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THE BROWNS BOARD

Breakdown of Pick 5.16 (#160): Roderick Johnson (LT) FSU


Tour2ma

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Picked this effort back up after taking a week or so off largely due to being underwhelmed by my first look. My raw notes follow my summary thoughts.

Summary Thoughts:
Impressions:

  • My very first impression was "Cam Erving V2.0" and while that faded a bit as his 2016 season progressed just as the "fade" would take hold, up would pop a Cam-a-like reminder.
  • One Cam-habit he does not have is that he is generally not a waist bender. The exception is when a DE tests him wide and low, but at 6'7 he has to bend to get a push on the low rush.
  • Rod also shows more awareness of stunts than Cam has as a Brown. Rod is not perfect in this area, but he shows more awareness and discipline than Cam ever has.

 

Athleticism: Much has been made of Rod's "athleticism" mostly based upon his 40 time in the 4.9's which bested his alumnus. There's no doubting Rod's straight-line speed and it flashed in unobstructed cross-field runs, but if there was traffic or a moving target along the run, then his lack of agility showed as well. Cam, who has yet to show his athleticism on the field, bested his alumnus is every other measured drill.

 

Technique: There's not much advanced stuff in evidence... at least not grad level stuff. Most of the basics are there, e.g., decently live feet chopping him into position with hands ready at the right height and head up to see his assignment, but there's no kick slide and when under duress even the basics can fade. The lack of a kick-slide is his most glaring need as without one he is forced to quickly chop favoring the outside lane. While most often he does gain separation, the need to favor the outside sets up a DE's inside move. And if the DE closes quickly Rod either never sets a base or worse over retreats... back-peddling on his heels setting up a bull rush opportunity which DEs 50 to 60# lighter than he were able to do. The few times he was beaten to the outside... he had a necktie waiting a/k/a he held.

 

Run Blocking: FSU tended to run ZBS away from him and power runs at him. That would suggest the staff was fully aware of his athletic limitations. He seldom cutoff backside pursuit, but he more often than not handled his assignment on runs to him. A few times he got "stoned" by or fell off his DL, but by and large he managed through a combination of influence and power. He will need to work lower at the next level, but he got more solid as a run blocker through 2016.

 

Which side: Some have made much of his play at LT at FSU meaning he is destined to be Joe T's backup and eventual replacement. Not seeing that... but I will say that the one time I saw FSU "flip" it's line, it looked like someone had tied his shoes together... like his head knew the OL flipped, but his feet never got the message. That said, I'd make him a RT. With so much to learn tech-wise adding the reverse footwork RT requires will not be that much of an added burden. Plus I see Shon Coleman as the likely TC victor at RT and based upon the glimpse of Shon's RT last season and his superior LT tape at Auburn, I believe Shon is destined to be Joe's understudy.

 

In Summary: Roderick is a very raw rookie with good size and few bad habits, but no pro-level tech... none... nada... zip. And he adds inconsistency element that will test his OL-coach's patience. But for a "blank slate" he is a pretty clean one... there's not a lot to "undo".

Raw notes: http://draftbreakdown.com/players/roderick-johnson/

@ Louisville (L 63-20) http://draftbreakdown.com/video/roderick-johnson-vs-louisville-2016/
Q1: Pronounced waist bender, keeps head up, awkward looking on the move but covers ground, 0 for 2 on cuts early, no kick-slide... chop out/back yielded slow rxn and easy swim inside, bend destroys balance, poor anticipation of direction play will send his target,
Q2: nice drive/latch/bury on sweep away, better cut, more controlled passpro drop --- Warming up? --- semi-seal on POA drive block, disciplined drop vs. stunt, too high vs. bull, lead pull sweep his way... poor antic, held in passpro (no call), feel off block --- Fatigued --- weak "hands-down" cut attempt, bobbing in pass drop,
Q3: lumbering drop to wide-DB blitz but got hands on him for push to ground, nice passpro lockup of lumbering big DE, ------------ moving on ------------

vs. Wake Forest (W 17-6) http://draftbreakdown.com/video/roderick-johnson-vs-wake-forest-2016/
Q1: awk run out for toss L, whiff cut off, upright passpro against small DE, ZBS... ever at POA? ... , no cut off, slo passpro set, good rec of looper to outside, good pwr trn-out, got cut off, whiff and fall run blk, mini-kick but no slide in passpro setup, aggressive chp&2nd, telegraphed and missed cut on scrn 2 his side
Q2: bulled by smaller DE but recov, decent set and punch in passpro, looked in? w/ blitz outside??, drv shrt-ydage but high, -- False steps? -- decent cut off, got to 2nd but no sustain, clean passpro beat inside yielding QB KnkDwn, scrd off wide rush, thump DT dbl, rode DE deep, GL... big pop but no move, deep ride, slo chop passpro, awk bk-pdl on boot away, horse collar hold on wide rushr, tackld looping dipper wide after late DT x-out recog... focused on DE looping away, flipped OL... lost footwork (6:45) ************ moving on ***********

vs. Florida (W 31-13) http://draftbreakdown.com/video/roderick-johnson-vs-florida-2016/
Q1: another undersized DE... bkpddl no anch, pop and 2nd, beat inside, bad chip on slnt his way released for TFL, too deep a retrt, smother retrt chop but still no kick, vert body in traffic, invute out & seal, DALVIN COOK SHOW..., nice arm extended run blk, awk seal, nice cut on Brantley, hold pad on play away, ovrran/fell off cutoff blk,
Q2: patient passpro arms extended, rushed retrt on heels, obtuse inside passpro, COMMUN trnout no cntrl TFL, nice set, infl out for boot rt, good set, no cutoff, chp and seal, good push when beat wide, sweet cut
Q3: heels retrt got bulled to QB lap, nice hand off/pickup of X, jacked by small DE leading run to his side, walked into Qb lap, ... FSU QB IS CRAP..., too high neut'd by Brantley, firey seal ins but no target, quick to 2nd infl blk???, bad bal clean beat ins from 7 DE trp by OG into QN low, cntrld run blk but no sustain, very awk 2nd, stiffarmed Brant wide, p/u Brant stunt, big takedown ************** that's enough **************

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