With the Seattle Seahawks 53-man roster updated Saturday night, Dontae Johnson has made the final cuts.
Missing a good amount of time with a foot injury during training camp, he’s all good to go now. Johnson is the typical Seahawks long armed press man cornerback. Coming in at 6’2, 195 lbs, he is more than capable of fitting in well into Ken Norton Jr. and Pete Carroll’s defensive system.
Johnson has 63 career games with 22 starts under his belt, all for fellow NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers. With Byron Maxwell placed on injured reserve (meaning he won’t play at all this season), it is assumed that Johnson is the next guy in line to take over at right cornerback.
We won’t know that to be true until Seattle’s regular season opener at the Denver Broncos. With a lot of new faces in the secondary and throughout the Seahawks defense as a whole, all eyes will be on whoever is in at cornerback opposite of Shaquill Griffin. Entering his 5th season, Johnson has had many problems with consistency. As of late, however, all signs are pointing towards Johnson having a solid season (and perhaps his best to date) when healthy, especially in a system that will play to his strengths, unlike his years with the 49ers.
I’m extremely excited to see how things will play out in the next few weeks or so. In the breakdown in the video above, you will see Johnson playing a lot of off-man coverage, good at getting in and out of his breaks for a longer guy, and being a solid tackler in the run game. Johnson not being afraid to stick his helmet on the football impressed me more so than anything else.
Enjoy the film breakdown and leave your questions or concerns about his game in the comments section.
Dontae Johnson’s Career stats: 158 tackles, 21 passes defensed, 2 interceptions (Both returned for touchdowns)