The Chicago Bears selected University of Utah All-American, Jaylon Johnson with the no. 50 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, on Friday night. Johnson is the first Utah player drafted, in what is expected to be littered with his teammates. After declaring early for the draft, the shutdown cornerback found out he played the whole 2019 season with a torn labrum, causing him to fall a little, as the Bears get first round talent near the back end of the second round.

Utah career highlights

A 2019 All-American and two-time All Pac-12 selection, Johnson finished his three-year career at Utah with some impressive stats: 102 tackles, 21 pass breakups (10 in 2019, alone), and seven interceptions that also included two pick-6s. One pick-6 was against Stanford, while the other was the clincher against Washington this past season.

Johnson was so good when healthy—he played his freshman season with a bad shoulder—that at times it seems like opposing quarterbacks would do everything they could to avoid him. There’s no question that he’s finished his college career as one of the all-time greats in University of Utah history.

PFF stats

FR- 72.7 overall, 62.9 tackling, 71.7 coverage

SO- 80.5 overall, 59.1 tackling, 80.2 coverage

JR- 83.8 overall, 82.4 tackling, 84.4 coverage

Pros and Cons

A student of the game with an extremely high football IQ, Johnson is arguably the most physical cornerback in the draft. He excels in press-coverage, to the point that NFL teams view his future as a shutdown corner. One area that he could improve a little bit for the next level is his footwork, as at times, it seemed when he blanketed his opponent that he would overreact and get crossed up on a deep ball. Quite honestly though, that’s me just looking for a weakness. Jaylon has worked diligently on his footwork with his brother, as he’s trained for the draft. Johnson has so much determination to succeed that wherever there’s a valid weakness to his game, he works tirelessly to prove doubters wrong.

What Johnson brings to NFL

Johnson should be an instant-impact player, as a starter or the very first backup in a cornerback rotation. Utah’s defensive system—to go along with their secondary’s required press-coverage—should make it so that Jaylon has very few initial adjustments to the NFL game other than the speed of it, as well as facing more seasoned and intelligent quarterbacks. In 2019, he was constantly assigned the other team’s top receiver and more often than not, shut his assignment down. Therefore, there’s no challenge that is too big for him to handle. It’s his attitude, work ethic, and athleticism that should bring him a lot of success for a lot of years in the NFL.