Some say stocks go up and down. Kaleb Johnson’s stock continues to trend upwards like a bright red line on the graph. His season is off to a stellar start and has gone from conversation among Iowa Hawkeyes fans to a national topic of discussion.
Through four games, Johnson has emerged as Iowa’s top offensive threat with his ability to run through defenses each game this season. The new offense under Tim Lester has Johnson seeing his best year yet.
Among those taking notes is Pro Football Focus. Kaleb Johnson is one of their players with their stock trending up the most ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.
2025 NFL Draft: Stock Up Players📈@TampaBayTre | @ConnorJRogers pic.twitter.com/ZWZOZsSSt7
— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 25, 2024
Johnson is finding his success against all sorts of defenses as well. Offensive coordinator Tim Lester talked about the success he is still seeing even when defenses load the box against the Hawkeyes.
“Yeah, it’s interesting when you say stacked boxes, because you’re right, but we also run different formations than most teams. We’re in a stacked formation if you can call it that. Our wide outs are involved now. They’re right there to handle a stacked box.”
“A lot of times you don’t see the spacing, which is kind of natural in our offense. Which does make the passing game a little bit more difficult. It actually makes it better once our guys figure it all out. There’s the same amount of space out there no matter how we line up. Lining up a little bit tighter does help our run game. It helps our receivers get involved in those stacked boxes and those corners are going to have to be ready to make some tackles because of some of the stuff our receivers have been able to do,” Lester said of Iowa running against stacked boxes.
Through four games, Kaleb Johnson has ran the ball 82 times for 683 yards, averaging an 8.4 yards per carry and 171.3 yards per game. He has found the endzone nine times.
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