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Dillon Johnson scouting report: Exploring Washington RB's strengths and weaknesses

One of the top-500 overall recruits for Mississippi State in 2020, Dillon Johnson turned 229 carries into 1,198 yards and 149 catches into another 864 yards, combining for 12 touchdowns through three years with the Rebels.

For his senior year, he decided to join Washington’s explosive aerial attack and helped them add some balance to the mix. He was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection thanks to nearly 1,400 yards and 16 touchdowns from scrimmage (5.1 yards per carry).

Details: 6-foot-0, 215 pounds; SR.

Breaking down Dillon Johnson's scouting report

Dillon Johnson #7 of the Washington Huskies runs for a game-clinching first down during the fourth quarter against the Oregon Ducks
Dillon Johnson #7 of the Washington Huskies runs for a game-clinching first down during the fourth quarter against the Oregon Ducks

Strengths

  • Dillon Johnson is a decisive zone-runner who really excels at converting laterally to horizontally.
  • He really strings out concepts and forces contain defenders to leverage themselves to the outside before getting downhill.
  • Understands how to hesitate a little bit with plays developing without stuttering his feet.
  • On vertical schemes, he can come to a full stop momentarily as a slanting D-linemen goes past or there’s just some traffic, before quickly getting back downhill.
  • Disciplined with sticking to the play design and confident in his ability to get through tight creases.
  • Even with the way he uses his off-arm and how efficient he is with his footwork to bend back inside zone, he still has enough juice to win the corner if teams don’t honor that part.
  • The way he executes toss plays, he really stresses the outside edge of blockers and then slices underneath them, Yet he can also throw in a little dip inside or order to be able to bounce around if someone wants to slip blocks.
  • Has those strong ankles to bend around traffic or slice underneath a blocker without actually having to decelerate and you see a lot of slight altering in the direction Johnson is headed without really making a cut.
  • Accelerates through the hole to convert in short-yardage and goal-line situations.
  • Carries the ball high and tight, switching hands when he changes direction.
  • Is able to get by defenders with foot-fakes and some dead-leg moves, along with packing a nasty straight-arm right at the facemask of guys in pursuit.
  • Frequently looks like he’s stumbling a little bit, but somehow finds a way to stay on his feet as he takes shots from the side or gets bumped by a blocker being shoved into him.
  • Doesn’t offer tacklers a whole lot of surface area to attack and your tacklers better wrap and finish against this guy, because he won’t just give up and go down at any point.
  • Looks like a hot knife going through butter at times, when he can cut through the reach of defenders spilling over into the gap and dragging people just trying to catch him.
  • Routinely spins off contact and falls or launches himself forward to maximize yards after contact.
  • While the raw speed may not blow you away, when Johnson has a lane, he’s able to get through it to the third level way more regularly than you’d think.
  • Not only carries the ball high and tight, but it appears glued to his body it appears, with how little it moves (only two fumbles across 373 touches since 2022).
  • Frequently was flared out into the flats – either off check-releases or play-action – and showed a good understanding for when to slow himself to maintain space to the sideline or when to turn up the field if the opportunity presents itself.
  • Does a good job of pushing at linebackers and snapping off hooks to create a window or realizing when he can drift upfield into voided space to maximize yardage.
  • Frames passes well and you don’t really ever see the ball move when it touches his hands – only dropped one of 52 catchable targets over the past two seasons.
  • Makes some impressive full-extension catches on swings and over routine routes.
  • While consistently is still lacking to some degree as a pass-protector, Dillon flashes the ability to drop his hips and punch with force to stand up blitzing linebackers.
  • Happily launches himself into defenders waiting for him on run plays after the ball was pulled out of his stomach on RPOs/play-action – Yet understands when to speed up that mesh point in order to slide in front of blitzers.

Weaknesses

  • Dillon Johnson lacks the homerun speed to finish explosive runs in the end-zone with consistency (only 6.5% of his carries over the past two seasons went for 15+ yards).
  • Doesn’t throw out many dynamic moves in the open field – both his yards after contact (3.14) and missed tackles forced rates (19.3%) fell below the 40th percentile for FBS running backs over the last two years.
  • Tends to dip his head initiating contact with blitzers in pass-pro and savvy rushers will be able to get by him because of that.
  • There’s a certain delay after catching the ball, for Johnson to get up the field – averaged just 0.88 yards per route run in 2023.

Dillon Johnson's 2024 NFL Draft projection

Dillon Johnson #7 of the Washington Huskies celebrates a touchdown against the USC Trojans
Dillon Johnson #7 of the Washington Huskies celebrates a touchdown against the USC Trojans

Dillon Johnson has the makings of your favorite running back’s favorite running back. He’s a non-nonsense rusher, who uses subtle elements to set up concepts optimally and then maximizes yardage with the way he approaches contact.

He’s a below-average athlete for NFL standards (including just a 4.68 in the 40) and isn’t going to wow you by crossing up defenders in the open field or defeating pursuit angles, but he’s a machine at stringing together positive plays.

Dillon Johnson consistently gains yards through contact, which his advanced numbers don’t quite represent because they’re not heavily affected by one or two plays where he just gets touched on the way by of an explosive run.

What’ll get him onto the field early and keep them there for a while are his incredibly reliable hands and ball security, with just three combined drops and fumbles across nearly 400 touches these past two seasons combined.

Dillon Johnson also showed incredible toughness and commitment to his team when he played in the national title game on a bummed ankle, due to which he looked like he might miss extended time when he was helped off the field in a lot of pain two weeks earlier.

Dillon Johnson Grade: Fourth round.

You might like other RB scout reports: MarShawn Lloyd; Trey Benson; Will Shipley; Jaylen Wright; Braelon Allen.

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