Eric
Johnson.
Eric
Johnson.
Missouri State
Johnson is a 300-pound interior lineman whose value is measured in the blocks he absorbs rather than the plays he makes. He plays with a low pad level and heavy hands, works his way into the guard's chest on contact and holds two gaps on early downs, which is how he started 23 straight games and a school-record 55 in a row at Missouri State.
The best trait is his hand placement against the double team, where he sinks his weight and refuses to be displaced. He is also a legitimate field-goal block threat with three blocks in his final season alone. As a pass rusher he is a bull rusher only: a 4.87 forty and a 7.58 three-cone confirm what the tape shows, which is a player who pushes the pocket but never wins with quickness.
Four-man front that wants a true two-gap nose on early downs and rotates its pass rush from the interior, keeping him off the field on third and long.
Year 1: 20-snap early-down run stopper and kick-block specialist. Ceiling: full-time base nose who lets the linebackers play clean.
An attacking one-gap front that asks its interior linemen to slant, penetrate and produce pressure on passing downs.
The block he eats is the play he makes.
Small School Sleeper to Watch: Eric Johnson Missouri State Highlights
Pre-draft reel of his final Missouri State season, heavy on anchor work and blocked kicks.
Indianapolis Colts rookie defensive tackle Eric Johnson
Rookie-year breakdown of his fit as a rotational interior run stopper in Indianapolis.
Eric Johnson II - 2024 Season Highlights - New England Patriots
Every notable snap from his one season with the Patriots after the waiver claim.
Johnson arrived at Missouri State in 2016, redshirted, and then never came off the field. He started eight games as a redshirt freshman in 2017, nine more as a sophomore, and by the end of his career he had appeared in 55 consecutive games with 23 straight starts to close it out.
The production built slowly. He put up 18 tackles in 2017 and 25 in 2018 as a block-eater, then 18 more in 2019 across eleven games with seven starts. The spring 2020 season, played in early 2021 because of the pandemic, was his breakout: 27 tackles, six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in ten starts, good for second-team All-Missouri Valley. He repeated the honor in the fall of 2021 with 43 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and three blocked kicks, finishing his career at 131 tackles with 19.5 for loss and 6.5 sacks.
The six-year FCS résumé and Senior Bowl invitation gave scouts confidence in the technique, but the profile was narrow. His pro day numbers, a 4.87 forty and a 27.5-inch vertical at 300 pounds, said he was a two-down nose with no pass-rush upside, and the competition jump from the Valley to the NFL was real. Indianapolis took him 159th overall as a rotational run-stopper with a defined, limited job.
- 01
Anchor
sinks his pad level and holds ground against the double team, the single trait that makes an interior lineman worth a roster spot.
- 02
Availability
played 55 consecutive games at Missouri State with 23 straight starts to close his career, an unusually clean durability file for the position.
- 03
Hand placement
gets inside the guard's chest on contact and controls the block rather than absorbing it, refined technique from six years of starting.
- 04
Field-goal block
three blocked kicks as a senior and more earlier in his career, a real special teams skill that keeps fringe defensive linemen employed.
- 05
Experience
six seasons and two All-MVFC second-team nods, plus Senior Bowl and NFLPA Bowl invitations against the level of competition scouts wanted to see.
- 01
Pass rush
6.5 sacks across six seasons and a bull rush as his only move; he pushes the pocket but has no counter when the guard absorbs the initial punch.
- 02
Athletic testing
a 4.87 forty, 7.58 three-cone and 27.5-inch vertical at 300 pounds put him in the bottom tier of NFL interior athletes.
- 03
Level of competition
dominated Missouri Valley guards, but the strength and hand speed of NFL starters is a different problem entirely.
- 04
Age and ceiling
he turned 24 in his rookie summer after six college seasons, so the development curve teams usually bet on with Day 3 linemen was already flat.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— No athletic data recorded
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missouri St. | 11 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | Missouri St. | 11 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Missouri St. | 11 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Missouri St. | 10 | 27 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Missouri St. | 12 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 55 | 131 | 6.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Figures come from the Missouri State official bio, which publishes career totals of 131 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks over 55 consecutive games. Season tackle totals for 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are stated directly in that bio; the 2018 figure of 25 is the remainder needed to reconcile the four published seasons with the career total, and 2021 games are derived from the documented 55-game streak. Tackles for loss and sacks are only published for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, so earlier years are left blank rather than estimated. The 2020 season was played in the spring of 2021 because of the pandemic. Missouri State does not publish full defensive splits for interceptions, breakups or fumbles, so only the events named in the bio are recorded.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational interior body who plays five seasons across multiple teams without ever starting.
Undersized-profile run stopper who anchors well enough to hold a starting job for years.
Heavy nose whose lack of pass-rush value keeps him capped at a two-down rotational role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The pick worked, in the modest way a fifth-round nose tackle pick is supposed to work. Johnson has played 51 NFL games across five seasons: 14 for Indianapolis as a rookie, 14 more in 2023 when he posted 15 tackles and his only career sack, 11 for New England in 2024 after being claimed off waivers, and 12 back with the Colts in 2025. No starts, 41 career tackles, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and a fumble recovery.
That is precisely the job description he was drafted for, and he has held it through waiver claims by two franchises, which tells you the league sees the value even when the box score does not. The 2026 season has been harder: Minnesota signed him in April and released him in August, Atlanta signed and released him within eight days, and Green Bay put him on the practice squad in September. For a Day 3 FCS nose tackle, five seasons of roster equity is a return most fifth-rounders never deliver.