TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona Cardinals running back Chris Johnson was sitting on a stool in front of his locker, with his arms resting on his knees, when he bent down to pick a paper cup up off the floor with his right hand.

To anyone standing nearby, it looked like Johnson was grabbing discarded trash. To Johnson, however, it showed his progress since getting shot in the shoulder in early March in his hometown of Orlando, Florida.

For almost three months after the shooting, Johnson didn’t have the use of his right hand.

“I was contemplating retirement,” he said. “Knowing if I can't use this hand, I can’t play football no more.

“So much pain. My hand was so f----d up. I couldn’t touch nothing. I couldn’t use nothing.”

Next to their feet, running backs need their hands to earn a paycheck. Quick feet but bad hands can cost a back his job. No hands can cost a man his career.

While his shoulder healed, Johnson said he couldn’t move his right hand. He then flexed his hand at his locker, balling it into a fist. Four months ago, he couldn’t do that.

By late May, his hand was still useless. It’d go from throbbing to numb and back again, Johnson said. The pain, along with the three-hour time difference from his decision to move from Florida to California, kept Johnson awake at night.

Doctors told Johnson he would regain feeling and full use of his hand within six to seven weeks. When it didn’t get better, Johnson started to get concerned.

While he continued to work out in California, Johnson focused on regaining his grip. When the feeling returned by early June, Johnson had to relearn how to write with his right hand.

He’d eventually need it to sign a new contract with the Cardinals on Aug. 17.

Johnson knew, deep down, he wasn’t sitting at home this offseason as a free agent because he wasn’t a good running back anymore. He ran for 663 yards on 155 carries with the New York Jets in 2014 -- the highest per-carry average on the team.

He heard the chatter that he wasn’t the Chris Johnson of old, that he was out of gas, that 1,000-yard seasons were a thing of his past.

“Anytime someone’s talking it’s kinda hard to block it out, but what they were saying wasn’t really making sense,” said Johnson, who pointed out he was on pace for his seventh 1,000-yard season had he been given the necessary amount of carries to hit the benchmark.

“I just didn’t understand where it was coming from.”

When Johnson watched tape from his season with the Jets, he saw a better runner than he did on the tape from 2013 -- his last season in Tennessee. Johnson tore his meniscus in Week 3 of the 2013 season and played out the season without getting it repaired. After surgery and rehab during the offseason, when the Titans released him, Johnson finally felt right on the field.

“I just felt more explosive,” Johnson said. “Just looking at that tape, you could tell I was more explosive. I don’t think my on-field play was anything that scared teams away.”

He knew why he wasn’t getting calls.

“It was the off-field stuff,” he said.

“It wasn’t me choosing to be on the streets. It was just a situation with how things went down and circumstances. A lot of things didn’t work out for me.”

Two months before Johnson was shot, he was arrested in Orlando on gun charges. That, coupled with his shooting, kept teams away. Far away. But Johnson still believes they should have given him a chance. He said he had a concealed weapons permit and was wrongfully arrested. The gun charges were dropped in March.

As for the shooting, which he said he doesn’t like to revisit, he said he was the victim.

“I guess all that scared some teams off,” Johnson said.

The Cardinals were willing to bring him in. Nearly two months into Johnson’s career with Arizona, coach Bruce Arians still wonders why Johnson was sitting on his couch when training camp started.

“I really don’t know, whether it was the health of his shoulder, the shot or perception that he was finished,” Arians said. “I don’t know why other teams didn’t look at him. I’m just glad that we did.”

Four games into the season, Johnson has been proving he’s still capable of another 1,000-yard season. He’s averaging 75.5 rushing yards per game, which puts him on pace for 1,208 yards this season. He was signed not just for his veteran experience, but to be an insurance policy in case Andre Ellington went down.

By Week 2, Johnson was starting, as Ellington suffered a sprained right PCL late in the season opener. It took Johnson a few games to get his football legs back after sitting out most of training camp in Arizona with a hamstring injury. In just a couple of weeks, Arians has seen Johnson’s stamina and quickness improve.

“I have played against him for years,” Arians said. “It was just a matter of getting him back to football shape.”

The Rams’ Jeff Fisher, who coached Johnson in Tennessee his first three seasons there, has been impressed with Johnson and how the Cardinals are using him. He said they’re “utilizing him like they should” by getting Johnson involved with both the passing and run games.

Johnson’s numbers are approaching those during his peak years with Tennessee. He’s averaging 19.3 carries per start, his most since 2010, when he had 1,364 yards. They’re numbers Johnson thinks will prove his doubters wrong.

“I’m trying to,” he said. “I’m trying to. I started off good. I know I can do better.

“It feels good. I don’t think I’ve done what I need to do yet. So, still working hard and hopefully I look up at the end of the season and still prove people wrong.”

But don’t call this season his career resurgence.

“I don’t really feel like my career ever went down the drain,” Johnson said. “I know I still can play this game at a high level. It was just depending on what team gave me an opportunity.”