Jamon Dumas-Johnson considered top-5 for returning LBs by PFF
Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was considered one of the best in College Football last season, earning All-American status from a few and a finalist spot for the Butkus Award. Entering his junior season in Athens, he’s once again garnering national attention with Pro Football Focus ranking him as the fourth best returning linebacker in the country.
“Dumas-Johnson is the next great Georgia linebacker, following past Bulldog greats such as Roquan Smith and Nakobe Dean,” Max Chadwick wrote in his rundown of the top-10 returnees for the position. “In fact, over the past two seasons, the only SEC linebacker with a higher grade than Dumas-Johnson is Dean. The sophomore led the SEC this season with a 79.9 run-defense grade.”
The Hyattsville, Md. native totaled 70 tackles on the season, second-best on the team, including nine for loss with four sacks. Dumas-Johnson also deflected three passes from his inside linebacker spot while forcing one fumble in 15 games. He did all of that in his first year having to replace the likes of Dean, Quay Walker and Channing Tindall – all three of whom were taken in the 2022 NFL Draft.
“Confidence. I mean, he started showing up making plays when he first got here,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said about Dumas-Johnson in October. “I don’t know if you consider him highly touted. I don’t really know, I just know we really liked him. We liked his demeanor, liked where he’s from, liked his program, toughness that he played in and we liked the way he was on Zooms and talking to him. He got here and he’s a little heavy because he had not played and he started making plays. We’re like, ‘Man, this guy’s a good player.’ Of course we had good players in front of him. He’s blossomed really well this year. Probably the greatest strides he’s made is his leadership and his command of our defense at a young age. He’s not afraid to hold people accountable, which is hard for a sophomore.”
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“He holds people accountable, you know, including himself. He hasn’t had some of his best games and best weeks of practices here recently, but yet he still holds himself to a high standard,” Smart added on a separate occasion. “He acknowledges that he can do better, and when you have a guy at that position that thinks that way, it’s good hardwiring for your defense.”
Dumas-Johnson returns to an inside linebacker room that’s loaded. In fact, he wasn’t even the leading tackler of the group. Smael Mondon played in fewer games, missing a couple due to injury, and had six more stops. While he wasn’t included in Chadwick’s list of the top returning linebackers, there’s no doubt he’s outstanding. And the good news for Georgia fans is, they don’t have to pick between the two of them. Furthermore, the talent in Glenn Schumann’s inside linebacker room should continue past them. Jalon Walker was a top-100 player and one of the top linebackers in the Class of 2022 and saw increased playing time down the stretch of his freshman season. He’s got the versatility to play either on the inside or outside. Behind him in age will be a trio of incoming freshmen from the Class of 2023 – Raylen Wilson, CJ Allen and Troy Bowles – all three of whom were top 10 players for the position according to the On3 Consensus.
