Mel Kiper Jr, Field Yates debate NFL Draft stock of Will Johnson

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates agree that Michigan cornerback Will Johnson is a hard prospect to figure out in the 2025 NFL Draft. After playing a key role in helping the Wolverines win a national championship in 2023, Johnson played only the first six games of 2024 before sitting out the second half of the season due to a turf toe injury.

He then suffered a hamstring injury that kept him from competing both in the NFL Combine and at Michigan’s Pro Day. That leaves nothing but his game tape from college for scouts to evaluate with the draft set to take place later this month.

Yates ranked Johnson No. 10 overall on his big board, while Kiper had him No. 12 on his. Kiper explained that the injury concerns likely limited his upside, but acknowledged that if healthy he might be higher.

“Bottom line is, Field, you were that one that warned us that Will Johnson back in September, October, is he gonna have the recovery speed?” Kiper said. “You had concerns about that. We know Will Johnson anticipates. He has all those picks, pick-sixes. He’s a difference-maker in that secondary. His anticipation, the way he closes, the way he reads the quarterback. Love all that.

“But I thought you would have him a lot lower because back in September and October you were putting out the warning sign. I thought you would have him around 15. Where you have him at 10, that’s a little high for me since I have him at 12 and I was higher on Will Johnson than you were. So we kind of flipped it.”

Overall in his career at Michigan, Johnson finished with nine interceptions and returned three of those for touchdowns. That included two this past season in a limited sample size.

Yates acknowledged that the injuries are certainly a question mark, but in the end couldn’t ignore the quality of play that Johnson showed when he was healthy. He pointed to a game against receiver Deion Burks in the 2023 season in particular as standing out to him as far as Johnson’s ability to shut a receiver down.

“The tape when he is healthy and available is just so good,” Yates said. “You saw the two interceptions this year he returned for a touchdown. Had that huge pick against Washington in the national championship game last year. I’ll always stand on this moment, and it’s not one moment that makes a player, but for a guy who is 6-1, 200 pounds, like Will Johnson, last year in 2023 they were playing Purdue. Purdue at the time had a wide receiver named Deion Burks, who’s now at Oklahoma. A guy who might go pretty high in next year’s draft.

“Deion Burks is this shifty, jittery bug receiver who’s got tons of speed as well. Michigan just said, ‘You slow that guy down.’ And if he can follow, match, mirror a guy like Deion Burks, I’m thinking to myself, ‘If he can cover the big perimeter guys on the outside and he can cover the shifty guys on the inside, what more could you want from a cover corner?'”

In the end, Yates doesn’t believe that situations like Johnson’s are an anomaly in the new era of college sports. He pointed to Jayden Daniels as an example in last year’s draft of players not feeling the obligation to participate in the typical predraft events.

“Get used to stuff like this,” he said. “I think the possibility of guys who miss half a season and then do nothing during the predraft process is going to become a borderline regularity. Some of these guys say to themselves, ‘What more do I have to prove?’ Jayden Daniels didn’t even weigh in at the combine last year and went on to have the greatest rookie season in the history of the NFL.”

Perhaps Johnson will follow a similar storyline from greatness in college to the pros. And if that is true, whichever team gets him could be doing so at a discounted price given the worry regarding his health.