ESPN NFL Nation: Bucs Select Will Johnson At No. 19
April 23rd, 2025
Michigan CB Will Johnson.
This will make Michigan Men, Jamel Dean haters and weirdos who like ugly blue football pants rejoice. It leaves Joe scratching his head.
Now Joe is not against the Bucs drafting Will Johnson from Michigan. In three years at Ann Arbor, Johnson has nine picks and a national title ring on his hand. In his last two seasons with the Wolverines, Johnson has not given up a touchdown pass — when he’s been on the field.
And that’s the issue Joe has with Johnson. In theory, the Bucs are going to draft a cornerback in this draft because Dean, the Bucs’ veteran starter, cannot stay on the field. The guy is brittle.
But the Bucs want to replace an injury-prone starting corner with… another injury-prone corner?
Yesterday afternoon, “NFL Nation” on ESPN2 held a mock draft. This is where every NFL beat reporter for the four-letter picks in the first round for the team they cover.
For the Bucs, Jenna Laine selected Johnson.
“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers select Will Johnson, cornerback, Michigan. Coach Todd Bowles said, ‘I want ballhawks.’ The Bucs only had seven interceptions this past season, and Johnson had nine over the last three years in college.
“However, the whole reason why the Bucs are looking at cornerbacks is because starter Jamal Dean, who’s set to count $15 million against the salary cap, hasn’t been able to stay healthy over the last two years, and Johnson has some injury concerns of his own.
“[Johnson] missed quite a portion of this past season with turf toe and he missed his Michigan pro day with a hamstring injury. I’m told, though, that that’s not too much of a concern for the folks inside [One Buc Palace], and neither are the questions about his speed.”
What about his ability to stay on the field? It seems like the Bucs are trying to put out a gasoline fire with kerosene.
Again, Joe is not anti-Johnson. Joe’s thing is, he’s trying to wrap his head around how you plan to replace a corner whose biggest issue is staying on the field with a guy who himself has trouble staying on the field.
For the haters who think Dean is the second coming of Hey Jude, last year when Dean started the Bucs were 9-3. When Dean did not start, the Bucs were 1-4, the lone win coming in the final regular season game against the slimy Saints.
And for crying out loud Michigan, will you stick with your classic maize pants instead of those dumbass eyerake blueberry pants? Fritz Crisler is rolling in his grave, man.
#Vikings DB coach Daronte Jones was in attendance at Michigan this morning to watch CB Will Johnson at his Pro Day, per @DWolfsonKSTP. Johnson is highly regarded to be the second corner taken in the draft, behind Travis Hunter. pic.twitter.com/1gaUM3svFt
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) April 14, 2025
April 23rd, 2025 at 12:05 am
Love his play, but isn’t this why we’re trying to move on from Dean
April 23rd, 2025 at 1:09 am
We’ll see.
April 23rd, 2025 at 2:23 am
IF they pick this guy I will also be scratching my head along with throwing a few things 🙁
April 23rd, 2025 at 2:47 am
I prefer Revel in the 2nd over Johnson in the 1st.
April 23rd, 2025 at 2:58 am
How worried does a guy need to be about turf toe going forward?
Hammy… maybe he was pushing it hard in training for these underwear sprinting tests. If the Bucs aren’t worried I won’t be either. Not that he’s the right guy in the long run but he seems to be consensus 2 or 3 ranked and if it’s not a OLB or DT then it oughta be one of those top 3 CBs.
Either way, I trust JL. Can’t wait for Thursday night!
April 23rd, 2025 at 3:59 am
No combine? No Pro day? That is a red flag! Injury or not. Coverage skill is man/press man I love a good press man corner but Todd plays our guys back in ST Pete zone so much…
Go Bucs!
April 23rd, 2025 at 4:37 am
Bucs will draft one of the Top-3 monster DT/NTs at #19, then follow-up with starter-quality ILB & CB in Rnds 2 & 3 (not necessarily in that order). Wouldn’t be surprised to see us go Safety & Edge in Rnds 4 & 5 (again, not necessarily in that order). Rnd 7 is a crapshoot.
April 23rd, 2025 at 5:56 am
Of course we were terrible without Dean.
We had an UDFA: Funkmeister and a 6th round safety: Hayes starting!
We have had terrible depth at CB for decades.
Except when we won the Super Bowl.
We had SMB, a 2nd round pick, as our #3 CB.
We won the Super Bowl because we had 3 legit starters.
Davis: 3rd round. Dean: 3rd round. SMB: 2nd round.
We need 3 more corners this draft.
I’m not kidding.
I want 2 or 3 IDL.
2 or 3 CBs (not nickles!)
And 2 ILB.
Fix our IDL, our CB room and our ILB in ONE draft!
We have sick depth at RB. TE. OLB. Safety. O-line. And even WR.
We have no depth at CB and DT/DE.
This is the year!
Next year, double down on WR, RB, OLB and O-line.
April 23rd, 2025 at 6:08 am
Teacherman
Agree with your observations completely!
April 23rd, 2025 at 6:23 am
Yeah, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I think Jenna Laine missed the boat on this one.
Yes, we need help at CB and we need to cut Jamel Dean, which only further increases that need.
That tells me we need to draft a CB in the top rounds. It just doesn’t need to be another player with an injury history like Johnsons’.
April 23rd, 2025 at 6:24 am
Brian, Revel has only played one full season of football since his junior year in highschool. That’s not a typo. He missed with a fractured skull. Then a collar bone. Then a broken hand. One or 2 years he wasn’t even on a team. Then he played sparingly 3 years ago. In 2023 he played a full season and last year he played a few games before blowing out his knee. If you look at that track record and think that he’s not going to miss a bunch of games, I don’t know what you’re basing it on. It seems pretty clear to me.