Jaylon Johnson has a hunch which NFL team will pick him in the first round
Jaylon Johnson, the Central High product who went on to star three years at Utah, has a hunch which team will take him in the NFL Draft.
“I would say the Raiders,” he told the Stick to Football podcast this month.
Most draft analysts project the cornerback as a late-first round pick; Las Vegas has the No. 19 selection out of 32 in the first round set for Thursday, 5-8:30 p.m. on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.
Johnson makes it clear that he doesn’t have any insider knowledge.
But he did have a good meeting with Raiders general manager Mike Mayock and coach Jon Gruden at the NFL scouting combine.
And it is no secret the Raiders are looking to upgrade the cornerback position with a player to pair with Trayvon Mullen, last year’s rookie starter.
The other cornerbacks on the roster are Nevin Lawson, Nick Nelson, Dylan Mabin, Isaiah Johnson, DJ Killings, Keisean Nixon and Ken Crawley.
“We’ve got four or five young corners who we’re kind of intrigued by,” Mayock told reporters recently. “Now, do we think that we need to get better there? Yeah. But you always have to be careful to see how the board will fall. I think the biggest mistakes people make, is trying to reach for need. So, the board will fall whatever way it falls and if we’re fortunate enough to get a corner, that’d be great.”
Johnson is 6 feet and 193 pounds and rated as a physical press corner who is quick in his backpedal. He also mixes it up with receivers through the route and goes after the ball with his long range.
At the scouting combine, he bench-pressed 225 pounds 15 times with one good shoulder.
With a torn labrum last season, he started every game at cornerback and finished the season with 36 tackles, two interceptions and 13 pass break-ups in 13 games played, helping Utah reach the Pac-12 title game.
Johnson said he has always been a goal-setter since playing football at an early age.
And making it to the NFL is no different as he told The Fresno Bee last month.
“It’s really about setting goals and knocking them down,” he said. “It came down wanting to go to the NFL when I got into college. It was another thing I wrote down and another thing I’m crossing off my list. It was just something I told myself what I was going to do and God has been blessing me to do it.”
Raiders draft spots
Barring draft-day deals, the Raiders have seven picks:
No. 12
No. 19
No. 80
No. 81
No. 91
No. 121
No. 159
