Johnson knows the team has big expectations for him
Brian Daboll has always had outsized expectations for Theo Johnson, the monstrous 6-foot-6, 264-pound tight end the New York Giants selected in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Pre-2024 draft scouting reports weren’t incredibly high on Johnson coming out of Penn State. Consider this blurb from Lance Zierlein of NFL.com:
Johnson looks the part with an above-average frame and traits. While teams might want to place him in an elevated silo for consideration, they might not find the consistency or high number of flashes on tape that they were expecting. Johnson’s run blocking is below average for his size, and adopting a glass-eating mentality in conjunction with technique work could help him improve in that area. He’ll make contested catches and is adequate against man coverage, but he lacks dynamic qualities as a pass catcher. Traits will work in his favor, but there is work to be done to become anything more than an average backup.
Daboll, who mentored Rob Gronkowski as tight ends coach of the New England Patriots from 2014-16, used to summon Johnson to his office during 2024 training camp to show him film of the great New England tight end. Gronkowski, coincidentally, was a similarly built 6-6, 265-pound player.
“There’s countless times where we’ll be in the middle of a meeting and he’ll be like, ‘Theo, Dabs wants to see you,’” Johnson recalled last summer. “Pulls me out of the meeting and I’m like, ‘What could this possibly be about?’ And then he’s got up a clip of Gronk just running somebody over, catching a back shoulder, and he’s like, ‘This is what we expect from you.’ I can tell he puts a lot of intentional eye into the tight end position … I think it goes to show how he feels about me and what he thinks I’m capable of.”
Daboll clearly sees more in the 24-year-old Johnson than some other talent evaluators.
“When you see a good player, you know he’s a good player,” Daboll said of Johnson on Tuesday.
The Giants force fed Johnson last season, starting him immediately event though he may have been initially overwhelmed as he adjusted to the NFL.
Things did not go smoothly.
Johnson caught just 11 passes in his first seven games. There was a five-catch game Week 5 against the Seattle Seahawks, but there were also two games in which he did not catch a pass. His blocking, as evidenced by spotty Pro Football Focus grades, was also spotty those first seven games. Johnson’s game-by-game grades are shown in the graphic.
In his last five games before being forced to injured reserve by a Lisfranc injury, Johnson caught 18 passes, with no less than three receptions in every game. His blocking, aside from his final game against the Dallas Cowboys, was also more consistent.
“I felt like I was starting to hit my stride a little bit,” Johnson said on Friday. “Everything was starting to come together, so it made it a little frustrating when the season came to an end, when it did, but I want to continue to build off that and grow this year.”
Johnson was one of two Giants to undergo Lisfranc surgery, with left tackle Andrew Thomas being the other. While Thomas is on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list and still working back from his injury, the younger and 50-60 pounds lighter Johnson has been a full practice participant since the beginning of OTAs.
“No worries on my end. I’m back full go. No restrictions or limitations,” Johnson said of his foot.
If Johnson can pick up where he left off and be a physical, playmaking force in the middle of the field and an impact blocker in the run game he can begin to become the difference-making player Daboll envisioned.
“It’s only the second day,” Daboll said before Friday’s practice. “But Theo is a guy that is a tireless worker. He’s very smart for a young player, has tremendous size and athletic ability, catch radius, can block at the point of attack so both in the run game and the pass game. That’s hard to do or hard to find nowadays, particularly coming out of colleges … I think he’ll be a good player for us.”
Johnson wants that.
“I think that I can definitely step into a bigger role this year and add a little bit more value than I did last year,” he said. “Last year was a lot of growing and kind of just jumping off the deep end and I think as I look back to last year, I learned a lot of lessons and even this offseason as well. So, I think there’s a role for me to fill for sure.”