Name: Ron Johnson, Jr.
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 245 lbs.
High school: Camden (NJ) Camden
Position: Defensive end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: N/A
Last year: Johnson was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 112 tackles and 3 sacks.
Final TTB Rating: 83
Johnson was one of a pair of Camden products who signed with Michigan in February, along with receiver Brad Hawkins, Jr. Johnson ended up as the #300 overall player and the #23 weakside end in the country. He didn’t have great production as a pass rusher during his senior year, but he was making plays all over the field and maintained his ranking, for the most part. He ended up playing in the Semper Fi All-American Bowl.
Michigan needs pass rushers, so maybe Johnson can help this season. He’s a true weakside end at this point, but Michigan has Taco Charlton to start there. Backing him up is Chase Winovich, and the Wolverines can also use Carlo Kemp or Joshua Uche as pass rushers. I think Johnson needs to get stronger to hold up against college offensive tackles, and he’s not quite as explosive as Uche to be a pure speed rusher, so that’s why I’m placing him below the other guys. If Michigan can stay healthy up front, I think Johnson should probably redshirt. But as we saw last year with Bryan Mone, Ryan Glasgow, and Mario Ojemudia, the injuries can really pile up on the defensive line.
Prediction: Redshirt if possible
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Frankly, we need to get as many guys onto the field as possible this year, and the heck with redshirts. If we aspire to be a elite program, we can reload without them, but we will have huge losses at almost every position group this year, and we need to have as many players as possible with on-field experience for 2017 if we’re not going to take a big step backwards.
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I think WDE is the toughest position to peg on the entire team. Most pundits are putting Charlton there, which is a logical optimization of the DL talent Michigan has. Unfortunately it may not fit well with Brown’s system which seeks to get speed on the edges and wreak havoc with blitzes. Let’s put it this way — Charlton, at almost 280 pounds, is significantly bigger than Uche and Winovich (the spring game starter if I’m not mistaken).
I tend to agree that Johnson will red-shirt, but I do expect one of the freshman at least to get snaps at WDE. The ranking seems reasonable given all that uncertainty and the many young options at DE.
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I agree that it’s a tough position to peg. FWIW, Sam Webb said a couple weeks ago that he had a “gut feeling” that the starters would be Rashan Gary, Chris Wormley, Ryan Glasgow, and Taco Charlton, with Charlton at WDE.
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You have to take heed of Webbs gut feelings, but Gary hasn’t even hit campus yet. I know he’s special but putting a true freshman ahead of proven vets at starter would be extremely unusual before a single practice. I suspect he heard something from Mattison or another assistant and ran with it.
It’ll be interesting to see how Charlton does and if he offers enough speed on the edge to satisfy Brown. He was purported to be an excellent athlete – so he might – but even as a SDE he wasn’t a major pass-rush threat. I hope it works out but until I see Charlton wrecking at WDE I’ll continue to be a little skeptical. That all said, last year we had great success with Henry or Wormley as jumbo SDEs so it may work on the other side too.
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Well, Gary HAS actually hit campus now, but I get your point. Regardless, Lavert Hill, Ron Johnson, Kareem Walker, etc. haven’t played a down of college football yet. This whole list is a projection of what will happen this season. Webb is projecting that Gary will start. Furthermore, I don’t see Winovich as a starter-level player yet. If Gary were to only be a backup, I would suggest that a line of Wormley, Hurst, Glasgow, and Charlton (from SDE to WDE) would still be better than playing Charlton at SDE. Brown wants speed, but he also wants players that are good. Charlton might not be as quick as, say, Joshua Uche, but we can probably guess that Charlton is BETTER than Uche. Speed isn’t everything (and if it was, De’Veon Smith would be standing on the sideline).
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Agreed. It’s about the tradeoff of playing somebody out of position vs playing the better player. We could have the best 3rd string QB on the planet, but it’s not going to help to throw him at OT. SDE and WDE are obviously much more alike than that, but differences exist.
I think one answer (to put the best players on the field) may be a tweak scheme. We did this with Clark/Beyer 2 years ago. From what I understand, an OVER defense gives the DE positions more balanced responsibilities. We don’t have to follow the formula of the under where the WDE is all but an OLB and the SDE is all but a DT.
Also, with Gary and Charlton as bookends, and Glasgow and Wormley between them you have the ability to flip your assignments without shuffling guys around — something Mattison’s always wanted to do since he came back to Michigan.
I’m not against moving Charlton, I’m just a little skeptical it will work just as I would be about a 250 pound WR or Safety.
I think I might like Winovich more than you – but I’ll save those thoughts for his post.
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