and it ranked third and 12th in those two years in rushing attempts. The Texans also ranked in the bottom half of the NFL in each of the past two seasons in passing attempts.

With Duke Johnson in the backfield mix as well, could the Texans have both running backs on the field at the same time? If they do, it will require a much different look than they showed last season. In 2019, the Texans ran 34 plays with two running backs on the field, which ranked 28th in the NFL. It’s a small sample size, but of the 34 plays, only 10 were passing plays.

It’s hard to see Duke Johnson with a drastically bigger role than he had with Hyde last season, when his skill set more complemented the No. 1 back rather than replicated it. Duke Johnson was Houston’s primary third-down back in 2019, and adding David Johnson gives the Texans more versatility there as well. David Johnson averaged 10.7 yards per reception in his five seasons with Arizona and had 80 receptions in his breakout 2016 season.

Duke Johnson averaged 4.9 yards per carry and 9.3 yards per reception last year, proving effective in a limited role behind Hyde. He has also played 16 games in all five of his NFL seasons.

“We’ve worked hard in the offseason to come up with different packages relative to some of the things we’ve done in the past,” O’Brien said. “Some of those packages obviously involve David and Duke. Both guys are, I believe, three-down backs. They can play on all three downs. They can run it. They can catch the ball out of the backfield.”

While the Texans didn’t run many plays out of two-back sets last season, David Johnson said he has done it enough in the past in Arizona with Andre Ellington, Chris Johnson and Chase Edmonds that he is “pretty comfortable with it.”

“I think it’ll really help out our offense,” Johnson said, “because they’re not going to know who’s going out of the backfield, who’s blocking, or if we’re both going out of the backfield, who’s lining up at the receiver or who’s staying in to run the ball.”

Ultimately, the Texans are hoping the running backs’ skill sets don’t cancel each other out, but instead make it more difficult for opponents to disguise their defenses, giving Watson a clearer picture.

“We’re going to be a lethal threat, me and Duke,” David Johnson said. “Not just as running, but like you said, as catching the ball. Really making defenses have to try to figure out if they go base or sub. We’re going to try to really expose their defense.”