The first round of the 2023 NFL Draft is under a month away, April 27 to be exact, meaning the football world is going to be full of passionate claims and hot takes centered around which players should go in which order and to what teams.
TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 212-pound pass-catcher (measurements from TCU’s Pro Day) who is unanimously projected to come off the board in the first round, had a clear opinion on if he should be the first receiver selected following his Pro Day performance on March 30, simply replying, “Yes sir, for sure” when asked if he should be the WR1.
“I’m a 6-3, 6-4 receiver that is able to create real separation at the top of my routes in and out of my breaks and my yards after catch is top tier,” Johnston said. “I’ve set records in the Big 12 from my first year [his team-best 22.1 yards per catch average was the highest by a true freshman in Big 12 history (minimum 20 receptions)] and my second year combined. So, I feel like that’s really big. My elusiveness at the top of my route when I get the ball and you know, the deep ball is something I’m really good at as well.”
Johnston, one of the driving forces behind the Horned Frogs’ College Football Playoff run, said his feedback from NFL teams — many of whom he has met with including the New York Giants, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans ahead of his Pro Day — have echoed his sales pitch. The bigger-bodied pass-catcher was aided by shooting up to 6-3 later on his development, his junior year of high school. Not having a dominant frame his whole high school career forced Johnston to focus a lot of time and energy on his footwork. He spent much of his younger days emulating receivers who now have a much smaller stature than him because of their footwork: DeSean Jackson, Tavon Austin when he was at West Virginia, and De’Anthony Thomas when he was Oregon. A couple of Hall Famers, Calvin Johnson aka “Megatron” and Randy Moss, were Johnston’s inspiration for deep-ball receiving.
“They [NFL teams] like that I’m a big target who has impressed them with my yards after the catch,” Johnston said of what he hears when meeting with NFL teams who could be his future employer. “I’ve got good upside, mostly positive things.”
Now as for Johnston’s assertion that he should be the first receiver selected in the 2023 draft over Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who set the college football bowl game receiving yards single-game record with 347 against Utah in the 2021 Rose Bowl, there may not be many people with more intel on their games and how they could translate to the NFL than both Johnston’s and Smith-Njigba’s wide receiver skills training coach, David Robinson, a former wide receiver himself at the University of Oklahoma and University of South Dakota.
Besides Johnston and Smith-Njigba, much of Robinson’s client list, both past and present, is an NFL who’s who list: Antonio Brown, Adrian Peterson, Dez Bryant, Tyreek Hill, Deebo Samuel, Chris Godwin, Emmanuel Sanders, Courtland Sutton, Christian Kirk, Evan Engram, and Calvin Ridley. The Dallas-based trainer meets with his clients throughout the state of Texas, or he will hop on plane and come to them, as he will for Tyreek Hill when he meets up with him and fellow wide receiver Albert Wilson in Miami later this offseason.
“There’s no difference at all, I’m hard-nosed on every single last one of them,” Robinson said. “On technique, how you run the route, create separation, get open with your footwork at the top of the route, it’s the same regardless of who you are. I ride them hard, treat them the same, and that’s why a lot of them like the approach and come back in the offseason. I treat all clients the same whether they’re a practice squad guy or an All-Pro.”
After thinking about the time he has spent with both Johnston and Smith-Njigba, Robinson gave the edge in the first wide receiver drafted debate to Johnston because of his fluidity going through his routes as well as the size advantage that he has against almost all defensive backs.
“Jaxon’s [Smith-Njigba] from Texas [Rockwall specifically], so I’ve had a chance to work with him before quite a bit,” Robinson said. “I worked with him this past year as well. So I’ve seen him in person about as much as Q, but I definitely think with what Q has done up to this point that he should be the first receiver taken. That’s because you have guys who are six feet, 5-11 running low 4.5’s [40-yard dash times] and high 4.4’s, but Q is doing it at 212-215 pounds at 6-3. He moves just as well as some of those guys in and out of his cuts. He still needs some fine-tuning, but his catch radius, how well he sinks his hips out of his breaks, he’s a harder tackle for defensive backs to bring down as opposed to some of those other guys projected to be up there with him.”
