Scouting breakdown: The 11 best receivers in the 2020 NFL draft

A star-studded crop of wide receivers look to crash the NFL. Where do CeeDee Lamb, Jerry Jeudy and the rest stack up for the 2020 NFL Draft?

11. Tyler Johnson, Minnesota

(Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports)

Height: 6’2″ Weight: 200
40-Yard Dash: N/A
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: N/A
Broad Jump:N/A
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A
60-Yard Shuttle: N/A

Bio: Tyler Johnson was a quarterback and defensive back for Minneapolis North High School, who threw for 2,606 yards and 36 touchdowns as a senior, while also adding 1,110 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground. He was recruited by a number of Big Ten schools including Iowa and Iowa State, but stayed home to play for the Golden Gophers. He moved to wide receiver for college, and was a dominant force in the Minnesota passing game the past two seasons. Last year alone he caught 87 passes on 119 targets for 1,317 yards and 13 touchdowns, averaging 15.1 yards per reception. He saved perhaps his best game for last, catching 12 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns against Auburn in the Outback Bowl, in a game where he was matched up against Tigers’ cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, a defensive back who has an outside shot at being a first-round selection.

Stat to Know: While he does a number of things well, Johnson struggles with drops. Pro Football Focus charted him with 24 drops on 238 catchable throws over his college career, not the best percentage.

Strengths: Johnson is one of the better route runners in this class, with great footwork and fluid movement into and out of his breaks. Having worked out of the slot and on the outside, he has a versatile skillset that he will bring to his first NFL training camp. Given his experience playing along the boundary, Johnson is well versed at handling press coverage, and he has the movement skills and the upper body strength to play through contact at the line and work off defenders using tight man coverage after the snap.

Johnson also attacks the football well, which minimizes the issue with his drops. He understands leverage well, and shows on film the ability to threaten the leveraged shoulder of the defender and then using a great feel for timing breaking off the defender at the opportune moment. This is a great example of Johnson doing just that from the 2018 season on a slant route:

 

See how Johnson threatens the outside shoulder, selling the CB on a fade route? Once the receiver sees that the cornerback has bought the vertical release, he then cuts across his face on the slant route, and the defender is helpless to prevent the touchdown.

He is also a threat in contested catch situations, as well as down in the red zone on fade routes. On this red zone fade against Purdue, he again threatens the opposite shoulder, attacking inside to sell the slant before breaking vertically on the fade:

Johnson also does a good job at tracking the football over his shoulder in the vertical passing game. On this fade route from the slot against Northwestern, he manages to track the football down as it leads him towards the sideline, but he also has the presence of mind to get the feet in bounds, showing great awareness:

Some receivers just have a way of making things work, and Johnson is in that category.

Weaknesses: Where to begin? We can start with the athleticism. Johnson does not have top-end speed, and that shows up on film. Yes, as we illustrated he still has ways of getting open thanks to his route-running, but NFL DBs are much more experienced than the players he was facing in college, and his moves and releases at the line of scrimmage might not always work.

Then there are the drops. Given how well he attacks the football, he consistently gives him a chance at getting the football into his hands, but he will need to show a higher level of concentration at the catch point in the NFL.

Finally, while books might be written about Denzel Mims’ pre-draft process, Johnson’s might be a Maverick-style lesson in “what not to do.” He was initially given an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game, and with a good week down in Florida he could have parlayed that into a Senior Bowl invitation. But Johnson said he pulled out of the Shrine Game to prepare for the Combine.

But then in Indianapolis, he said he would participate in positional drills and team meetings only, and save his testing for his Pro Day.

Which was then canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Without testing data on him, teams might be wary about drafting him, even with what he showed on film. When you add that to some rumblings about “poor character reports” as mentioned here by Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller, you start to wonder about how teams are going to feel about him.

Conclusion: In the end, Johnson is an elite route-runner who can separate from coverage thanks to his savvy and his understanding of how to press leverage advantages. What he does, he does well, and he can contribute immediately thanks to what he can do to get separation from press coverage. But in a strange global climate, without much data to go on from a testing and measurables standpoint, teams might be wary. When you add to that how he handled the process, risk averse decision-makers (i.e., the vast majority of NFL general managers) might look elsewhere.

Comparison: Johnson’s route-running ability is similar to what we saw from Anthony Miller coming out of college. You can see the ability to threaten leverage of the defender, the ability to set up routes well, and the ability to play inside or outside.

Lamb | Jeudy | Ruggs III | Shenault | Jefferson | Higgins | Mims | Reagor | Aiyuk | Pittman | Johnson

After 10 years practicing law in the Washington, D.C., area, Mark Schofield now dedicates his time to his first love: football. The former Wesleyan University quarterback’s writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Bleacher Report, SB Nation, Pro Football Weekly and the Matt Waldman Rookie Scouting Portfolio.

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