Johnson was originally recruited to Northwestern in 2021 as a mid 3-star (.8674) in the 24/7 composite. He redshirted that season with no significant play.

In 2022, the Wildcats played one cornerback on virtually every meaningful rep, Cameron Mitchell, but the other spot saw a lot of back and forth. AJ Hampton was the starter in the first game but he got hurt very early in the season; Garnett Hollis mostly filled in for him but Johnson as a redshirt freshman got more meaningful reps than he otherwise might have. Hampton returned from injury at about the same time that Hollis got banged up himself, so Johnson’s early relief duty continued. I have this season charted but chose not to include Johnson’s 2022 performance in this article’s statistical evaluation because his role was out of step with his next two years.

Mitchell was drafted by the Browns in April of 2023, while Hampton transferred to Tulane for his final college season (having spent a few Winter months in both Chicago and New Orleans myself, I don’t blame him). Hollis and Johnson became the starters that year under new head coach Braun, elevated from defensive coordinator after Pat Fitzgerald was fired during the offseason when the hazing scandal was brought to light. It was something of a surprise for the Wildcats, winning eight games when they were projected to perhaps finish winless, earning Braun Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Johnson continued as starter in 2024, playing every meaningful rep without any rotation except a tiny handful of goalline configurations without CBs, the Ohio State game when he was held out with injury, and the last quarter or so of the final game against Illinois for unknown reasons. Hollis transferred to West Virginia and was replaced by #13 CB Fussell in a bit of a surprise (he was a redshirt freshman in 2024, while Hollis’ backup the previous year whom knowledgeable observers had penciled in was a no-show).

The Wildcats missed a bowl in 2024, largely on offensive disappointment, and Johnson entered the transfer portal in early December. Two weeks later he committed to Oregon; 2025 is his final season of eligibility. I’ve charted every rep of his career, the last two of which as starter are examined for this article.

The best part of Johnson’s tape as a cornerback is a double-edged sword to the film reviewer: there’s not very much of it. At the beginning of the 2023 season, quarterbacks were splitting their looks and ultimately their passing targets between Hollis and Johnson’s sides of the field pretty evenly. But by the end of that year and then throughout all of 2024 — when the other spot was held by the new kid Fussell — Johnson’s reputation had gotten out to opposing QB rooms, and challenges to his side of the field fell off a cliff.

Considering Johnson’s meaningful passing play reps in 2024, on about 61% the QB didn’t even look at his side of the field, while 24% of QBs’ looks scanned Johnson’s side but wound up throwing elsewhere – on about a quarter of these it was clear on tape that the QB was specifically checking down from the receiver Johnson was covering because he was locked up. That leaves just under 15% of his passing reps last year in which Johnson got a challenge, which is about the same rate for the later part of the 2023 season as well. Each of the other Northwestern starting cornerbacks I’ve charted since 2021 had a higher challenge rate, ranging from 17% (Mitchell, who was drafted) to 38% (Fussell, who had to play opposite Johnson).

The plays on which Johnson’s coverage assignment was targeted certainly got the viewer’s attention, because he always plays the ball. It’s resulted in an excellent statline – virtually no penalty flags, a very high rate of pass breakups per downfield target at about 26%, quite a few near-picks, and then these when the defense got the prize:

(Reminder – you can use the button in the lower right corner to control playback speed)