“You’re getting a guy [in Johnston] who has elite feet versus press [man] coverage,” Robinson continued. Johnston has said Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams is his inspiration for his footwork to get off the line of scrimmage. “He [Johnston] has elite ability to get untangled at the top of his stop routes and win at the top of contested catches against defensive backs. You’re getting an elite runner after the catch. There are receivers that run and catch and then you have receivers who can catch and run. He’s a guy that can catch and run. He’s a guy who is going to be hard to bring down.”
Quentin Johnston and Jaxon Smith-Njigba measurables*
| Johnston | Smith-Njigba | |
|---|---|---|
Height | 6-3 | 6-1 |
Weight | 208 | 196 |
40-Yard Dash | 4.49** | 4.53** |
Vertical Jump | 40.5″ | 35″ |
| Broad Jump | 11’2″ | 10’5″ |
* Combine numbers; 40-yard dash times are from Pro days; ** Unofficial Pro Day time
In addition to draft season being a time for the debates about which player should go where, it’s also a time to compare the upcoming group of NFL players to current or former players throughout the league’s history. Robinson’s comp for Johnston involves a couple players: Former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice and Dallas Cowboys all-time receiving touchdowns leader (73) Dez Bryant, a past client.
“He reminds me of Sidney Rice, but he’s [Q] more athletic than Sidney Rice in my opinion,” Robinson said. “He also has that ability to win those 50-50 balls and then run after the catch like Dez Bryant. He has all of the ability and the ingredients to be a Pro Bowler.”
Johnston’s refinement
Johnston and Robinson began working together back in early 2022 when TCU had begun going through spring ball prior to their national runner-up season. Johnston continued his development under new TCU head coach Sonny Dykes and wide receivers coaches Malcolm Kelly and Doug Meacham in the summertime and during the season before linking back up with Robinson in December after the college football regular season.
“[He’s helped me] a lot,” Johnston said when asked about Robinson’s impact on his game. “I thought I was on fire for a minute but seeing the tape back from when I first started working with him to now, yeah, now he brought me along the way. So, my in and out of routes, getting the separation I attribute that to him. He’s helped me get comfortable dropping my weight at the top of my route and being mindful, using my arms running in and out of my breaks. So a lot of that goes to him and I appreciate it.”
When the duo first started working together, Robinson identified three things he appreciated about Johnston’s game: his ability to track the football, his football catching mechanics, and his explosion off the line of scrimmage.
“When I first started working with Q, the things that popped out to me… were you know, people questioned his balls skills ability, how well he could track the football, but that was one of the things that really caught my attention was how well he could track the ball with his elite ball skills and catching the ball away from is body,” Robinson said. “Another thing that stood out to me was just his burst coming off the football to be that size [6-3, 212] and how he moves like he’s a smaller receiver at 6-3, 6-4 once he stops. It’s hard for big receiver to run and stop.”
One person who stands out among those who were unsure of Johnston’s ball skills is Steve Smith Sr., the former Carolina Panthers wide receiver whose 14,731 career receiving yards are the eighth-most in NFL history. The five-time Pro Bowler is now an analyst for NFL Network, and his critique of Johnston’s ball skills comes down to his question of if Johnston consistently makes the most of his 6-3 frame. Smith had a potentially Hall of Fame NFL career despite being 5-9.
“He [Johnston] jumps up, and he doesn’t high-point the football up here (Smith raises his hands above his head), he catches it right here (Smith puts his hands at his chest),” Smith said on his “Cut To It” podcast.
The play in question appears to be a 48-yard catch Johnston made in TCU’s 43-40 double-overtime win against Oklahoma State during the 2022 season. Twenty-seven seconds into the video below, he rises up at the 1-yard line after a midfield throw from quarterback Max Duggan. Johnston presses the football against his chest, seemingly allowing it to drop to his number on the front of his jersey while being hit by two defenders. Robinson doesn’t feel like Johnston’s choice to catch it up against chest instead of high-pointing with his hands was a bad one.
“The play against Oklahoma State where he went up over a defender and caught it with his body, I don’t have a problem with him catching the football with his body in that particular scenario,” Robinson said. “[That’s] because he was about to land and hit the ground after jumping over the defender. If he would have caught it extended with his arms away from his body, he probably would have landed on his stomach and wouldn’t have caught the football. He’s doing it to make sure you can secure but when it comes to catching away from his body, it’s not so much that he doesn’t do a great job of catching him away from his body because he does, it’s more of a problem with his eyes.”
