Creator: Mark J. Rebilas | Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Details:
2x First Team All-Big 12 (2021, 2022), 2022 Biletnikoff Semifinalist, 4th Team All-American (Phil Steele)
Checked in at 6’2” 3/4 and 208lbs
Born 9/6/2001 (22 in rookie year)
Career Stats (30 GM): 115 CTH - 2190 YD - 19.0 YPC - 14 TD
2022 Stats (14 GM): 60 CTH - 1069 YD - 17.8 YPC - 6 TD
The great Steve Smith Jr. said it best:
“You gotta watch so much film to really get an understanding; what kind of player is he? What type of offensive scheme will he be good in?…”
“You really don’t know”
When I watch Quentin Johnston, I don’t know what I’m looking at.
On the one hand, there is no denying that Johnston is an exceptionally gifted athlete when it comes to his explosiveness. Standing at nearly 6’3” and jumping 40”+ in his vertical and 11’+ in his broad jump is incredible, you won’t find arguments from me there. But, I have concerns about his long speed. I know he, supposedly, ran a 4.46 at his Pro Day - but I’m taking .1 off that as home cooking insurance. Additionally, a 4.46 should be disappointing given the fact that we were told he was a 4.3 guy by certain analysts…
To complete my questions about his speed - he did not do any track events when he was in high school. Only competed in high jump and long jump, where he obviously was very successful. By now you should know, if you’re a big recruit in Texas and you don’t run the 100m, we all know something is wrong with you.
If you read any part of this post, read the following:
A significant part of this piece is going to be dedicated to the perception versus the reality of Quentin Johnston. The perception of Johnston is that he is an uber-tall, uber-athletic, dynamic route runner with the ability to do it all on the field. What has been frustrating for me is watching the goalposts move closer for him as more information comes out. His main selling that he was the only 6’4” 215 receiver who could make things happen after the catch, stretch the field vertically and make big-boy contested catches; but he’s 6’2” 208. Also, he posts one of the lowest contest catch %s in the class at 34.8% (23 opportunities)!!! To add onto this - Johnston’s body catching habits helped him post the second worst drop pass% in the class at 8.5%. Anything over 5% is pretty egregious, so this does not make me confident in him in the slightest.
Additionally, his one agility time was a 7.15 3-Cone. That is .6s slower than Jaxon Smith-Njigba at just over an inch taller. That is BAD.
But, to draft media, the benchmarks just don’t seem to matter. So, it’s time for a reality check.
I am, shockingly, not going to sit here and tell you that Johnston is flat out bad, despite what my Twitter history would suggest. Johnston does have some qualities that I think make him exceptional. He does move very well after the catch and he does show the ability to have some suddenness. But there is so much more to a receiver than just that.
There’s a lot of clips in this one, so let’s not waste any more time.
First of all, I just want to say that I get it. Johnston does a great job stemming to the post before snapping off to the fade, all right before making an awesome over the shoulder back endline catch. This is Johnston at his best, completely in the zone and making these types of plays look easy. He even gets held! When Johnston puts all his pieces together he is a really good receiver.
This is one of the other plays that gets put on my timeline once a week. It’s a good one, he does show nice ability to break a (questionable attempt) at a tackle and continue to be a workhorse down the field. Johnston is a pretty strong runner given his frame, I really enjoy that part of his game actually. But, what I will say is that if you’re trying to tell me he’s a 4.46 guy I am going to pull this glip up and call you a liar. If he’s even at that 25 yard line and if he really ran 4.46, he would have scored.
The other play that gets posted all the time. Sort of loses the appeal once you see it from 20,000 feet but it is probably the best representation of his long speed that you’ll see. I think it’s just fine, he never really finds a 5th gear here but his 4th is good enough to score. Again, he isn’t slow, but he ain’t fast. Hope he gave #4 and #7 some props.
Before we go any further, let’s look at how corners view Johnston. The corner on Johnston is in deep zone coverage, and Johnston runs a post. Given the narrative, that corner should fly out of there to protect the deep ball. But he doesn’t. Instead he ‘squats’ on Johnston’s route, betting that the ability to break on the underneath route is more valuable than getting immediate depth in his zone. This indicates that the corner is, in fact, not at all worried about his speed. Now, he does play the route combo poorly, and probably would have given up a touchdown on the wheel, but the lesson on his speed remains the point.
And this is where it comes back to hurt him. This corner, clearly, does not fear or respect Johnston’s long speed and is content to cheat to the short stuff as the corner on the previous rep did. This corner, however, is rewarded with a PBU. Receivers who allow COLLEGE DBs to do this to them are not going to find that it gets any easier in the NFL. That is a problem for him.
Half a rep against press - DB kinda just gives up on the technique there.. But what I want to show here is some of his bad habits coming into play. He is very much a body catcher, and that is going to cost him completions in the NFL. Against an NFL DB, this is an incompletion. I’d love to see him utilize his frame more - if he learns how to attack the ball coming down hill it could massively improve his game. A lot of receivers are nervous about doing that - the concern being that if they come downhill too fast the ball will sail over their heads. But with Johnston’s combination of arm length, size and leaping ability it should nullify those concerns. Should.
Again, sort of just hammering home the point that Johnston does not come downhill for catches at all. He is consistently leaving yards on the table when he does not do this and that is going to limit his upside by a considerable amount.
So this is called a ‘diamond release’ by most receiver coaches. The objective is to threaten a press corner vertically and then cut back under him on the slant. Johnston stands completely upright during his first phase of his release, immediately indicating that there is a 0% chance he is going vertically. If I asked you to sprint 30 yards, you for sure wouldn’t be standing up. Then, to make matters worse, he doesn’t follow through with his upfield hand to club the DB’s off hand off of him. So he doesn’t sell the vertical, and doesn’t fight for the underneath. Result is what you would expect it to be: a PBU.
Second clip of Johnston’s lack of planning vs. press coverage. He attempts to skip release into what we call ‘handshake distance’ - the distance you need to get to in order to shake someone’s hand, or to get into a press release. He closes some distance but the corner is backing off quickly. What I absolutely hate about this clip is that he shows no sense of space to the sideline. The corner is backing off, it would be incredibly easy to lean to the field side and give yourself and your quarterback more sideline space. But he doesn’t do that consistently well at all.
The Grade
So where does all of this leave Quentin Johnston?
His strengths are clear: he is very big and is a tremendously explosive athlete. He shows a natural ability to manipulate space with the ball in his hand and also has shown flashes of contested-catch ability that matches his frame. Lots of room for growth in his game which could be appealing to teams who are looking for a higher ceiling prospect.
His weaknesses are clear as well: He completely lacks any sort of polish. Lackluster speed and lackluster change of direction ability makes it incredibly hard to see a ton of growth for him moving forward. Very, very shaky hands (>8% drop rate) and a nasty habit of body catching. Does not show any sort of feel for space mid route and lacks a plan to win on his routes. Does not seem to succeed in high intensity moments and has completely disappeared in some big moments. Lacks counterpunches when opponents take away his first option on routes and releases.
There’s something there with Johnston, I’m just not sure it’s something I want to see go in the first round.
For these reasons, I am going to grade Johnston out at a 5.2
His Best Fit: Any team with a solid receiver room that is willing to take a gamble.
Player Comparison: Devante Parker with worse hands, or a skinny Jaelen Strong