Will Johnson has been special for Michigan. Could he be the No. 1 pick in April’s draft? (2024)

In the beginning, Will Johnson wasn’t really supposed to wear the same number as the greatest player in the history of Michigan football. Just like that guy wasn’t really supposed to play defense.

On a cold night in late 1994, one of the country’s best high school running backs sat inside an Ann Arbor steakhouse and told an awestruck table of Michigan football coaches who thought they were about to land their next offensive centerpiece that he’d be a Wolverine — but only as a defensive back.

Charles Woodson rushed for nearly 6,000 yards at Fremont Ross High School in Ohio. Before he committed, the mere mention of his name inside Michigan’s football building sent members of the running back room searching for possible transfer spots. Woodson was one of the top offensive players in a 1995 class that included Randy Moss and Ricky Williams. The things he could’ve done behind a 1990s Michigan offensive line would have made grown adults cry.

Woodson did his research, though. He’d grown up watching Deion Sanders. He compared salaries and career lengths and calculated what fewer hits on his body could do for his athletic longevity. Fifteen years later, Woodson wrapped his 12th pro season as the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year. Truly in the one percent, Woodson came to Michigan with no questions, only answers — and a confidence that changed people.

His legacy at Michigan is more than the Heisman Trophy he won. He also raised the school’s bar of what it meant to be a truly elite cornerback so high it was unreachable for nearly 30 years.

Then Will Johnson came along.

The top-ranked prospect on Dane Brugler’s preseason 2025 NFL Draft board, Johnson is also part of that one percent. And when Woodson won that defensive MVP trophy in 2009, Johnson, at all of six years old, started to show it.

“That,” his father recalled, “is when he started drawing the route tree.”

Deon Johnson was a defensive back on that 1994 Michigan team, graduating a year before Woodson’s arrival in Ann Arbor with three Big Ten championship rings. After college, Deon stayed involved in football — specifically, coaching and mentorship, eventually co-founding the massive Sound Mind Sound Body youth football organization.

Born in 2003, Will immediately gravitated toward football and showed curiosity without limits. By six, he was memorizing that route tree. By nine, he was playing in pads with older kids. By his freshman year of high school, he was the best player on the field. By the winter of his junior year, he was a dominant 6-foot-2, 200-pound, five-star cornerback prospect who owned offers from every major program in America. A natural.

Originally, he was supposed to wear Jim Harbaugh’s No. 4 at Michigan. Soon after arriving in Ann Arbor, though, Johnson switched to No. 2 — Woodson’s jersey and a number not worn by young corners at Michigan. Corners of any age, really.

Deon asked if Will was sure about taking on the extra pressure that would come with such a request, telling him, very clearly, that if he took that number the media would compare him to arguably Michigan’s greatest player every day of his career.

“That’s fine,” was the reply.

When he was done with that number, Will Johnson further explained, they’d be talking about the two guyswho made it sing.

It’s hard to call Will Johnson’s blend of size and athleticism “prototypical” for a cornerback in today’s world. It wouldn’t be fair to the other 99 percent of cornerbacks.

At 6-2 and 203 pounds of lean, twitchy muscle, Johnson’s build is above average for his position. On film, you also see a player who can sink low to the ground against top-end speed while showing effortless athletic transition skills in man and zone. If you can move as fast as the small guys and be as physical as the big guys, you’re in elite air space.

This, basically, is where Johnson lives.

Here’s an off-man rep from January’s Rose Bowl playoff against Alabama’s Isaiah Bond (who’s since transferred to Texas). Bond is 5-11, 180 and was one of best sprinters in the history of Georgia high school athletics. His explosion off the line of scrimmage is as good as it gets and, naturally, his size allows him to sink lower than most corners — especially the big ones.

Bond wins most of these reps the second he flinches inside five yards into this comeback, either getting a good athlete to bite and put himself on the back foot or forcing a so-so athlete to just spin out.

Johnson does neither, instead simply getting low himself while mirroring Bond’s upfield footwork before putting on the brakes at basically the same deceleration rate. It’s not just the length or the quickness (or the blend of both) that makes Johnson special. Even when Johnson guesses wrong, his body is always under control and in position to make a play.

And when he guesses right? The route he’s facing is dead. Another one here from the Alabama-Michigan game, again against Bond. Johnson’s backpedal is effortless, as he’s low to the ground and on his toes ready to attack throughout.

The microsecond Bond drops his knees and goes into his break, Johnson knows exactly what this route is. He undercuts it right on the receiver’s hip.

Fear of the stage has never been an issue for Johnson. He played immediately as a true freshman at Michigan in 2022, starting against Ohio State and Marvin Harrison Jr., in Ohio Stadium, to close the regular season. After missing time with a knee injury early last season, he saw Harrison and the Ohio State receivers, then Bond, Jermaine Burton and the Alabama contingent, and then Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan in the national title game.

Harrison, as he does with everyone, got Johnson more than once. But Johnson also had a key interception in that game. In the postseason, he allowed zero receptions against Alabama and finished the Washington game with a pick and just 11 yards allowed.

Johnson’s insane length is on full display against Odunze on this fade route:

Odunze, 6-3 and 215 pounds with speed and burst for days, wants to get the corner here. Johnson’s arm extension off the snap, though, is enough to keep him on top of this route in ways most corners just can’t pull off.

