NFL Draft 2019: Florida Safety Gardner-Johnson an interesting mid-round flier
By Shelbie Warr
Big name safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson has decided to forgo his senior year and head for the NFL Draft. Did he make the right decision?
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson enters the NFL Draft after the best season of his career, not that the two years before that were all too shabby. In his freshman year, 2016, he recorded 32 tackles and three interceptions. His sophomore year only got better for an extremely promising safety. Once again appearing in 11 games, Gardner-Johnson finished his 2017 season with 58 tackles, six tackles-for-loss, one sack and two interceptions.
In 2018 though, Gardner-Johnson really took off and put up 71 tackles, three sacks, and four interceptions. He returned two of those interceptions for touchdowns and three in his career as a whole. You could say that the guy favors the big play for sure.
Did he make the right choice, leaving early and pursing the NFL Draft?
Strengths
One of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s biggest strengths is his versatility and range. Teams are high on his abilities as a safety right out of the gate. He can fill multiple roles for a defense right out the gate and that is a big deal for teams struggling in the secondary right now, especially with the safety position. He is hard hitting and has big time acceleration, recovering quickly and always being ready for the next play.
Weaknesses
His biggest weakness is the run game. Gardner-Johnson has been known to miss many tackles in the run game and that is an issue for sure. He also has some sub-par footwork that will need tuning up by an NFL coaching staff that can do for him what Dan Mullen‘s staff did this past offseason. He also needs to improve on his footwork and route anticipation- especially in man coverage.
Next. NFL Draft: Projected first round. dark
Draft Expectations
Bottom line is this, Gardner-Johnson has all of the tools to be a starting safety at the NFL level. It is simply about how he takes those skills and develops them under his new NFL coaching staff. He has to buy into them the same way he has bought into Dan Mullen and his staff. While his improvements from 2017 to 2018 have pushed him up the draft boards, it is surely not as much as he would have liked.