Buffalo Bills: Darryl Johnson has to show improvement to make roster
By Daniel Bruce
Assessing Johnson’s game
A very long, raw prospect who can beat tackles with his speed or while using his long arms to make life tough on tackles.
He frequently uses one move to get to the quarterback. He sticks his inside arm into the tackles body and then proceeds to swipe the blockers hands with his free hand, he utilizes this move in the sack.
While showing great pass rush potential, Johnson was poor in his run defense like cited on the previous page, he was consistently targeted.
According to PFF, Johnson posted a 54.1 overall grade with a 61.5 pass rush grade and a underwhelming 51.5 run defense grade. It was tough to rely on the rookie pass rusher to be on the field if he is constantly exposed in his run defense.
The raw defensive end does have the potential to become a very good pass rusher, and if he struggles to improve against the run he could be used as a situational pass rusher. He would need to spice up his pass rushing moves, like he did at certain times in college. While the level of play is much different in the NFL, the sophomore defensive end could still use some of the moves he had success with in college.
North Carolina A&T edge Darryl Johnson declared early. 6-5, 232...34.5 TFL, 17 sacks over past 2 seasons (24 games).
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) February 20, 2019
RDE here. Gets his hips and feet pointed to the pocket and corners quickly. Gets LOW for 6-5 pic.twitter.com/NcCVEYunW4
He burns the tackle and gets a pressure, he shows great burst and bends very low to get to the quarterback. Adding more moves to his arsenal could be essential in Johnson morphing into his potential as a pass rusher.
The glaring weakness is in run defense, if he cannot be relied upon to be a defensive end who can be on the field for rushing downs, then he will be hard pressed to find a role on the team.