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DJ Johnson focused on "dominating" in final season with Oregon Ducks

Jarrid Denneyby:Jarrid Denney•08/03/22•

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Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

DJ Johnson wouldn’t change a thing about his time at Oregon thus far.

The Ducks’ sixth-year senior took a winding journey to this point. Once a 4-star linebacker and consensus top-100 prospect, he has spent the past two seasons splitting time at edge rusher and tight end. His willingness to play on both sides of the ball proved to be extremely valuable for the Ducks at times, but it also meant his statistical output took a hit.

Does he regret it?

“Oh, definitely not,” Johnson said Wednesday at Oregon’s media day. “My team needed me; we needed that at the time. To be able to help them out, I would never take that back.”

Now, though, after four seasons of prioritizing team success over individual accolades, Johnson figures to be one of the difference-makers for an Oregon defense that is engineered to get the most out of his immense talents. He’s playing strictly on the defensive side of the ball in 2022 and will likely start at Jack linebacker.

It was a decision that he and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi made on the first day they met.

“He said, ‘There’s no way you’re playing offense. I’m coaching you,'” Johnson recalls. “I appreciated that.”

Lupoi told a similar story while meeting with reporters in April.

“As long as the head coach signed off on that, I wanted DJ to play defense,” Lupoi said. “I think he’s got the right mindset and mentality. … I’ve been really impressed with how he’s attacked the process, especially the mental aspect of the defense.”

Now, Johnson will be able to focus his full attention on making an impact on the defensive side of the ball, something he hasn’t had the luxury of doing since 2019.

In 32 career games with the Ducks, he has 11 catches, 132 yards and three receiving touchdowns on offense. Defensively, he has tallied 25 tackles, three sacks, and a forced fumble.

During Oregon’s spring game in April, he tallied three sacks over the span of four quarters.

“It’s exciting,” Johnson said when asked about playing strictly defense. “Practice is harder than games a lot of the time. So when you’re practicing both sides, it’s a lot of reps. So to be on only one side, it helps you just play faster because you’re playing less.”

Johnson said he feels like edge rusher is his natural position, and doing position-specifec work on a daily basis — as well as only studying one playbook — has enabled him to take the next step in his development.

At this point, Johnson isn’t concerned with putting up gaudy individual numbers. He has finished his Bachelors degree in sociology and is currently in the midst of getting a second degree in anthropology.

“I’ve been in college for awhile. I don’t really care about individual accolades — those will come if the team is successful,” Johnson said. “My main goal is just to help the team however I can and dominate on the defensive side of the ball.”

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