Oakland Raiders Preview: Breaking down the 2019 cornerbacks

4. Isaiah Johnson and Conclusion

Isaiah Johnson of Houston was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft and like Mullen, is a tall, lengthy, press corner. The difference between Johnson and Mullen in terms of size is that Johnson actually looks big, while Mullen looks like a smaller nickel corner.

Also unlike Mullen, Johnson is extremely raw as he played his first two years at Houston as a receiver. Cornerback is one of the hardest positions to develop and so Johnson’s tape may not look very great at times, but he is very athletic and has potential, so let’s go over some of his game film.

We’ll start out with the negatives.

In my scouting report on Isaiah Johnson, I gave him an ‘F’ for his performance in the above game which is rare — and you see all of his problems and things he needs to work on in this tape. At (1:55), you’ll notice his very choppy footwork. Footwork is key for corners and this gets him in trouble a lot.

This is obviously due to him being new to the position and his struggles in zone coverage overall are due to the same reason as he is clearly processing things instead of playing naturally.

As a former receiver, you would expect him to have decent ball skills, but this just isn’t the case. At (4:50) he plays some nice man coverage but because he turns his head the wrong way, the receiver is able to catch it on his outside shoulder and take it down to the one-yard line.

At (7:46) again, he is step for step with the receiver on a streak route, but he doesn’t turn his head and therefore doesn’t make a play on the ball when he could of. You will also see how he almost trips and falls while backpedaling on that play.

Now to a more positive game that shows Johnson clearly improved as the year went on which is exactly what you want to see from someone learning a new position.

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At (0:38) you see perfect man coverage versus a streak route. You will notice how instead of backpedaling he runs backward — something he tends to do which I believe is due to him not trusting his backpedal. At (1:49) he gives his man way too much space on the inside crossing route and while the receiver wasn’t targeted, like Mullen, one of Johnson’s biggest problems is giving up the underneath.

You see an example of that at (1:07) and in his game versus Arizona, you will see that all throughout the game. Despite him giving up the underneath, his zone coverage, in general, showed improvement, as you will see in the plays at (1:05), (3:36), (3:59) and (6:27).

His closing speed looks faster which I assume is due to him not processing things as slowly as before as he gets more used to playing corner.

Johnson has a long way to go before he gets much playing time, but he has the athleticism and perfect physical traits for a Paul Guenther run defense who loves having big, long, press corners. I can see Johnson being the fourth cornerback at best this year, which will actually be good for a fourth rounder.

But I think its more likely he rotates in at times but doesn’t get much consistent playing time. He could even receive less than some of the other young corners in Nick Nelson or rookies Dylan Mabin or Keisean Nixon if they make the team simply because he’s less NFL-ready.

Conclusion

There are a few other guys I didn’t go over, but it’s not known whether or not they even make the team and if they do, they will most likely be way down in the depth chart. This looks to be the best Raiders cornerback group since the days of Charles Woodson and Phillip Buchanon from 2002 through 2004.

And hopefully, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther and defensive backs coach Jim O’Neil are able to develop and put guys in the correct spots so that they can thrive and be the best the Raiders have had on more than just paper.