:00 – The X-receiver (they all kind of look like TEs at Iowa but no, it’s a WR) whom Johnson’s covering in man goes in motion underneath the formation and turns it into a wheel route down sideline, and Johnson has to get through some traffic to stay on top of him. Great play on the ball with inside leverage, legal physical contact as he has downfield position, uses his body to keep the receiver from the ball instead of the other way around.
:26 – This is real bad decision by the QB more than anything else, he short arms it by delaying and then rushing his footwork. But look at how Johnson comes off his own layer of coverage to track the ball and then the excellent body control to pluck it out of the air and double toe tap at sideline. It’s also pretty frosty to return the ball to Coach Diaz.
:51 – Okay this time it actually is a TE, likely to be drafted this month, going out on short hitch to convert the 3^rd down and trying to box Johnson out. He rides the TE around the turn and just steps in front of it, getting the timing right to surprise the target and take the ball. A couple hilarious blocks later and Johnson scores on an 84-yard return.
1:20 – Johnson didn’t wind up with this interception himself but the pass was intended for his man and he got the second deflection on the ball while his WR was trying to strangle him for stepping in front like the last pick-six, so I figured he should get some credit.

Northwestern played man coverage a little more than half of their meaningful reps in this two-year period, with Johnson in press about a third of those. The goal of man coverage is deterrence, not baiting a trap, so the real measure of effectiveness is not getting targeted at all. That’s what happened with Johnson on just under 80% of his man coverage reps. On the 20% when the QB challenged Johnson, I graded him at a 53% success rate, which as these things go is pretty good considering that QBs generally only throw against man when they think the CB isn’t going to have any chance of success. Here’s a representative sample of Johnson’s successful reps when challenged in man coverage:

:00 – This pattern was well established on film, Johnson gets inside leverage and plays the ball, blocking out the receiver with his body first while his eyes and hands are ball-oriented. That guarantees a PBU at minimum and a chance at an interception. Here it creates a critical 4^th down stop.
:12 – Very few Big Ten corners were able to keep up with Indiana’s leading receiver on this out-breaking route, stopping the play is entirely about the recovery from the break. Johnson’s doing well here, he gets the punch out with the downfield arm as he knows the WR is going to turn that way as he brings the ball down to secure it, and it’s ruled an incompletion for not having made a football move with possession. If Johnson had gone under with his left hand, the other way, the WR could shield the ball with his body and this wouldn’t have worked.
:32 – This is Maryland’s big play receiver running the sideline route bomb which is why the Terps led the conference in total passing yards. Johnson runs stride for stride with him, no trouble with the stutter off the line from press, remaining in legal contact, locating the ball in flight as the WR looks for it, then uses the first kata (抜き付け) to strike it down.
:55 – Good physical control of the TE, staying on top and maintaining downfield position to shorten the route, then disengages to play the pass. Iowa is full of complaints about this but everything here is legal because Johnson never grabs to restrict and doesn’t let the TE past him, and has eyes for the ball.

And unsuccessful man coverage reps:

:00 – Johnson can’t get leverage here, the WR is running the route well right up to his toes before breaking outside and he doesn’t have the burst to cut underneath and break this up. The ball is well placed and without help there’s really no defense for this pass beyond extremely rare, one-in-a-billion athletes.
:18 – This is one Johnson could have kept more neutral on, he’s allowing the WR’s drift to the pylon influence him to open his hips and take that big back step with his right foot. That kills his recovery when the WR bends it inside on the post and blows past him (the safety should be doing more to create a post-catch separation hit but that’s another matter).
:33 – I don’t think I ever saw Northwestern cover an RPO slant pass well, which seemed to be a systemic issue. The defensive structure has Johnson playing off and reliant on underneath help, but all of that help crashes on the run at every opportunity.
:44 – The receiver just runs a little curl in to the sticks, Johnson’s giving him a pretty big cushion and then collapses on it but overruns to the inside; this all should have been tighter from the start. When the pass rush gets stonewalled, the WR has plenty of time to flip out and run down the sideline, which catches Johnson flatfooted, and at this point I don’t understand the rest, he seems to really chug it catching up and this hop to avoid the safety is weird. I think Johnson might have gotten hurt somehow on this play because he didn’t return to the field for the rest of the game.

