{"id":148238,"date":"2025-06-21T19:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T19:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148238\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T19:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T19:56:13","slug":"cardinals-rookie-will-johnson-projected-to-make-an-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148238\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals rookie Will Johnson projected to make an impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cardinals rookie Will Johnson was named by NFL.com\u2019s Gennaro Filice as one of this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/2025-nfl-all-rookie-team-projecting-14-instant-impact-newcomers-on-defense-special-teams\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">projected impact newcomers<\/a> on defense.<\/p>\n<p>While there are still legitimate longevity concerns with Johnson, Felice writes that he could still be a major impact player for Arizona this season due to his ball hawking skills:<\/p>\n<p>As NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported during Johnson\u2019s draft slide, the cornerback\u2019s knee was\u00a0red-flagged for longevity concerns\u00a0during the combine. But I\u2019m not here to project which players will make it to their second contract \u2014 I\u2019m trying to identify who\u2019ll thrive in their first season. And by that criterion, Johnson is a prime candidate. A highly pedigreed cover man with prototypical size and a mature game, the Michigan product projects as a Day 1 starter in Arizona. And his instinctive ball-hawking feels like a perfect fit in the Cardinals\u2019 zone-heavy defense.<\/p>\n<p>The rookie corner is hungry to make an impact on day one.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson slid to the middle of the second round (47th pick), due to injury concerns about his knee. He missed significant time in his final season with the Wolverines with both knee and shoulder issues, playing in only six games. During those six games, however, he did still play a significant role for Michigan\u2019s defense, returning two interceptions for touchdowns against Fresno State and USC.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals rookie cornerback, however, says he is <a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/nfl\/arizona-cardinals\/will-johnson-motiv\/3583363\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extremely motivated<\/a> and that his knee is \u201cAll good. Its ready to go\u201d for this season. Johnson is hoping to put those injuries behind him and is eager to show the Cardinals defensive coaching staff what he can do.<\/p>\n<p>He has prototypical size for a cornerback at 6\u20192 and made a heavy contribution as a sophomore to Michigan\u2019s national championship winning defense with four interceptions in 12 games that season.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson has a chance to make a significant impact on day one for the Cardinals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/arizona-sports-newsletter-signup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"mobile-signup\"\/>\t&#13;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"desktop-signup\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardinals rookie Will Johnson was named by NFL.com\u2019s Gennaro Filice as one of this year\u2019s projected impact newcomers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,1632,2604,1327,7,1631,6,1630],"class_list":{"0":"post-148238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizona-sports-now-on-98-7-fm","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-phoenix-arizona-sports-news-phoenix-breaking-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114723119977705353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}