Matt Waldman’s Rookie Scouting Portfolio (RSP) is an excellent resource for football fans wanting to gain a better understanding of football concepts. They feature articles tailored around specific topics with accompanying videos breaking down plays to illustrate the lesson.
Detroit Lions running back Kerryon Johnson was the recently featured in an RSP article by J Moyer, discussing the difference between a pass catcher and a receiver.
In the piece, Moyer discusses the difficulties of identifying the differences between being just a player who is capable of catching passes (a pass catcher) and one who is capable of succeeding as an NFL receiver.
“To function as a receiver,” Moyer said, “a back must learn to release against elite press coverage, manipulate defenders with an intricate route stem, and perform clean route breaks. All while reading coverage, perceiving and exploiting leverage and making proper route adjustments based on his perceptions. Oh, and he still has to catch the ball.
“Fortunately for the Lions, Kerryon began bridging the functional gap between a pass catcher and a receiver in only his rookie season, despite his lack of even collegiate-level experience with downfield route concepts.”
To further illustrate his point, Moyer included a video breakdown of Johnson executing these concepts:
Johnson has been making plays, like the one in the video above, commonplace in his skill set rather than just something that occasionally happens.
This has carried over into the offseason when Johnson was routinely making big plays in the passing game. In the final OTA practice of the Spring, I noted that he had the play of the day: “(Johnson) got loose down the right sidelines blowing past Tavon Wilson who was caught flat-footed. Wilson showed nice acceleration to catch up but Johnson was already by him and Matthew Stafford placed a 40-plus-yard bomb that Johnson leaped/dove to grab for the score.”
Last season, Johnson had 32 receptions and it’s not that much of a reach to think he could double those numbers in 2019. Johnson is far too talented to not be used in this fashion as he can create matchup problems for defenses.
Bottom line, I agree with Moyer’s final assessment, “Based on his precocious success and refined process, expect Johnson to eventually function as one of the elite receiving backs in the game.”