While Northwestern’s man/zone splits and distribution for various down & distance situations were hardly unusual, they employed a man disguise by initial alignment and posture about 40% of the time that they’d ultimately drop into zone (plenty of teams use coverage disguises but for them it’s more of an occasional thing; the Wildcats made this their standard practice which I don’t see very much). These disguises often got QBs — especially ones given to pre-snap reads and without much of a head for post-snap reassessment — to throw into certain constraint plays that might work against man but go nowhere fast when the cornerback stays put. The upshot of this for Johnson was a spike in his workload as he became the jaws of that trap, though for data evaluation purposes these types of plays needed to be filtered out as they weren’t exactly direct challenges of his coverage.

On my tally sheet I have a 74% overall success rate for Johnson when he’s playing zone, and a 58% success rate when his zone coverage has collapsed to a single responsibility and the QB throws against Johnson’s guy. His marks are highest in assignment discipline – he clearly understands how the complex defense operates and I’ve only got a couple plays in two years where he’s out of position. He gets above average although not elite grades in the athletic aspects of zone coverage like change of direction and acceleration. The middling grades come in tackling, although it would be more accurate to say his tackling runs hot and cold where lots of them are spectacular but a significant number made me wince.

Here’s a representative sample of Johnson’s successful zone plays:

:00 – Letting the motion to the field go is fine since this isn’t man, but theoretically, Johnson shouldn’t be ignoring the out route to the boundary. But as a practical matter this QB so predictably pre-determines routes – and Johnson knows it — that it’s the correct call to read his eyes and play underneath on the deep post, and he nearly comes away with the pick.
:19 – This is disguised zone but it effectively collapses to single coverage due to the passing pattern. Johnson’s eyes are on the ball and he’s physically staying on top whole way, the WR is trying to push off because Johnson is so effectively hemming him in but that just makes his hands late to the catch.
:43 – Indiana’s QB doesn’t process that it’s zone and that Johnson is falling off the short flat to cover his favorite WR. That sets him up for the PBU and it would have earned him a pick if not for the WR getting his hand in and raking his thumb from behind.
1:06 – Some impressive Big Ten-style blocking from Michigan’s fullback here delaying the pass rush on the play-action and eventual checkdown throw. Watch the replay angle for the structure of Northwestern’s zone coverage. Johnson’s effectively covering two guys at once by keeping proper spacing relation over time to both the crosser and the checkdown; when the QB makes a decision he flies down and makes the tackle for minimal gain.

And unsuccessful zone plays:

:00 – This is cover-4, the entire point of which is to take this play away. It’s primarily the boundary safety’s fault for not dropping to his deep quarter (his eyes get taken away by the Z-receiver), but it’s worth observing that Johnson could have made up for it and it really shouldn’t have been a problem for him to stay on top of this route with his cushion. But his hips are just a mess here, he’s flipped around in relation to the sideline for no reason whatever and he winds up way behind, then finishes with a tackle before the ball is caught which is illegal.
:29 – These didn’t happen often, but every once in a while I spotted what looks like zone assignment confusion. Here something’s up with Johnson and the boundary safety regarding the two WRs running the high/low. Johnson’s assignment should be straightforward, take the sideline, so he just needs to stay on top with outside leverage of the guy to whom the ball goes and dislodge it when it arrives; I don’t understand why he steps forward and inside at all.
:37 – Defeating a comeback route when you’re playing with a cushion means you’ve got to have better stop/start than the guy you’re covering, and that’s just not happening here. The WR requires two yards from applying the brakes to achieve full stop, while Johnson takes another yard to even react to it and then three to go from that point to reversing. The WR is trotting comfortably out of bounds with a nine-yard gain before Johnson arrives.
:44 – I don’t even understand what’s happening on this play, for both cornerbacks there’s a zero percent chance anyone is going to be where Johnson or Fussell are.

