Jamar
Johnson.
Jamar
Johnson.
Indiana· 6'2"· 205 lb· 4.58s 40
"A 6-2, 205 Indiana single-high safety with four picks in eight 2020 games and rare closing burst on the ball — a Round-5 Cover-1/Cover-3 free safety projection whose 4.58 forty and stiff hips capped the range profile."Pre-draft read
Plays as a versatile safety, rotating between deep half, low hole, and blitzing nickel in sub-packages. Primary trait is anticipation, reading the quarterback's eyes from depth to break downhill and attack the receiver's near hip at the catch point, which generates interceptions and pass breakups. Possesses natural hands and body control tracking the ball over his shoulder.
Tackling is willing and physical in the alley, showing a violent uphill trigger against tight end drags and screens. While effective in man coverage on backs and short-area zones, he struggles when asked to open and run out of the middle of the field due to hip tightness, and his change-of-direction limits mirror matches. The athletic ceiling restricts recovery speed.
Fangio two-high defense, focused on matching routes out of Cover-4 and Cover-6 concepts, with zone-match principles allowing safeties to rob underneath routes and rotate deep.
Year 1 contributor as a rotational safety and sub-package specialist, with the ceiling to develop into a starting split-safety who creates turnovers.
A dedicated single-high scheme where he is consistently asked to cover ground sideline-to-sideline without the benefit of a running mate or short-post help.
Johnson's anticipation and ball production align perfectly with a two-high system that values opportunistic safeties, but his athletic limitations will be exposed in schemes demanding elite recovery speed and change-of-direction.
Elite Indiana Safety Jamar Johnson HD
Full 2020 Indiana highlight reel showing ball production, deep-half range and downhill trigger.
Jamar Johnson Ultimate Indiana Highlights
Career cutup covering split-safety reps, TE matchup coverage and ball skills.
2021 NFL Draft Preview: Indiana's Jamar Johnson
Pre-draft BTN feature previewing his projection as a rangy Big Ten free safety.
Jamar Johnson projects as a depth safety with potential for sub-package roles, ideally deployed in schemes that value anticipation and ball production over elite recovery speed. His ability to read quarterbacks and impact passing lanes from multiple alignments provides a clear path to contributing, particularly as a robber or deep half defender. The primary trade-off is athletic limitations in open space.
Johnson was a two-year contributor who had a breakout season in 2020 at Indiana, recording four interceptions and five pass breakups in eight games. He rotated between various safety roles, demonstrating versatility in a Big Ten defense, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors. This production, combined with his frame, positioned him as a valued commodity despite limited career starts.
Concerns about his athletic profile, specifically a 4.58 forty-yard dash and 7.22 three-cone drill, emerged during the draft process, pushing his consensus projection from mid-Day 2 to the fourth or fifth round. Denver selected him at pick 164 in the fifth round, betting on his instincts and ball skills to outweigh the athletic flags.
- 01
Anticipation
Reads the quarterback's eyes from Cover-2 and Cover-4 depth and triggers before the throw arrives, which compressed windows into interceptable throws on Big Ten tape.
- 02
Ball production
Four interceptions and five pass breakups in eight 2020 games with a clean tracking radius and hands that finish above the frame at the high point.
- 03
Frame
Legitimate 6-2, 205 with 32-inch arms and enough mass to match up on TE-Y in dime, an ideal single-high build for match-quarters or Fangio-tree deep-third rules.
- 04
Physicality
Willing downhill tackler in the alley, will fit off climb blocks against zone runs and delivers thump on curl/flat throws to the near shoulder.
- 05
Versatility
Rotated between deep half, low hole, dime linebacker and nickel blitz at Indiana, giving a coordinator multiple sub-package roles from day one rather than a one-hat safety.
- 01
Athletic ceiling
4.58 forty, 35-inch vertical and a 5.86 RAS put the recovery/range profile below what a true single-high center-fielder needs against NFL post/corner concepts.
- 02
Hip fluidity
7.22 three-cone and 4.41 shuttle show up on tape when asked to open, redirect and carry vertical stems out of the middle of the field.
- 03
Sample size
Only 20 career starts at Indiana with one true breakout season, which raises the question of whether the 2020 ball production repeats against NFL quarterbacks.
- 04
Long speed
Struggles to close vertical seams once the receiver has stacked his leverage, a boundary safety carrying a TE-Y or vertical slot needed help from underneath.
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
- 4.58sp50
- Vertical
- 35inp50
- Broad jump
- 122inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.22sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.41sp50
- Bench
- 17repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Indiana | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | Indiana | 13 | 25 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Indiana | 8 | 42 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Career | — | 31 | 69 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Trigger-and-attack free safety with hands and instincts, though a tier below Williams' short-area quickness. This was the Day-2 template scouts wrote pre-combine.
Best-case: a rangy pattern-match single-high with elite anticipation, though Simmons was a plus-mover and Johnson never matched the recovery athleticism.
Downside outcome: a big-frame safety who ends up better in the box than as a true field-side rotator. Roster longevity would've required special-teams equity that never materialized.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Bust. Rotational Year 1 (special teams), cut before Year 2. Signed with the Jets and Rams on futures deals, out of the league by 2023.
Pre-draft context. Johnson was a two-year contributor at Indiana who blossomed as a redshirt sophomore in Tom Allen's 2020 defense, playing a hybrid two-high/robber role next to Jaylin Williams and finishing with four INTs, five PBUs, a forced fumble and 34 tackles in eight games. His measurables (6-2, 205, 32-inch arms) were prototype free-safety size, but the athletic testing back-slid from expectations — 4.58 forty, 35-inch vertical, 7.22 three-cone and a 5.86 RAS made the range/recovery profile league-average rather than the plus-athlete boards had projected.
NFL fit — Denver Broncos. Denver picked him at #164 in Round 5 as a developmental deep-third piece behind Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson under a Fangio-style single-high match structure. The fit made sense in theory — Fangio's defense values quarters processors and disguise safeties over pure rangers — but Johnson never carved out a defined role, playing 34 defensive snaps as a rookie and getting released at final cuts before the 2022 season.
Retrospective. His pro career stalled after Denver: practice-squad stops in Baltimore and Miami through 2022, no active-roster action, and out of the NFL by 2023. The Indiana tape aged well — the ball-hawking, disguise fluency and physicality still show up on cutups — but the athletic gap and lack of special-teams volume were what he could never close. A miss for the Broncos, though a defensible Day-3 swing on production and frame.