Top 10 safeties in the 2021 NFL Draft

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#5 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Jamar Johnson (Indiana)

6' 1", 200 pounds; JR

Jamar Johnson
Jamar Johnson

Just outside the top-1000 overall recruits in 2018, Jamar Johnson saw just 15 snaps in defense as a freshman, doing most of his work in special teams.

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In year two, he split snaps at slot corner, recording three sacks and two interceptions, with one of them taken back to the house. Last season as a junior, he started all eight games at free safety, even though he played all over the field, recording 42 total tackles, four interceptions and four passes broken up, which earned him first-team All-Big Ten notice.

Johnson was basically a nickel in 2019, who played just over 300 total snaps, but then last season became a versatile piece for that Hoosier defense. He did everything from single-high, two-deep, box duties and even blitzed from deep alignment a few times. He is a self-proclaimed see-ball, get-ball type of player, who brings a lot of energy to the table.

Johnson plays with great verocity and never seems to shy away from contact. You see him rip underneath blockers a lot, in order to create an angle to the ball, and when he is walled off, he will blow through tight-ends and doesn’t mind mixing it up with offensive linemen even. Johnson does a great job of setting the edge in the run game, squeezing down to not allow any crease, while keeping his weight shifted to the outside.

His shoulders stay square versus backside bubbles or when shuffling with RPO. So I would stay, he takes care of his assignment, until it’s time to commit, and then he chases at full speed. Moreover, he is sneaky with his alignments and body language, to not be accounted for properly in the run game. He has sudden shiftiness as a blitzer, dipping underneath blockers, but he also won’t hesitate to run through somebody in his way.

He can chase down running backs from behind and make quarterbacks uncomfortable that way. He was all over the field in the Ohio State game last year, baiting the offense to run the ball by acting like he was bailing out, disguising coverages, picking off Justin Fields twice and he ran over running back Master Teague on a blitz, who outweighs him by a good 20 pounds.

When Johnson is playing deep safety, you routinely see quarterbacks pull the ball down and get off post routes and stuff like that. He has the oily hips to play some single-high and flip around when he sees the quarterback try to go down the opposite hash of where he is leaning towards. Indiana blitzed their corners quite a bit and Johnson was asked to cap over the top.

However, he is better off using his ability to drive on routes in quarters or coming down as a robber and taking away passing lanes. In shallow zone coverage, he is following the eyes of the quarterback and drops underneath routes on the sideline, if there’s nobody in his area. And he is crafty with giving quarterbacks different looks, to check in and out of plays. His experience as a slot corner certainly helps his value, where he is physical with carrying receivers down the seams. And he has the burst to get back into the action after having to bubble over the top against mesh concepts and wrap up the receiver on the shallow crosser, as the ball arrives there.

He had an incredible play just like the in the 2019 Ohio State game, where he stood up his man and allowed a secondary defender to put a hit on the ball, which created a fumble. Moreover, he excels at playing through the hands of receivers with his back to the ball. Over the course of his career, Johnson was targeted in coverage 44 times – he didn’t allow a single touchdown and intercepted seven of those passes. Last season, quarterbacks who targeted him in coverage, had a passer rating of 27.5

However, Johnson’s experience is fairly limited, with just under 800 total snaps in his career. He has 18 missed tackles on 80 career attempts, where he just dives at the legs of ball-carriers too much, especially approaching from deep alignments. And when he’s coming from over the top, he sells out for making plays on the ball, without securing the tackle first.

\ohnson is physical for a 200-pound guy, because he lacks length (barely 30-inch arms), he has a problem with blockers getting right in his face, especially lining up right over the slot. He misses the jam and lunges in press-coverage against inside receivers on a few occasions, plus then tries to grab desperately, which automatically draws a flag.

Running the 40 in 4.58 at the Hoosier pro day does not match up with the tape, but is of course not a glowing endorsement and he had pretty averge numbers across the board. So I don’t think he will deployed as a single-high safety a whole lot at the next level.

This was one of my favorite safeties to watch in this class, because of how much bigger he plays than his size indicates, how deceptive he is, his understanding for the game and the play-maker he has already been at the collegiate level. Johnson’s long speed and overall athleticism are average, but he more than makes up for it with those smarts, to be a step ahead of the competition.

He could be utilized more around the line of scrimmage by his future NFL team and if his coaches can teach him not to go for those feast-or-famine press reps, he could be a highly valuable nickel as well and be a threat to blitz off the edge on any given play.

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Edited by Bhargav