Anthony
Johnson Jr..
Anthony
Johnson Jr..
Iowa St.· 6'0"· 205 lb· 4.54s 40
"Iowa State turned a corner into a safety, the safety tested like an athlete and tackled like a linebacker, and the 242nd pick has outlasted most of the players taken ahead of him."Pre-draft read
Johnson plays downhill. He spent his early Iowa State career at corner and moved to a slot-safety hybrid in 2022, and the corner background shows in how he mirrors in the slot and how comfortable he is with a receiver in front of him. What separates him is contact: he arrives with intent in the run fit, he wraps, and he plays much bigger than 205 pounds in the alley.
Deep, he is more athlete than diagnostician. He has the range on paper, with a 4.54 forty and a 7.07 three-cone, but the eyes still take him to the wrong half occasionally when he is the single-high defender. His interception production came from being around the ball rather than from anticipating a route concept, and the processing was the part that needed NFL reps.
Multiple defense that uses a big-nickel or dime safety near the line and does not ask him to play deep middle alone
Year 1: core special teams with sub-package slot snaps; ceiling: starting strong safety in a two-high structure
Single-high defense that requires a free safety to read a quarterback and cover the deep middle by himself
Green Bay, New York and Chicago have all used him exactly this way.
2023 NFL Draft prospect: Anthony Johnson Jr., S - Iowa State
Iowa State feature on Johnson's move from cornerback to safety ahead of the 2023 draft.
Iowa State recruited Johnson as a three-star cornerback out of St. Petersburg, Florida, kept him for five years, and finished by moving him to a slot-safety role that fit his body and his temperament. The 2021 season produced 55 tackles with three tackles for loss across 13 games. The 2022 season, at the new position, produced 60 tackles in 12 games with two interceptions, and PFF had him rising through the spring.
The testing supported the tape. A 4.54 forty with a 37.5-inch vertical, a 10-5 broad jump, a 7.07 three-cone and a 4.31 shuttle is a complete athletic profile for a safety, and his arms at 31 and a quarter inches were the only measurable that pushed back. He was a physical tackler in every scouting report and a versatile chess piece in most of them.
So why the 242nd pick? Because he was a fifth-year player without a defined NFL position, the deep-coverage instincts were unproven, and safeties who tackle well but do not intercept the football fall on Day 3 every year. Green Bay took him at the very end of the draft as a special teams body with a chance to play in the slot, which is precisely what he became.
- 01
Physical tackler
Arrives with force in the alley and finishes at 205 pounds, which is the trait that put him on NFL special teams immediately.
- 02
Complete athletic profile
A 4.54 forty, 37.5-inch vertical, 10-5 broad jump and 7.07 three-cone with no bad number in the set.
- 03
Positional versatility
Five years at Iowa State covering both outside corner and a slot-safety hybrid role gives a defense multiple ways to use him.
- 04
Slot coverage background
The corner training shows in the mirror and the press technique when he is matched on a receiver inside.
- 05
Ball awareness in-phase
Two interceptions in his first season at safety, both from staying attached and finding the throw late in the rep.
- 01
Deep processing lags
Single-high reads take him to the wrong half at times, and the eyes were the least developed part of the transition.
- 02
Short arms for the position
At 31 and a quarter inches he lacks the reach to break up throws he is otherwise in position to contest.
- 03
No true position
A five-year player still being described as a hybrid, which is why every team passed on him until the final round.
- 04
Modest takeaway production
The interception total is thin for a defender whose value has to come from creating plays on the ball.
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.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.54sp50
- Vertical
- 37.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 125inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.07sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.31sp50
- Bench
- 15repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Iowa State | 13 | 55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Iowa State | 12 | 60 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Only cfbstats-verified seasons are shown. Johnson also played from 2018 to 2020 at Iowa State, but those season lines could not be verified and are omitted rather than zero-filled. Pass breakup totals and 2021 interception splits are unverified.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Five-year Iowa State defender (2018-2022)
- Converted from cornerback to slot-safety hybrid in 2022
Special teams safety who sticks on rosters for years without owning a defensive job.
Undersized, physical box safety who becomes a long-term starter on the strength of tackling.
Athlete with no position who cycles off the roster after the rookie contract.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Johnson played 12 games with four starts as a rookie in Green Bay in 2023, recording 24 tackles and three pass breakups. The Packers waived him at the 2024 roster cut and the Giants claimed him, using him for nine games in 2024 and a second season in 2025 before waiving him in March 2026. Chicago signed him in May 2026 and listed him as an active safety.
He beat the draft slot immediately. Johnson played 12 games with four starts as a rookie in Green Bay and posted 24 tackles and three pass breakups, which is a real season for pick 242. That should have bought him time. Instead the Packers waived him at the 2024 roster cut, and the Giants claimed him the same day.
New York used him as a special teams and reserve defender, nine games in 2024 and a second season in 2025 before waiving him in March 2026. Chicago signed him in May 2026 and listed him as an active safety heading into that fall. Three teams, four seasons, and still employed: for a seventh-round pick the survival itself is the grade. He never turned into a starter, but he found the exact job the evaluation predicted, and he has kept it longer than the pick had any right to expect. The tackling was always going to be the thing that kept him around, and it has been. Special teams value is value, and he has kept earning it.