Tae Johnson

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Window Shopping

In 2 recent prominent mock drafts by experts, Notre Dame safety Tae Johnson was the 10th overall and 14th overall selections in the 1st round. He is widely considered to be the top safety prospect in next year's draft class. Since he should be long gone way before the Rams get on the clock in the 2nd round, why am I doing a profile about him? Well, the genesis of this thread was asking whether there was a top tier draft prospect who might fall to the Rams and exploring the hypothetical question of whether the Rams should pursue that player. After looking at a number of candidates, I zeroed in on Johnson.

We've arguably already covered some other possible names. Charlie Becker, for example, was the 11th overall pick in one of the 2 recent mocks, taken 3 slots ahead of Johnson. Nick Marsh, the WR I really like, was the 15th pick, the very next player taken after Johnson. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Wyatt Young, Ryan Wingo and Bryant Wesco Jr. all appeared in at least one of the 2 mocks as 1st round picks. Johnson, however, is typically ranked higher than all of those other prospects. Multiple draft experts are projecting him as a top 16 or even a top 10 overall selection.

If the scenario of Johnson falling into the 2nd round to the Rams seems far-fetched to you, consider what happened to the NFL player most frequently used as his pro comparison, Antonio Johnson of the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2025, Johnson had the best PFF grade among all safeties in the NFL at 87.4. Sounds great, right? Maybe Tae Johnson should be taken inside the top 5 overall if he's going to perform on that level. Well, things are more complicated than they might seem on the surface.

Early in the draft process for the 2023 draft, Antonio Johnson was projected to be either a late 1st or very early 2nd round pick. I wrote a profile about him at that time. I found his tape to be disappointed, concluded that he was overrated and gave him a Day 3 grade. I can't remember precisely where I had him, but I'm sure it was 5th round or later.

In the actual draft, Johnson was a late 5th round pick. He was taken one slot before the Rams drafted Nick Hampton. The Rams had multiple picks in the compensatory section of that round and the last of those picks turned into Puka Nacua.

Johnson had limited playing time as a rookie, mostly as a slot DB. The following season, he was a popular pick as a breakout candidate. He bulked up and moved to a more traditional safety role. Instead of breaking out, he played poorly and was benched, earning a terrible PFF grade. Entering 2025, some Jags media observers said that he was on the roster bubble and at risk for not even making the roster. He was beaten out for one of the starting S positions by a former UDFA who has essentially been a special teams ace and career backup in the NFL.

The Rams beat the Jaguars in the middle of the 2025 season. In that game, Eric Murray suffered a neck injury. That injury opened the door for Johnson to get more playing time. Initially, he looked shaky, struggling in the next game after the loss to the Rams, with another lousy PFF grade. Some Jags fans were on the verge of panic mode, thinking that the team had a huge hole at safety. Things turned around and Johnson finished with a very high PFF grade for the season.

My point is that if you said that Antonio Johnson is one of the best safeties in the NFL and you said that he was just a backup or marginal starter, both of those statements are simultaneously true. Things in the NFL aren't always black and white. Kurt Warner was a very lightly regarded backup in the same season he was league MVP.

For sake of discussion, let's assume that Tae Johnson will literally be exactly the same as Antonio Johnson in NFL performance level. Should we make him a 1st round prospect or a 5th round prospect? We'd be talking about a player who one season was perhaps the worst safety in the NFL, but in a different season was arguably the best safety. Johnson was at risk of not even making his team's roster in his 3rd NFL season. Now, he might land a lucrative new contract. If you were a GM, where would you draft such a player?

My own NFL comparison for Tae Johnson was one of my favorite S prospects from the 2017 draft. I don't consider it hyperbole to say that on paper the 2017 draft class was the single greatest safety draft in the history of the NFL draft. Not all of those prospects panned out, but that draft was stuffed full of super talented safeties. Jamal Adams led the way as the 6th overall selection. The Rams got one of those safeties. We acquired an extra selection by trading down in the 2nd round, then used that 3rd round pick on John Johnson, another prospect I really liked. At Boston College, Johnson was good at pass coverage, one of the key reasons I thought he'd be a good NFL player.

