Everyone knows the Dallas Cowboys need a running back, but at least one expert thinks defense will be the team’s primary focus in the 2025 NFL Draft.
While most mock drafts have the Cowboys taking Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty 12th overall, ESPN’s Field Yates thinks the choice will be Michigan cornerback Will Johnson.
As Yates points out, Trevon Diggs missed six games last season and is still recovering from a knee injury that necessitated surgery, while fellow cornerback DaRon Bland has only one year left on his rookie deal.
Jourdan Lewis, the team’s nickelback, will also be a free agent in March, which could make it hard for the team to pass on Johnson. At 6-foot-2 and 202 pounds, Johnson has the size needed to cover NFL receivers with ball skills that Yates considers elite, noting that “some in the scouting world” view him as “one of the highest-upside players in the class.”
Johnson helped lead the Wolverines to a national championship with four interceptions in 2023 and returned two interceptions for touchdowns in 2024. Overall, he had nine interceptions in three years at Michigan with 68 tackles along the way.
NFL Network’s Lance Zierlein refers to Johnson as a potential future Pro Bowler who reads and anticipates routes at a high level but believes he’s at his best when playing with his eyes forward instead of chasing routes downfield. That shouldn’t be a problem. As Yates notes, the team’s new defensive coordinator, former Bears coach Matt Eberflus, typically employs a zone-heavy scheme.
Too bad Dallas couldn’t hang on to Al Harris, who served as the team’s defensive backs coach from 2020-2024. Harris helped Bland and Diggs develop into All-Pro cornerbacks but left to join Eberflus’ old team, the Chicago Bears, after Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy was replaced by offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
Pro Football Focus rates Johnson as the second-best corner in this year’s draft behind Colorado’s Travis Hunter, this year’s Heisman trophy winner, and sixth-best prospect overall. Of course, it also has Jacksonville beating Dallas to the punch by trading back with the 49ers (in a deal that includes wide receiver Deebo Samuel) to take Johnson at No. 11.
Jeanty it would be, then.
