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The Athletic’s Dane Brugler thinks Michigan’s Will Johnson could be there at #23
At the moment, the top full-time cornerback on the consensus draft board is Michigan’s Will Johnson, who is currently ranked as the 12th overall prospect in the draft and was as high as fifth on the board coming into the season. While Johnson has an impressive resume, earning back-to-back All-American honors before declaring as a true junior, he has yet to run during the pre-draft process.
He’s had three opportunities to do so: At the scouting combine, at Michigan’s pro day and during a private workout on Monday. While Johnson missed the end of his final season with a turf toe injury, it was a hamstring issue that was the issue with him performing at the first two of these events. During his private workout, Johnson posted a 37” vertical jump, but he didn’t run a timed drill beyond his 4.33-second short shuttle — instead focusing on positional drills in front of NFL scouts who made the trip.
There aren’t big questions about Johnson’s speed, but as The Athletic’s Dane Brugler explained on ESPN’s “This is Football,” cornerback is a “stopwatch position,” so the lack of a 40-yard dash could turn some teams away from taking him early on.
During this podcast, Brugler, who writes what is likely the most in-depth scouting resource available to the public with his “The Beast” series, said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson is available in the 20s. He even mentioned the Green Bay Packers as a potential landing spot for the cornerback.
As we wrote about earlier this week, the slot cornerback market in the NFL seems to be reacting to the Packers’ signing of Nate Hobbs by treating him as a market-setting deal for the slot position. While reports have claimed that Green Bay plans on playing Hobbs as an outside cornerback, the NFL doesn’t seem to be buying the company line. Of course, the NFL, at large, can certainly be wrong, but it’s at least worth noting that the league is treating Hobbs like a slot defender moving forward.
Between that piece of information and the fact that the Packers are reportedly still looking for a trade partner to unload Jaire Alexander’s $17.5 million salary for 2025, Green Bay could very well be in the market for an outside cornerback with the 23rd overall pick. And if Brugler is right about Johnson’s potential draft day slip, the Michigan Wolverine could be a Packer in a week.