Why do I think that Tae Johnson might not get drafted as high as the draft experts are predicting? First, he has a lengthy and concerning injury history. This could damage his stock before we even get to his actual performance on the field. Second, he's an extremely inexperienced player who only has half a season worth of starting experience. He's a raw young player, not a polished veteran. Drafting him super high in the 1st round would be like a team signing Antonio Johnson to a monster FA contact based solely off of his 2025 season. Tae Johnson has a very high ceiling, but he also comes with a very large bust factor that I don't feel the draft experts are properly taking into account.

 

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Part 1: Background

Name, school: Brauntae Johnson. Nicknamed "Tae Tae". Redshirt sophomore in 2026. Will be 21 years old by 2027 draft.

Size, estimated speed: Listed 6'2'' tall, 200 pounds. Was listed at 175 pounds as a freshman in 2024.

4-star recruit from Fort Wayne, IN. Has a young daughter. Has 5 siblings. Was a good basketball player in HS, averaging over 20 ppg his JR season. Played mostly WR in HS. Most schools recruited him as a WR. Had over 1,000 receiving yards his JR season in HS.

Redshirted in 2024, appearing in 3 games. Lost competition in fall 2025 for one of the starting safety spots, behind Jalen Stroman, who was a 2026 UDFA signed by the Niners.

Started 2025 as a backup, not playing much in the 1st game. Got increased playing time in the subsequent games then was officially named as a starter on the depth chart for the 4th game of the season.

Foot injury in the spring of 2023 while training, non-contact injury running an out route, had surgery. Had a season-ending shoulder injury during 2023 season, his SR year in HS, only appeared in small number of games. Had surgery on his shoulder, torn labrum in left shoulder in November of 2023. In August of 2024 he broke his left foot and had surgery, the second serious foot injury in about a year and a half. Late in the 2025 season, he suffered a hand injury during practice trying to punch the ball out for a fumble, missing a game. Recovered a blocked punt for a TD against Texas A&M in 2025.

2025 (10 games, 8 starts): 48 tackles, 0.5 TFLs, 35 solo, 4 INTs, 3 PD

DraftBuzz: Late 1st round, 30th overall. (+) Ball hawk, best tackler in draft class, only 2 missed tackles, reads route concepts, speed, versatile in alignment. (-) Wrist injury in 2025, might not enter the draft.
Ryan Roberts: Reggie Nelson pro comparison. (+) Length and range, WR background ball skills, coverage ability, very strong hands catching the ball, upside to be a plus NFL starter. (-) Inconsistent run pursuit angles, needs to fill out his frame, can get caught peeking into backfield.
PFF big board not ranked top 75
NFLMDD sim 16th overall, the best safety
Ian Cummings mock draft 16th overall
Sam Teets preliminary board 2nd round tier, 22 overall
Drafttek 21
PFSN simulator 12th overall, the best safety
Curt Popejoy mock draft 10th overall
PFSN mock draft 14th overall
Justin Melo mock draft, Sports Illustrated 12th overall

 

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Part 2: Strengths

Watching his games, I'm not sure he's even really a safety prospect. He's so good at pass coverage, maybe his eventual NFL position will be cornerback. Safety isn't considered to be a premium position, but Johnson is a modern NFL safety. He's more like a hybrid player. There are many very dangerous athletic TEs who often are flexed out. Johnson is potentially kryptonite against anyone you put in the slot, whether a TE, WR or RB, even against elite NFL players at those positions. How much value would you put on a player that you could assign to cover a Travis Kelce and not give him any additional help? It frees up the rest of the defense to slide coverage over to the other WRs.

Pick magnet. Had 4 INTs last season and almost came up with several more INTs. Former HS receiver with natural hands catching the ball.

Gambling, ball hawking instincts, early anticipation of routes then tries to jump or undercut the route to hunt for the ball. Not afraid to surrender big play if he misses the ball or gets his hand caught in the cookie jar.

Potential to be a lock-down man coverage safety in the slot. Huge wingspan. Rare length with long arms to challenge the catch point and get PBUs.

Pass coverage ability is the gold standard that NFL teams are looking for in a safety. That single trait will likely get Johnson drafted high, regardless of any other shortcomings in his profile. Johnson is particularly valuable, because his size and athleticism make him equally deadly in both man and zone pass coverage, allowing an NFL DC to be multiple and disguise coverages or change coverage schemes.