The following rep in the above video is a Cover-2 situation against Harrison last season. Johnson’s job there is to slow down the best receiver in college football enough so Michigan’s safety has time to get over the top. The second Harrison opens his chest, Johnson shoots his hands and accomplishes his job before smoothly transitioning back to cover his area.

The area of Johnson’s game in which he needs the most improvement is getting better at guessing — being patient enough to avoid biting on double moves. Here, Harrison catching Johnson off balance, leaning to the outside after Harrison’s initial sell:

Odunze also got Johnson with a pretty ridiculous double move in the national title game. He actually beat him on another shoulder shake the rep before that, too, but the ball wasn’t thrown.

That said, most of Johnson’s visible mistakes last season came against a pair of eventual top-10 draft picks, and while Johnson was playing as a true sophom*ore.

Corner might be the toughest position on the field. Because if a player doesn’t have “it” — meaning the mental toughness to survive a deck that’s stacked against them — they may as well play offense.

Even the best of the best make mistakes. The players who have enough athletic tools on their belts to fix every problem are those who get talked about years after they play. Johnson, physically, is on that dance floor.

The mental requirement for being a great cornerback is in actually wanting to be a cornerback — to be the guy who stops the other guy from having an end zone party. You’re not there because you failed at another position. You’re there because it’s where you’re supposed to be.

Sanders and Woodson were legends in their own time, and they’ve inspired generations of tough-minded kids who try to make the hard look easy. It’s not a big group, as you’ll still see more receivers than corners at any youth camp you walk into. But the kids who’ve grown up studying the secondary are the ones NFL teams usually bet on first, whether they’re freak athletes or not.

And Johnson, very much a freak athlete, has been in that group since birth.

When Deon Johnson talks with his son, he speaks with love as a dedicated father and forever Will Johnson’s biggest fan. When he talks about his son, he speaks with no doubt. He played the game at a high level and in a secondary with eventual Hall of Fame corner Ty Law, the guy who set the Michigan standard before Woodson. He knows what great looks like because he’s seen it.

With Will Johnson, there aren’t questions about what he’s capable of, only proof anyone can see.

When Will was a kid, he and his dad played catch constantly. Deon made sure every toss came with a lesson — hence, Will drawing the route tree in kindergarten. Will also chased after his big sister, Kayli, who ran track at Michigan State and now works in Michigan’s recruiting department.

Now, if Will Johnson didn’t play another down of football at Michigan, he’d leave as one of the most decorated cornerbacks in the history of the program. It’s unlikely (though not impossible) anyone will ever top Woodson as a complete player at Michigan. As a corner, though, Johnson is the closest the school has ever seen. He’s already loaded with rings and accolades. Another healthy season surely will produce more.

However, the thing Johnson might brag about most with regard to his time at Michigan has nothing to do with a diamond or a plaque.

“William,” Deon firmly stated, “committed to a 2-4 Michigan (team).”

The Next Chapter 📍 pic.twitter.com/U2XX2LEIQc

— Wílł Jøhnšoñ (@Willj1228) February 28, 2021

This, truly, is where the stories of Will Johnson and Charles Woodson converge. When Woodson told those slack-jawed coaches where he’d be playing and how he’d be doing it over steaks in 1994, Gary Moeller was in his final months as Michigan’s head coach before an off-field incident the following spring led to his exit. By the time Woodson arrived in 1995, Lloyd Carr was running the show.

The historic program was rattled overnight. Woodson was not. “I didn’t go to Michigan because of (Moeller or anyone),” Woodson told the AP the day after Moeller’s resignation. “I went just because I love Michigan.”

When Johnson committed to Harbaugh in the winter of 2021, Michigan wasn’t just coming off one fluky bad year. Harbaugh had gone 21-11 over his previous three seasons, 11-9 in the last 20 games and had given up a combined 118 points to Ohio State in two previous meetings. Will, despite his dad’s diploma, did not grow up a Michigan fan. Deon had to drag him to the TV for games during the Rich Rodriguez era.

In January of 2021, Harbaugh spoke with an undecided Johnson, who was at least heavily considering Ohio State. He told the youngster to give him a week or so. Changes were in progress he wanted Johnson to know about.

Days later, Harbaugh hired program legend Mike Hart. Not long after, Michigan introduced then Baltimore Ravens assistant (and current Seattle Seahawks head coach) Mike Macdonald as its defensive coordinator, creating a pipeline that also produced Macdonald’s eventual replacement, Jesse Minter. Then, Michigan brought in Ron Bellamy, another former Michigan player and the best prep coach in Detroit.

By February, Johnson — the most important non-quarterback recruit of Jim Harbaugh’s collegiate coaching career — had agreed to play for the Wolverines. This offseason, after Harbaugh departed for the NFL, Johnson had opportunities to chase larger NIL money elsewhere as a junior. He opted to remain at a place he feels he helped rebuild.

People can snicker about sign stealing if they’d like. But, much like the impact Woodson had in the ’90s, Michigan’s defense shifted from something good enough to win the Big Ten to something good enough to win a national title when Johnson arrived in Ann Arbor in 2022. For the first time in a generation, the Wolverines featured a truly elite corner.

The connection isn’t lost on either Woodson or Johnson either. They’ve been close for a while. They FaceTime to talk about football, life, whatever. They understand each other.

Michigan football’s ultimate double deuce. Indeed, two of the best the program has ever seen.

(Top photo: Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)