NFL Draft: Introducing the draft’s freakiest athlete

The NFL is a league full of athletic players. To be an NFL player is, for the most part, synonymous with being a freaky athlete. The league is full of men of all types of athleticism; Men who weigh 250 lbs and have the strength to compete with guys twice as big and the speed to compete with guys half their size. Even the 300 lb linemen, who carry the weight of two men on their massive frames, can ordinarily run a 40 yard dash in just over 5 seconds, which is about as fast as the average normal-sized amateur athlete could do it in. These men are freaks.

Therefore, when an NFL prospect stands out as the freakiest athlete, not only in the NFL draft but in the NFL as a whole, it is special. When a man is renowned for having an athletic edge over players who themselves are athletically superior, people take notice. And this man has been found in the this year’s NFL Draft class.

Meet Lane Johnson.

Lane Johnson, 23 years old, is an offensive tackle from the University of Oklahoma. He stands at a height of 6’7″ (2.01 m), and weighs 303 lb (137 kg). While this may seem exceptionally big, in the NFL universe it is quite ordinary for an offensive tackle. Lane Johnson, however, is not an ordinary NFL prospect.

Johnson has been dubbed both by the media and most NFL talent evaluators as the most athletic player in this year’s draft class. Taking it even further, NFL guru Mike Mayock said on NFL.com’s annual mock draft show that Johnson’s performance at the NFL combine was the best workout he’s ever seen from any combine that he has been to over the years. Putting it bluntly, Johnson is the best athlete that the NFL has seen in at least a decade.

It isn’t hard to see why Johnson is so highly rated. He has played as a quarterback and a tight end before settling in on the offensive line at Oklahoma, and that versatility alone should be an indicator of his athletic excellence. Johnson’s combine numbers in particular are staggering, and when they are compared to others who performed similarly well his unique athleticism can be better understood.

40-Yard Dash

Johnson ran the 40-yard dash in a time of 4.72 seconds. Not only was that the second quickest 40 time of any offensive lineman behind Terron Armstead (who ran a 4.71), it was faster than most quarterbacks and linebackers at the event.

In fact, at 4.72 Johnson ran only .01 second slower than Anquan Boldin ran back in 2003. Boldin is a wide receiver, and was drafted in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He weighs 220 lbs, giving him an 80 lb advantage over Johnson, which is about the weight of a fully grown Labrador. With an 80 lb weight disadvantage to Boldin and a 50 lb disadvantage to most linebackers (linebackers usually weigh in the region of 250 lbs), Johnson has proven that he is quicker than people who are a lot smaller than he is.

This time showed NFL scouts that Johnson has the speed to compare to skill position players like wide receivers. He has a burst that is unnatural for a man as tall as he is, and will allow him to get to the point of attack on sweeps and pulling plays (where the offensive lineman does not block the man in front of him but instead sprints to the other side of the line to block another defender who is not expecting it) quicker than linebackers, giving him a significant advantage.

Vertical Jump

Each prospect at the combine is asked to stand still flex their knees and jump straight up. The distance they jump is then recorded and used as an indicator of the explosiveness that that prospect can produce. At 300 lbs, offensive linemen aren’t expected to be particularly explosive players. Their sheer size often prevents a good score. However, in jumping 34 inches, Lane Johnson equalled the vertical jump of top cornerback prospect Johnthan Banks, and measured only half an inch less than Cincinnati Bengals star receiver AJ Green when he attended the combine in 2011. Again, Johnson weighs significantly more than both Banks and Green, who are both very athletic players themselves.

Broad Jump

The broad jump is similar to the vertical jump, except you are asked to perform a standing jump moving laterally rather than vertically. Johnson recorded a jump of 9 feet 10 inches. Again, Johnson’s jump is more comparable to prospects of a much smaller size, such as New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley, who recorded exactly the same distance in 2011.

Agility Drills (3 cone drill and 20 yard shuttle)

While Johnson displayed explosiveness and lower body power in his 40 yard dash and jumps, in the 3 cone drill and 20-yard shuttle he displayed exceptional agility and movement skills, posting a 7.31 3 cone drill time and a 4.52 second 20-yard shuttle time, which are both top times for offensive linemen.

Bench Press

While some thought that Johnson’s speed and agility could take away from any power he has in his upper body, the bench press proved that wrong. Johnson recorded 28 lifts, which isn’t an eye-popping number but it is more than sufficient for an offensive lineman. Johnson proved in the workout that he has a rare combination of speed, power and agility that makes him an uncommonly athletic man at 300 lbs.

Positional Drills

It is here where Lane Johnson separates himself from the other athletic tackles like Terron Armstead and Bruce Campbell in previous years. While Armstead and Campbell showed only average blocking and footwork skills, Johnson excelled and proved to everybody that he is not an athlete pretending to be a football player, but a football player who happens to be athletic. Once scouts realised that Johnson had the smarts and skills to go with the good workout, his stock rose dramatically.

2013 NFL Draft

Now less than 24 hours to go before the NFL draft, Johnson is regarded as the third best offensive tackle in the entire class behind Texas A+M’s Luke Joeckel and Central Michigan’s Eric Fisher. He is a sure-fire first round pick and likely to be taken in the top 10 or 15, which is impressive considering that a few months ago scouts were putting him as a second round talent.

It isn’t hard to see why Lane Johnson is regarded as one of the top prospects in the draft, and the most incredible athlete perhaps in the entire NFL. He is an offensive lineman with the size and power necessary for that position, but uniquely he is also as fast as a wide receiver, as explosive as a running back and has the vertical jump of a red-zone threat wide receiver like AJ Green.

Whichever team is lucky enough to land Lane Johnson is getting one of the most gifted athletes in the NFL, but they are also getting one of the most technically efficient offensive tackles in this year’s draft. That is a dangerous combination. Many talent evaluators, including Mike Mayock, believe that despite Fisher and Joeckel being better prospects right now, due of the unlimited potential awarded by his exceptional athleticism Lane Johnson could become the most outstanding player in this entire draft.