On about 12% of non-rushing plays, Johnson was involved around the line of scrimmage instead of dropping into the defensive backfield, either because of the offensive alignment or playcall (such as being on the weakside of an unbalanced formation or defending a screen) or because he was part of a blitz or simulated pressure. There’s not enough data to break out individual playtypes for evaluation, but grouping them all together produced a strong category for Johnson with about an 78% success rate on all such plays in which he had meaningful involvement. Some examples:

:00 – Great trigger on this screen, Johnson gets past the blocker before his feet are set and wraps up the receiver while he’s juggling the ball in a perfect form tackle.
:12 – The TE might have been able to dodge the backer and get to the sideline if Johnson had improperly taken an inside angle or the X-receiver had handled him, but neither of those things happen – he nails the outside shoulder and crunches the WR back into the TE to end the play for minimal gain.
:19 – On this screen Johnson does take an inside angle, which is getting greedy. He should instead maintain the outside containment of the sideline and attack the TE’s downfield shoulder to eliminate that block so the backside LB can intersect the ballcarrier at the LOS.
:26 – On this sim the Wildcats crowd the line but then bail out all but one lineman and backer while inserting Johnson and another DB. The RB picks up that guy but the offensive line freaks out and spends five guys blocking two, leaving Johnson a free run on the QB and forcing a bad throw right to his teammate. Note Johnson throwing a block on the RB during the return.

Johnson’s grades in run support are surprisingly high, just under 82%, given that he’s not the strongest tackler of post-catch receivers I’ve ever seen. For some reason his tackling of RBs and QBs is nearly perfect, and his play recognition and flow to the ball against the rush are excellent … in another life he might have made a great linebacker. Some examples:

:00 – Johnson’s eyes are in the backfield due to the coverage structure; he both recognizes the play and triggers quickly, coming down with a neutral angle and proper leverage when the QB makes the backer whiff by cutting outside, and gets a big TFL.
:22 – The backer screws up here, this is zone so he should be letting the RB go and attacking the QB as Johnson would pick up the leaking RB if it’s a pass. The error means Johnson is the sole defender who can stop the QB run; because he was (properly) playing downfield on the pass he can’t prevent the 1st down but he does get the stop, going low and wrapping the legs.
:28 – Here the offense started extremely unbalanced, all five to the field, and then motioned one receiver to the weak side where Johnson is at. Johnson gives a quick check to make sure the safety has the coverage then crashes the mesh, squeezing the thighs for the sure tackle.
:33 – This is one of crazier snaps I’ve ever seen but just watch Johnson’s breakdown and tackling technique, half the Big Ten starting safeties and quite a few linebackers don’t contain a back trying to escape laterally this well.

That’s why it’s a bit odd that against receivers — whom you’d think Johnson would be even more specialized in bringing down — he’s somewhat hit or miss in tackling. None of the bad tackles were big surprises, they’re typical for corners who aren’t exactly built like bruisers, so there’s the low shoulder hits instead of wrapping up, making contact without enough thud to arrest momentum and so giving up extra yardage, or coming in with the wrong leverage and getting dragged a bit. But the other half of Johnson’s tape in tackling receivers is spectacular, just like his tackles in the backfield, and I’m left to wonder what it’d take to make them all look that way. Here’s a representative sample:

:00 – Good trigger but the angle is a little too shallow, so the WR deflects him a bit with his arm and even though he gets the legs Johnson doesn’t have the right grip to bring him down. If Johnson had cut him off with a better angle by getting on top first the WR couldn’t have done this.
:06 – Another disguised zone play. The hit is good and would be a minimal gain, but it’s not a wrap-up for no good reason … Johnson is giving him the classic DB shoulder-to-knee hit from the side, which the WR just steps through and gets a few more. Luckily the play is called back on OL holding.
:14 – Now this is a phenomenal tackle, the kind I’d see on the other half of the time, tracking his man all the way across formation through a whole ton of trash to save a 4th down conversion.
:31 – Michigan knows it’s zone from the pre-snap motion, they’re deliberately setting up a one-on-one for their receiver vs Johnson and betting he’ll shake him. Nope, three yard tackle for loss.

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