QBs must respect his short area burst and menacing length in zone coverage, otherwise they will pay with INTs and deflected passes. Constant threat to close passing windows.

Good COD and speed to mirror and run with opponents in pass coverage. Length to reach around the front of the receiver to deflect the pass but also height and vertical ability to challenge high passes.

Elite effective tackling radius. Ensnares runners with his long arms and has strong hands to grab them or trip them up. Very good length to wrap up the ballcarrier and not let them get away. Has length to attempt to rip or punch out the football as he's making the tackle. Sideline-to-sideline pursuit speed.

Played special teams for ND. Possible special teams superstar in NFL. Long arms and athleticism to block punts and kicks. Speed and tackling ability to cover punts and kicks. Core special teamer who can contribute on every ST unit.

Extremely inexperienced player just barely scratching the surface of his full potential. Mostly played WR in HS, didn't play much defense. Injuries prevented him from gaining more experience until 2025. Wasn't a starter at the beginning of last season. His technique is very raw, but that's to be expected at this point in his career. Still filling out his body to add strength and muscle. It is very difficult to give him a firm draft grade, because we don't know how he might perform 2 years from now. The fairest grade we could give him is probably "Incomplete", because so much of it is pure speculation on the future.

 

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Part 3: Weaknesses

Injury prone. Missed most of 2023 and 2024 seasons due to injury. Multiple surgeries on his foot. Both upper and lower body injuries.

He's young and relatively naive, doesn't have a wealth of world and life experiences. I'm concerned that other people might try to take advantage of him or influence him in the wrong direction, whether in his football career or off the field. He has a personal logo and social media brand, basically an entourage of family friend advisors that help market him. I don't think he's going to interview well with NFL front office people, he's not overly eloquent. Players don't always get the best advice from outsiders whispering into their ears. What's going to happen if the Rams draft him high, but in his 2nd year he gets benched, just like Antonio Johnson with the Jaguars? Will someone tell Tae Johnson to demand to be traded and to create drama with the coaching staff? Will it become another Cam Akers situation?

While he's tall and long limbed, he's also very slender, lacking in body mass and muscle. If he tries to bulk up, can he do that without losing speed, burst and flexibility? Antonio Johnson wasn't as good when he tried to play at a heavier weight. A similar thing might happen with Tae Johnson.

Has below average play strength vs blocks in space. Not very effective against screens going out wide.

Lacks desired aggression and physicality. Has a soft play demeanor on the field, doesn't relish the violence of being a football defensive player. Eases up prior to the whistle watching the action, not concerned about the possibility that the runner might unexpectedly break free. Reluctant to jump into piles, allows other defenders to do the work to stop the RB. If there's a scrum coming his way, unwilling to sacrifice his body to try to stop the surging RB.

As a single-high deep safety, his pedal is too upright. His steps aren't smooth and efficient. I want him to get his hips lower and be more precise with the spacing of his steps. Maintain better balance so that his COD is quicker and more explosive.

He's in the slot, giving a huge cushion to the WR, who runs a speed out. Johnson's plant and drive footwork isn't clean, slowing his ability to react. As the WR makes the catch, he has ideal space and time to make a move to elude the tackle. On this play, it doesn't matter, the WR isn't talented, so Johnson makes a secure tackle and there's no damage. At the NFL level, if you aren't there to make an immediate tackle, YAC monsters will exploit those extra yards of space or that fraction of a second and the odds of Johnson missing the tackle will jump.

He had a very good statistical rate for missed tackles in 2025, but some of that is due to how he was used in the scheme. As you can tell from his stats, he had almost no TFLs. He wasn't down in the box trying to get the RB behind the LOS or flying out to the flat as the first defender to try to tackle the WR on screens. Johnson was normally the deep lying safety, not required to make higher risk tackle attempts.

Making open field tackles, he sometimes opts to just throw a shoulder into the ballcarrier when I feel the better approach would be to try to wrap up. Moreover, there were situations where the WR didn't have time to see him coming and I think he had an opening to try to punch or rip the football out.

