Cleveland Browns: 3 early defensive training camp standouts in 2021

1. John Johnson III, Safety

Another big addition this offseason was safety John Johnson III who came over from the Los Angeles Rams in free agency. While he hasn’t been with the team long, he’s already established himself as a leader in the secondary.

Not only is he a player who the rest of the defensive backs can look up to for his vocal leadership, but he’s been making several plays on the ball. For instance, he was a player who Chris Pokorny from Dawgs by Nature said dominated the day during Saturday’s practice.

"“The player of the day was S John Johnson III, the team’s big free agent signing this offseason. In the clip below, he wrestles the ball away from TE David Njoku for an interception against QB Baker Mayfield. (Note: to be fair, this was a judgment call where both Njoku and Johnson had it, so an official could’ve ruled differently).” — Pokorny, Dawgs by Nature"

Jake Trotter from ESPN shared a clip of the play and even if the official had not ruled it a pick, Johnson still would have looked good on the play since he was in position and made David Njoku give everything he had to try and get the ball for the offense.

Johnson has also been seen knocking down several passes so far in camp showing that he’s always right where he needs to be — something Browns fans will love after some of the struggles the team had in coverage in 2020.

He was another brilliant signing for Andrew Berry and the Browns and it hasn’t taken long at all for us to see that acquisition start to pay off.