The longtime skills coach feels like Johnston’s perceived area for growth isn’t “body-catching” but rather eye discipline.
“He has been working not turning his head up field before his eyes and watching him tuck the football before he runs,” Robinson said. “So when you see him have certain instances of drops and things like that nature, those are from his eyes pulling out of there too quickly. It’s not that his hands aren’t away from his body because he does catch the ball well away from his body. It’s just his eye discipline is what he needs to continue to improve at, being consistent with staying locked on the football through the tuck.”
One area Johnston improved upon with Robinson was his ability to get in and out of his breaks on routes by keeping his arms tighter to his body. At TCU’s Pro Day, anyone in attendance could hear Robinson yelling “Elbow, elbow, elbow” as Johnston performed different routes for the scouts of all 32 NFL teams in attendance. General managers Joe Schoen of the New York Giants and Nick Caserio of the Houston Texans plus head coaches Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots and Brian Daboll of the New York Giants were also in the crowd.
“When he [Johnston] has a dig and the ball on his left side, once he sticks right foot into the ground, I want him to throw the inside elbow, so that he has his shoulders parallel instead of drifting up field,” Robinson said. “That way he’ll be coming downhill. He’s made really great strides stopping at the top of his routes and running his routes full-speed, really fast instead of holding back some speed. He’s also gotten to the point where on his out-breaking routes and his digs, pulling that elbow, throwing it and staying fast out of his breaks. Sometimes at the beginning, he would have his arms out and slow down. Now, I’m seeing him when he comes out of his cuts running and accelerating through the catch with the football.”
In regards to the eye discipline, Robinson said he utilizes use some rapid-fire receiving drills to continually reinforce Johnston’s focus on watching the football through the catch.
“I did a lot of ball drills with him [Johnston] where I line him up in front of me, about five yards away from me,” Robinson said. “I’ll have balls coming from his left and his right, so he’ll have to laterally shuffle really quick. After he catches one football, he’ll have to shuffle and get his eyes around quickly to catch the next football. It’s about get his eye around quickly and making sure his reaction before turning to catch the next ball that his eyes and nose are on the ball that he’s now caught. We did a lot of those drills to enhance that and make him more comfortable with that.”
Next Stop: Kansas City
Following his Pro Day last week, Johnston recognized the day for what it was: concluding the chapter of his collegiate life as a TCU Horned Frog.
“Yeah, I guess it was,” Johnston said when asked about the last time catching passes from his quarterback Max Duggan wearing TCU gear. “I feel like I’ve put everything out there. I’m very proud of myself, and I’m very thankful for all the coaches that have been with me through my process of being here [at TCU]. All the mentors and friends that I made, shout out to everybody. I appreciate everybody.”
Up next, Johnston readies for his time on the stage in Kansas City, where NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will announce “With the (fill in the blank pick) of the 2023 NFL Draft, the (fill in the blank team) select Quentin Johnston, wide receiver, TCU.”
Some top prospects have opted to spend Round 1 of the draft at home in recent years, but Johnston is going old school and opting to be there in person for the life-changing moment.
“For sure [I’ll be there in person], that’s a once in a lifetime chance,” Johnston said. “I already got my suit ready, my homeboys [including TCU running back Kendre Miller] are coming in. I’ve picked everything out from my shoes to my cologne.”
The last time Johnston was a sought-after prospect as a four-star recruit out of Temple High School, he initially committed to the University of Texas before changing his mind and signing with TCU. This time around, he has prepared himself to accept the next stop on his football journey with open arms, no matter which team selects him.
“I don’t really have any problem with it [not having control over which NFL team will draft him],” Johnston said. “When you’re making that [college] decision, it was kind of hard at that time, potentially choosing the next step to kind of start to push you off into the rest of your life. Now, I did a lot of work and I’m just waiting for somebody to pick me, and whoever picks me, I will be really happy with [them].”
Go to Source
Author: Garrett Podell
April 3, 2023 | 10:21 am
