Name: Antonio Johnson

School: Texas A&M

Year: Jr

Position: Safety

Measurables: 6’3’’, 195 lbs.

Stats:

Courtesy of Sports-Reference.com

General Info:

The four-star recruit out of Illinois made his presence known in the SEC over the past two seasons. After starting just one game as a Freshman in 2020, Johnson became a force on the backend for the Aggies.

Johnson had his best season as a Sophomore in 2021. He started all 12 games and was named Second-Team All-SEC. He finished with 79 tackles, 8 of which were for a loss. He made a variety of impact plays with five pass breakups, one interception, and a sack. Most impressively, he allowed an opposing passer rating of just 71.2.

Johnson played well as a Junior but missed three games to injury during an overall disappointing season for the Aggies. He finished the year strong with 10 tackles including a forced fumble and recovery in an upset win over LSU. Johnson enters the draft as one of the top safety prospects and a fringe first rounder.

Positional Skills:

Strengths

Size and explosiveness. At 6’3’’ and nearly 200 lbs., Johnson stands out on film. His presence in the box against the run is impressive. He never takes a play off and has incredible downhill ability to attack opposing running backs. His competitive toughness in the run game also correlates as a blitzer from the slot. Johnson embraces contact and showed a knack for shedding blocks with leverage and elusiveness.

His ability in zone is equally as impressive. He doesn’t have the tracking ability over the top, but his ability to read and break on the ball is at the top of his class. Johnson has exceptional awareness and quickness to change direction to break up passes over the middle. He eliminated crossers and quick slants against top receivers in the SEC. Playing primarily out of the slot, he dominated one-on-one matchups in his zone.

Weaknesses

The Aggies primarily used Johnson near the line of scrimmage. He doesn’t have the long speed to track receivers over the top. He was much better as a read-and-react box safety that could utilize his quickness. He started his career at A&M as a cornerback but made the transition to safety, possibly to combat these shortcomings.

Also concerning are his lack of ball skills. He only secured one pick over three years. He was able to break up passes due to impeccable timing, but you’d hope to see him come down with more interceptions.

Johnson will need to be utilized correctly in the NFL. He will have to bulk up to impact the run game like he did in college. He’s shown the ability to affect the passing game but will need to improve his playmaking and ball skills to maximize his potential.

Fit with the Packers:

The Packers could very well be looking for two starting safeties this off-season. Much of the public speculation has been on the offensive side of the ball with the turmoil at the quarterback position and the lack of proven pass-catchers on the roster. Safety is arguably the team’s biggest need though.

Adrian Amos is a free agent and is coming off his worst season as a Packer. Darnell Savage was highly regarded after flashing his first two seasons in the league, but his play has dipped dramatically over the past year and a half. At one point this season he was benched for special-teamer Rudy Ford. Savage was drafted to be a rangy, playmaking deep safety. Amos proved to be much more reliable in that role, relegating Savage to play closer to the line of scrimmage. The Packers picked up Savage’s fully guaranteed fifth-year option at nearly $8 million, a decision they may be regretting right now.

All this to be said, the Packers are in dire need of consistency at the safety position, a common theme for the franchise. Antonio Johnson would fit the Packers based on need alone. The downside is that Johnson thrives in the slot role that Savage has been manning. Green Bay would still be searching for a true deep safety. Johnson’s ferocity, change of direction, and tackling ability would be great assets to spark Joe Berry’s defense. The A&M safety is currently projected to be drafted in the first two rounds, so the Packers would need to make Johnson a premium pick. With Joe Berry playing more base personnel after the selection of Quay Walker last year, the Packers may want to find a safety with more range and ball skills that early in the draft.