The Browns’ safety rotation was a disaster in 2020, but it’s about to get a lot better with John Johnson III.
In 2020, the Browns went 11-5 and made the postseason for the first time since 2002. They did it with a roster that is stacked at most every position, but there was one major liability for the team, and that was the safety position. Cleveland selected LSU safety Grant Delpit with the 44th overall pick in the second round of the 2020 draft, but Delpit missed his entire rookie season due to a torn Achilles tendon he suffered in training camp. In place of Delpit, the Browns put four different safeties on the field: Sheldrick Redwine, Andrew Sendejo, Ronnie Harrison, and Karl Joseph, and those four players combined to allow 14 touchdowns to just three interceptions.
Targeting former Rams safety John Johnson III to a three-year, $33.75 million deal with $24 million guaranteed is a great way to improve what should be a much better safety rotation with Johnson and a healthy Delpit.
Coverage stats for safeties aren’t generally illustrative of their play on the field, and that tends to be more true at that position than others. To accurately discern responsibility for coverage is just tougher when you’re dealing with deep safeties who are more often than not coming down to stop plays than they are rolling deep with speed receivers. So when we reveal the 2020 coverage stats per Pro Football Focus for Johnson — 55 receptions allowed on 73 targets for 390 yards, 235 air yards, three touchdowns, one interception, nine pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 95.1 — you may think we’re talking about an average pass defender.
Then, you see the plays Jackson makes all over the place, and his value becomes clearer .The nine pass deflections last season, though? Pay attention to that, because while Johnson isn’t a ballhawk in the traditional sense with just nine interceptions in his four-year career, he is a plus-level disruptor at the catch point.
Watch, for example, how Johnson comes down in spun single-high coverage to slow-play Rob Gronkowski over the middle in Week 11, making Tom Brady think he’s got the throw to his old buddy, when he really doesn’t.
If you want positional versatility… well, Johnson played 164 snaps in the slot last season, and here in the wild-card round against the Seahawks, he’s just waiting to whack the heck out of D.K. Metcalf, one of the NFL’s most physical receivers, to interrupt yet another pass.
Johnson is also a fine run defender, and he’s got the 31 stops in the 2020 season to prove it. His interception numbers may not overwhelm, but that doesn’t stop Johnson from being one of the most complete safeties in the league — and a clear asset for any NFL defense. He was also the on-field shot-caller for Brandon Staley’s defense in 2020, so he’ll bring that acumen to a Browns defense that could really use it.
