Player
Ty Johnson
RB · Bills
A career receiving-to-rushing ratio close to 1:1 is unusual for a running back; it shows Johnson is paid for pass-game value, not as a traditional ball-carrier.
Seven seasons, three teams — and his career receiving yards (1,277) are now closing in on his rushing yards (1,470).
TrendTy Johnson full production by season + team
| Year | Team | G | Car | Ru Yds | Rec | Rec Yds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | DET | 16 | 63 | 273 | 24 | 109 |
| 2020 | DET/NYJ | 11 | 54 | 254 | 16 | 99 |
| 2021 | NYJ | 15 | 61 | 238 | 34 | 372 |
| 2022 | NYJ | 12 | 30 | 160 | 12 | 88 |
| 2023 | BUF | 9 | 30 | 132 | 7 | 62 |
| 2024 | BUF | 17 | 41 | 213 | 18 | 284 |
| 2025 | BUF | 17 | 50 | 200 | 24 | 263 |
Rushing vs receiving yards by season
| Season | Yards |
|---|---|
| 19 Ru | 273 |
| 20 Ru | 254 |
| 21 Rec | 372 |
| 22 Ru | 160 |
| 24 Rec | 284 |
| 25 Rec | 263 |
A 6th-round Detroit pick who started as a rusher (273 yds as a rookie) has become a receiving back almost exclusively in Buffalo. Across 2024-25 he’s caught 42 balls for 547 yards while running for just 413. Career receiving yards: 1,277. Career rushing yards: 1,470. That ratio is unusual for a RB — most are 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 rushing-to-receiving.
Why it matters. A career receiving-to-rushing ratio close to 1:1 is unusual for a running back; it shows Johnson is paid for pass-game value, not as a traditional ball-carrier.
In Buffalo he’s essentially the receiving RB.
SplitBuffalo Bills RB room — 2025 regular season
| Player | Tgts | Rec | Rec Yds |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Cook | 40 | 33 | 291 |
| Ty Johnson | 33 | 24 | 263 |
| Ray Davis | 13 | 10 | 86 |
James Cook is the Bills’ lead back — 257 carries, 1,000+ rushing yards in 2025 — but Ty Johnson out-targets Ray Davis by 20 and produces only 28 yards fewer than Cook through the air. He’s the third-down/two-minute receiving option, and Buffalo has used him heavily enough that his 2025 receiving yards (263) would lead some teams’ RB rooms by a wide margin.
Why it matters. Identifies Johnson's actual role: he is Buffalo's primary passing-down back even though Cook gets the carries, which shapes which game scripts feature him most.
Career-best game came as the receiver, not the runner: 5 catches, 114 yards vs Detroit in 2024.
MilestoneTop single games by scrimmage yards
| Year | Wk | Team | Opp | Car/Ru Yds | Rec/Rec Yds | Scr Yds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 15 | BUF | DET | 2/9 | 5/114 | 123 |
| 2020 | 13 | NYJ | LV | 22/104 | 2/13 | 117 |
| 2021 | 8 | NYJ | CIN | 4/15 | 5/71 | 86 |
| 2021 | 17 | NYJ | TB | 5/35 | 3/47 | 82 |
| 2022 | 12 | NYJ | CHI | 5/62 | 1/16 | 78 |
| 2025 | 11 | BUF | TB | 1/9 | 2/61 | 70 |
His two career 100+ scrimmage-yard games are wildly different in shape: a 22-carry rushing day with the 2020 Jets, and a 114-yard receiving day with the 2024 Bills. Both required volume, but the volume came from opposite sources. That bimodal usage — sometimes a designated change-of-pace runner, sometimes a pure pass-game piece — is exactly what teams keep him around for.
Why it matters. His career-high scrimmage game was almost entirely through the air, reinforcing that his ceiling games come as a pass-catcher rather than a feature runner.
His usage flipped: from a 22-carry game with the 2020 Jets to averaging under 3 carries a game in Buffalo.
RareCareer: usage shifted year over year
| Year | G | Car/G | Tgts/G | Rec Yds/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 16 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 6.8 |
| 2020 | 11 | 4.9 | 1.9 | 9.0 |
| 2021 | 15 | 4.1 | 3.7 | 24.8 |
| 2022 | 12 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 7.3 |
| 2024 | 17 | 2.4 | 1.5 | 16.7 |
| 2025 | 17 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 15.5 |
2021 with the Jets was the early hint of what he'd become: a 3.7-target/game receiving role with 24.8 receiving yards per game. The Buffalo years have settled into a similar shape (~1.9 tgts/game, ~16 rec yds/game) but with much higher game counts — 17 games each in 2024 and 2025, with no missed games. Across those two Buffalo seasons he never carried the ball more than 13 times in a single game; the 22-carry day at Las Vegas in 2020 remains the outlier of his career.
Why it matters. Quantifies the role transition: Johnson's per-game usage shape moved from runner to receiver after 2020, and that shape is now stable across full seasons in Buffalo.
3 rushing TDs in 2025 is his career high — on just 50 carries.
ComparisonRushing TDs by season
| Year | Car | Ru Yds | Ru TDs | TD % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 63 | 273 | 0 | 0% |
| 2020 | 54 | 254 | 1 | 1.9% |
| 2021 | 61 | 238 | 2 | 3.3% |
| 2022 | 30 | 160 | 1 | 3.3% |
| 2024 | 41 | 213 | 1 | 2.4% |
| 2025 | 50 | 200 | 3 | 6.0% |
Most of his career he’s scored on 2-3% of his carries — typical for a between-the-tackles backup. 2025 jumped to 6% (3 TDs on 50 carries) despite a slightly worse yards-per-carry (4.0). Buffalo has trusted him with more goal-line and short-yardage work this year, and the result is the highest rushing-TD total of his seven-year career.
Why it matters. Touchdown rate is one of the noisiest year-over-year RB stats; doubling his career rate while volume stays flat suggests Buffalo deliberately reassigned him short-yardage work.
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