His angles and gap discipline in run support are shaky and inconsistent. What tends to happen as a result is his body isn't square to the RB, making his tackle attempt weaker. Johnson still made those tackles, partly due to his great length. His long arms covered up his mental mistakes. At the NFL level, however, elite NFL athletes who are more powerful or more elusive will punish him for being so sloppy with his entrances into the tackle.

Let's take an example. Pulling OG on gap run. The LB is trying to set up Johnson to make the tackle and sacrifices himself by taking out 2 of the lead blockers at the POA, including the pulling guard. The result should leave Johnson 100% unblocked and free to the RB to make the stop. Johnson doesn't the block development properly and adjust his gap responsibility. He's not aware to what is happening in front of him. As he comes up in run support to fill, he goes directly into the back of his own linebacker. He then has to course correct by moving laterally back to the inside. Instead of hitting the RB square, now he's trying to tackle the RB from the side. He makes the tackle, but leaks yardage since the RB instead of getting stoned and driven back is able to drag the S forward to finish the run.

His pursuit angle from deep positions can be too flat, requiring him to make an angle adjustment. The result is he's running a longer distance instead of going in a straight line to intercept the runner, causing his football speed to be a fraction of a second slower than his timed Combine speed. Plus, he's arriving from behind the runner instead of at a more advantageous angle. At ND, this often won't matter, Johnson still will make the tackle anyway, we're just talking style points. Let's say he's in the NFL and he's the last line of defense safety, chasing Jahmyr Gibbs to the sideline. That tiny error could be the difference between pushing the RB out of bounds or Gibbs racing all the way home for a long TD.

Gets out of position in coverage as a deep safety. Johnson is the single-high deep safety in pass coverage. The pass is going to be a post route to the outside WR off of a basic play action fake. If Johnson reads the play development properly, he doesn't really have to move, his initial depth pre-snap is perfect to help defend the intended route. Even if he can't challenge the catch point, this isn't a difficult pass play for the S to be in position to help tackle the WR immediately after the catch to prevent YAC. After the ball is snapped, this is how Johnson moves: Take a step back, jump forward and move to his right taking a step, shift his body and go 2 steps to the left, flip his hips and go back to the right while stepping back, take 2 lateral slide steps, finally see the pass going to the WR so he plants and drives but he's moving at the wrong angle, too deep instead of going towards the actual catch point. After all of that chaotic, indecisive and unnecessary movement back and forth, Johnson is 12 yards deeper than necessary, way too far away from the action to help the CB. IMO, the reason he looks completely lost sometimes as a deep S is he isn't actually reading the routes as they develop, he's staring at the QB and guessing where the pass might go. He doesn't maintain eye balance and peek back and forth between the QB and the WRs. NFL QBs will be able to hold him or manipulate him to get him to move in the wrong direction, then fire passes into the open areas before he can react. Matthew Stafford with his no-look passes sometimes isn't even looking at the intended receiver. Could you imagine Stafford playing in a game where Johnson is the lone deep S? Stafford would be in attack mode all game long, he'd try to humilate the rookie.

Slow recognition of a deep post corner route contributed to a long TD pass. Deep over route, Johnson takes 8 steps in the wrong direction, trying to read the QB, before flipping his hips when he realizes the pass is going to the opposite side of the field, hopelessly out of position. The pass is so underthrown that the WR has to slow down and wait for the ball to arrive, yet Johnson is so far away it doesn't matter, WR has so much room that he nearly break's Johnson's tackle after the catch.

Having Johnson be the deep S can look as bad as having Taylor Rapp play as a single-high S.

Short 3rd down, man coverage, Johnson is lined up over an attached TE. The TE chip blocks, then leaks out on a shallow crossing route close to the LOS. Johnson doesn't run with him, clueless as to what is happening, because he's only focused on the QB. The TE ends up all alone, wide open on the other side of the field for an easy catch.

