Second- and third-year NFL players ready to break out in 2021: Defense edition

Cornerback - Jaylon Johnson

Cornerback – Jaylon Johnson

Since we’re looking at cornerbacks from last year’s draft, let’s talk about the guy who went one pick prior to Trevon Diggs, right with that 50th overall selection.

With Jaylon Johnson, the Bears became the seventh team to bring in a corner. I personally had him as my CB5 and eight spots higher in my overall rankings. While I didn’t think he was a top-tier athlete, I really liked Johnson’s physicality, technique and competitive nature, which I saw at Utah.

This is obviously a tough position to play as a rookie, especially when you’re thrown right into the fire like Chicago did to their then 21-year-old, coming off consecutive first-team All-Pac-12 selections. Standing at 6 feet, 193 pounds, Johnson was a starter in every contest he was available for, but with mixed results. Similar to the Bears defense as a whole, which went from one of the elite units league-wide to more above-average, as the offense picked things up a little bit, the play of their young corner started falling off.

Despite missing the final three games, Johnson led all rookies and was tied for sixth league-wide with 15 pass break-ups, but he didn’t have a single interception. As I just mentioned, he started the season really strong, holding opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating below 80 over the first seven games, despite seeing a heavy target share of seven looks per contest. However, over the final six contests he appeared in, Johnson surrendered a rating in the 100s all but once (when he was only targeted twice), twice in the 150 range.

What really got out of hand was his yards surrendered per target of almost exactly 10.0 a pop. This was one of the players and situations I analyzed most closely, since I really liked the player coming out of college and was surprised to see his numbers regress after a strong start. Individual play was the biggest factor, but I think there are some things he can quickly improve upon, and he should benefit from adjustments in the Bears’ defensive scheme.

The first thing that really stands out about Johnson is how patient he is off the line, mirroring receivers and staying technically sound in soft-press alignment when put in man-coverage. You see him use a lot of catch-technique, where he has pretty good speed to trail guys down the sideline or carry them up the post. You see his eyes really locked on the hips of the target and he feels comfortable reacting to what he sees with his back to the quarterback.

He does not lack confidence when trailing receivers down the field and his habit of falling for double-moves in college doesn't seem to have carried over too much. In zone-coverage, he is very physical, without allowing receivers to release against his leverage and is already pretty sound for a young player at funneling targets to the safety behind him.

He tries to keep in contact throughout routes and shows excellent anticipation for breaks, as soon as he feels the receiver cut down his stride length or lean either direction. He may not be super-springy, but he usually trusts his eyes and doesn’t shy away from jumping an out route, when he has to freedom to. Plus, he has those long arms to wrap around and swipe through the reach of receivers.

Rookie Jaylon Johnson rocks Allen Lazard to jar the ball loose 💥pic.twitter.com/xeO5SXd8Yz

— PFF (@PFF) November 30, 2020

Johnson may be on the slimmer side, but he did match up against tight ends a few times when they were the single receiver on the side he was almost exclusively lined up on. While his physicality doesn’t fully translate to the run game, he does approach blockers with good extension. I would like to see him become more active with getting off blocks, but I think that improved as the season went along.

Johnson’s biggest issues show up when he has to play six to eight yards off the receiver. There’s certainly a pause when he tries to redirect against breaks back towards the quarterback, and he tends to lose balance at times, not looking super comfortable overall.

He has a tough time coming forward against slants from when having to give that cushion, and he is not the type of guy you want pedaling backwards and driving on breaks. He has to stay lower and work on his fluidity this offseason, as Chicago was very vulnerable to quick-hitting routes, but also to avoid getting beat deep, as he can’t feel the receiver, because Johnson simply doesn’t have the make-up speed to get back into the picture when he is beat.

One example was what should have been a touchdown by Calvin Ridley late in the fourth quarter of week three, to secure the victory, but Matt Ryan underthrew him pretty badly, and the Bears were able to pull off the comeback with Nick Foles.

Under last year’s play-caller Chuck Pagano, you saw a lot more man-coverage principles, even if they actually were in three-deep, which ultimately leaves their corners one-on-one on the outside. With new defensive coordinator Sean Desai having worked under Vic Fangio for a few years already and then just being promoted when Pagano replaced the now-Broncos head coach.

I would expect Desai to have taken on a lot of the basic principles from Fangio’s defenses. So I expect the Bears to run a lot more match-quarters and showing split-safety looks pre-snap, to not tip off the opposing quarterback. Moreover, because Pagano ran those rather simplistic coverages, where the corners where responsible for anything deep their direction, we didn’t see them switch sides pretty much at all.

Even though Chicago surprisingly cut Pro Bowler Kyle Fuller in late March, who now is back with Fangio in Denver, to take on that field-side corner role, I would think Desai looks at Johnson as his boundary guy, while the aging Desmond Trufant should assume the spot on the opposite end of the field.

I believe the second-year man could get tested even more, going up against opposing X receivers on the short side of the formation, but he will also not be asked to play as much off as we saw from him as a rookie, since the single receiver is accounted for in man, unless he immediately works across the field usually. So the schematic fit seems much more adequate for Johnson now and if he works on the few things I just described, I expect him to become one of the better corners in the NFL.