“Third year, this is a big year for me,” he said. “I want to come out and make plays and be the ballplayer I know I can be and be the ballplayer everybody else knows I can be. To do what I can do and be dominant …
“That’s my main focus this year, to be dominant and let my presence be felt when I’m on the field – being a good teammate, just to be the best ballplayer I know I can be.”
Campanile’s scheme not only emphasizes violence and getting off blocks at the point of attack, it’s a more zone-based scheme in the secondary than the man-to-man-centric scheme employed by then-coordinator Ryan Nielsen.
It’s a scheme in which secondary players face the quarterback more than previously was the case, something Johnson said emphasizes his strengths.
“I love it,” Johnson said. “Being able to be rangy, being able to break off the quarterback, bait the quarterback … I feel like that’s something that’s a part of my game that I wasn’t able to display a lot because we were in a lot of man last year.
“This year, I feel like a lot of plays – not just for myself, but around the back seven – are going to be made because we have our eyes on the quarterback. Our back was to the ball a lot [last season] and it’s just easier to play pass on different concepts and be able to make plays in the air.”
Johnson, who has played in 30 games in two NFL seasons with 11 starts, has five career passes defensed and two interceptions with 72 tackles in 17 games played last season. He started the first six games last season, starting two thereafter – and said Tuesday he expects the experience gained his first two seasons to be valuable moving forward.