{"id":231319,"date":"2025-07-24T03:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/231319\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T03:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T03:26:11","slug":"cardinals-sign-second-round-cb-will-johnson-complete-rookie-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/231319\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Sign Second-Round CB Will Johnson, Complete Rookie Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

JULY 23: Howard Balzer of Cards Wire reports that Johnson\u2019s rookie deal<\/a> is worth $9.41MM over four years. Johnson ended up getting $7.66MM of that money guaranteed, including his $3.48MM signing bonus. The rest of the guarantees come from his first three years\u2019 full base salaries of $840K, $1.27MM, and $1.7MM, as well as 17.55 percent of his Year 4 base salary of $2.12MM, which amounts to $372.64K.<\/p>\n

JULY 22: no surprise, Will Johnson<\/a>\u00a0is on the books in time for the start of the Cardinals\u2019 training camp. The second-round corner signed his rookie deal Tuesday, per a team announcement. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last night, ESPN\u2019s Josh Weinfuss reported<\/a> an agreement was expected in this case. Rookies do not have the option of signing an injury waiver for training camp (unlike rookie minicamp, OTAs and mandatory minicamp). As a result, recent days have seen a flood of second-round picks sign their deals to be available for summer practices.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s deal means that Browns running back\u00a0Quinshon Judkins<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 whose attention is currently focused on a domestic violence arrest \u2013 and Bengals first-rounder\u00a0Shemar Stewart<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 who remains engaged in a standoff over language in his pact \u2013 are the only rookies yet to sign in 2025. This offseason has been marked by a dramatic uptick in guaranteed compensation for the latter parts of rookie deals in the case of second-round picks. As the No. 47 pick in April\u2019s draft, Johnson is in line to benefit from that development.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his three years at Michigan, Johnson established himself as a pivotal figure in the team\u2019s secondary. He played a key role in the Wolverines\u2019 national title in 2023 and entered last season as a strong candidate to hear his name called on Day 1. Injuries limited Johnson to six games in 2024, however, and a knee ailment served as a deterrent for certain teams<\/a> during the pre-draft process. Questions linger over Johnson\u2019s ability to serve as a regular contributor on defense beyond his rookie contract.<\/p>\n

If he can manage that, the All-American will prove to be a highly valuable draft investment on Arizona\u2019s part. The Cardinals will be without Sean Murphy-Bunting<\/a> for the entire season<\/a> due to knee surgery, and their secondary will be missing a veteran as a result. Johnson will spend training camp looking to carve out a role amongst the remaining cornerback options, a list which includes other recent draftees in the form of Garrett Williams<\/a>,\u00a0Elijah Jones<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Max Melton<\/a> as well as fellow rookie Denzel Burke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Johnson signed, here is a final look at the Cardinals\u2019 draft class:<\/p>\n

Round 1, No. 16:\u00a0Walter Nolen<\/a>\u00a0(DT, Ole Miss) (signed<\/a>)
\nRound 2, No. 47:\u00a0Will Johnson<\/a>\u00a0(CB, Michigan) (signed)
\nRound 3, No. 78:\u00a0Jordan Burch<\/a>\u00a0(OLB, Oregon) (signed<\/a>)
\nRound 4, No. 115:\u00a0Cody Simon<\/a>\u00a0(LB, Ohio State) (signed<\/a>)
\nRound 5, 174 (from Cowboys)*:\u00a0Denzel Burke<\/a>\u00a0(CB, Ohio State) (signed<\/a>)
\nRound 6, No. 211 (from Cowboys)*:\u00a0Hayden Conner\u00a0(G, Texas) (signed<\/a>)
\nRound 7, No. 225 (from Jets through Chiefs):\u00a0Kitan Crawford<\/a>\u00a0(S, Nevada)\u00a0(signed<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JULY 23: Howard Balzer of Cards Wire reports that Johnson\u2019s rookie deal is worth $9.41MM over four years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[80,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,3571,42041],"class_list":{"0":"post-231319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-arizona-cardinals","11":"tag-arizonacardinals","12":"tag-cardinals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-transactions","16":"tag-will-johnson-michigan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114906083563995519","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231319","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=231319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}