Offense has a 2nd and 4 in the extended red zone. When I saw the formation, I immediately anticipated play action pass before the ball was snapped. I wasn't born yesterday, just look at the down and distance and field position. Even just the body language of the RB tips it off. Johnson is the deep safety on the bootleg side of the formation. Off the play action fake, Johnson takes 2 steps in the wrong direction before he recognizes what is happening, then flips his hips the other way to reverse field. The pass gets deflected up into the air off the WR's hand, Johnson dives for the ball, but it falls to the ground barely out of his reach. If he had been in his proper position, it would have been a very easy INT gift-wrapped for him and maybe he's running the other way hunting for a pick 6 on the return. Not everything is about a player's 40-yard dash time. You don't always need to run fast, especially if all you're doing is running in the wrong direction. Read your keys, be in the right spot and sometimes the football will magically find you.

Basic deep crossing pattern by 2 WRs. Johnson isn't deep enough and doesn't jump on either route, ending up out of position unable to give the CB any help as the pass arrives.

Johnson is in the slot over a TE. He sees the inside WR run into the flat as the TE pretends to block. Anticipating a pass to the WR, Johnson triggers, races past the TE and runs downhill towards the WR. The TE is now behind him, all alone and wide open with Johnson hopelessly out of position as the QB throws the pass to the TE instead of to the WR.

Undisciplined angles and lack of awareness results in him running himself into rubs and colliding with his defensive teammates.

ND is stuffed full of future NFL talent on their defense. Johnson could just "float around" and do his thing, playing off of the other studs they have on the field. Some safeties are the stars on their college teams; they have to make plays all over the place. Johnson isn't the lead singer for Notre Dame, he's just part of the band. He wasn't the best player on that defense in 2025, not by a mile.

Some of his INTs in 2025 were on overthrows where the ball went directly to him. The player who beat him out for the starting job to begin 2025 was an UDFA.

His ND production consists of approximately half of an NFL season. Small sample size. Are the experts overreacting to his highlights, his size and athleticism and not placing enough weight on the inconsistencies in his tape? Kam Kinchens at Miami was a roller coaster ride. He was a ball hawk and generated turnovers but he also made many mistakes that resulted in big plays for the opponent. If Kinchens had been more consistent, maybe he could have been a 1st round pick but instead the Rams got him in the compensatory part of the 3rd round, almost a 4th round selection.

 

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Part 4: Draft Grade and Pro Comp

3rd round grade. Obi Melifonwu (Late 2nd round 2017, Raiders, UConn).

May the Force be with you, Tae Johnson. Obi Melifonwu was a Combine superstar. He was nearly 6'4'' tall, a very muscular 224 pounds, had a big wingspan, ran 4.40 seconds in the 40, jumped out of the gym with a 44'' vertical leap and an 11'9'' broad jump. He had 4 INTs his final season at UConn, was a tackling machine, and a former CB. Mike Mayock suggested that some NFL teams would draft him to play CB. Deion Sanders was drooling watching Melifonwu run at the Combine.

The book on Melifonwu was that he had slow eyes, took inefficient paths to the ball and was inconsistent diagnosing, but he was such a rare athletic freak and had rare size, the upside was intoxicating.

I thought that Melifonwu would become a good NFL player. Instead, he had some injuries, never developed and didn't even play much on special teams. He only played 34 defensive snaps for the Raiders. He got a SB ring with the Patriots when they beat the Rams. Melifonwu was drafted 13 slots before the Rams took Cooper Kupp. If Johnson started Week 1 of his rookie season, he likely would play more defensive snaps in that single game than Melifonwu played his entire NFL career.

I both love and hate Tae Johnson as a draft prospect. He has legit pass coverage skills and someday could be an All Pro level player. On the other hand, he was only a redshirt freshman in 2025 and looked every bit of it on tape. There were some rough moments where he was basically mentally lost on the field.

I wouldn't draft Johnson in the top 10 overall the way some mocks have him, but that's not the context of this discussion. We're talking about whether the Rams might be able to get Johnson almost exactly where Melifonwu was drafted in 2017. Would I draft Johnson with a late 2nd round pick? Not sure, but definitely worth a discussion.

Unless Johnson takes a huge leap forward in 2026, I think his NFL team needs to be realistic about what they're getting. There will likely be growing pains early in his career. He might be the hero one week with a key INT and the goat the next week with a costly blown coverage assignment. He's a developmental guy that will require coaching, maybe a veteran S to help guide him and patience to integrate him into the scheme. He's a boom or bust prospect. He could get hurt or underachieve or he could become one of the best defensive players in the NFL.