Last year was a frustrating one for the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona was transitioning into a new era after Bruce Arians retired, and the switch did not go smoothly. They hired Steve Wilks to be the head coach, Mike McCoy to be the offensive coordinator, and signed Sam Bradford to be the quarterback.

Things were a disaster from the start, and McCoy caught a ton of flak for running an antiquated offense. One of the players who suffered was running back David Johnson. Johnson had thrived under Arians' aggressive, innovative offense, and he took a massive step back under McCoy and Wilks.

The Cardinals have now hired Kliff Kingsbury from Texas Tech, who figures to run a very open and innovative offense in the desert. That's music to the ears of Johnson, who is looking forward to playing for his new coach.

Kingsbury will likely be running an offense with a lot of college looks, which should include a bunch of shotgun formations. Johnson is excited for that change.

“I actually love that. I did that in college. That's all we did in college is the gun, a read-option-type thing. I think it really opens up more space for me and makes me able to read the defense a little bit more,” Johnson said, via Darren Urban of the team's official website.

Johnson said he played out of the shotgun all the time at Northern Iowa, where he turned into a star. He was one of the best players in the league in 2016, then missed almost the entire 2017 season with an injury.

When he returned last year he didn't look like himself, and this upcoming season will be a big one for him. The Cardinals desperately need him to return to form, and playing under Kingsbury should go a long way toward ensuring that he does.