DJ Johnson’s jersey number swap offers hint at position in 2022

DJ Johnson played both TE and DE in 2021, but based on his jersey number switch, we can presume which side of the ball he will be playing on.

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Going into the offseason following the 2021 season, there were some questions about whether or not tight end/defensive end DJ Johnson was going to return to Eugene for his final year with the Oregon Ducks. After the hiring of Dan Lanning, it became clear that Johnson was committing to one more season with the new regime, and now as the offseason rolls along, there are some hints being dropped about what his future with the Ducks holds.

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Those hints are subtle, and they have to do with his position designation for the upcoming season. Going into the 2020 season, Johnson moved over to the TE position, but split time between offense and defense in 2021, excelling in both spots. Now, based on a recent picture he posted to Twitter, we can determine that DJ plans to play mostly on defense this upcoming season.

It appears that Johnson will be switching from No. 12 to No. 2 this coming year, according to his locker. Why does that mean that he’s going to defense? Well, if you had also noticed that wide receiver Dont’e Thornton was switching from No. 10 to No. 2, then you’ll follow the breadcrumbs. You can’t have a pair of offensive players wearing the same jersey number, but you can have a defensive and offensive player in the same number. We often ran into this scenario last season with QB Robby Ashford and WR Jaylon Redd wearing the same jersey.

We feel pretty confident that Thornton will see a lot of playing time on the offense, so this would lead us to believe that Johnson will primarily line up on the defensive side of the ball.

With Lanning coming in as a national championship-winning defensive coordinator, you can bet that was part of his pitch to bring Johnson back to Eugene for one more run.

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