Make no mistake Brian Johnson should be at the very least recently retired from the NFL as a player, not one of the men who's career never took off. Johnson played in 41 total games over a 5 year stint at Utah that included 1 redshirt season. In those 4 years where he saw action, he completed less than 65% of his passes just once in 2005 his first year as the full time starter...his career low in this category?? 63.5% an impressive feat. When compared to the man he replaced, Alex Smith who was drafted first overall, Johnson stacked up well.
Alex Smith played in 25 career games completing 389 of 587 passes or 66.3% for 5,203 yards with an 8.9 average per attempt. He had 47 tds and 8 ints. Adding another 286 carries for 1,072 yards or 3.7 per carry and 15 tds, and 3 receptions for 38 yards as well.
Brian Johnson 41 career games completed 673 of 1,017 passes or 66.2% for 7,853 yards a 7.7 yard average. 57 tds, 27 ints, adding 366 carries for 848 yards and 12 tds.
Obviously Smith displayed a bit more mobility, and his lack of interceptions helped him big time. Perhaps it was the coaching? Urban Meyer served as the head coach in 2003, and 2004 for Alex Smith with offensive coordinator Mike Sanford. In 2005 Meyer left for Florida, and Sanford left for UNLV, while defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham took over as head coach bringing with him offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, another fan of the spread system albeit without the reliance on the read option. Ludwig was an accomplished coach that had been in the college ranks for 10 years as a coordinator with 5 different programs and coached nearly every offensive position up to that point. However, just 4 years after Smith went first overall Johnson was an after thought not even having been invited to the combine. Honestly I believe this dramatically hurt him. Of the 21 quarterbacks invited to the combine there were 11 drafted. Of the 10 undrafted rookies, Chase Daniel, Brian Hoyer, Mike Reilly, John Parker Wilson, Hunter Cantwell, Drew Willy, Nathan Brown, and Rudy Carpenter. Leaving just 2 that weren't. Just 5 quarterbacks signed that weren't invited to the combine. After really looking at his statistics, and considering the fact that he understands offense at a higher level it's a shock to me that he isn't on an NFL roster somewhere as a number 2 quarterback. However he decided to transition into coaching at 23 years old instead returning to Utah.
Kyle Whittingham knew firsthand how smart Johnson was and how well he understood the game having chosen for 4 years to start him as his quarterback until he graduated in 2009. So he immediately hired him as his quarterbacks coach for the 2010 season. He would take over for Dave Schram who was seemingly being fazed out slowly. In 2009 he served as offensive coordinator/QB coach, in 2010 he transitioned to co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach, in 2011 he coached only running backs, and by 2012 he was no longer with Utah after 8 seasons. This actually kind of helped Johnson's rise within the program. In 2011 Johnson held the QB coach title again, before being given the title of offensive coordinator in 2012 after the one year experiment of Norm Chow failed. So just three seasons into his coaching career, just three seasons removed from being the starting quarterback Johnson headed into 2012 as the offensive coordinator and QB coach at just 25 years old. So how did he fare?
About as well as his predecessors at Utah in the coordinator position had...he was gone by 2014 accepting a job with Mississippi State as a quarterbacks coach. During the 2012 season Johnson oversaw 4 different quarterbacks playing games due to injury. None of which completed less than 60% of their passes, they combined for 16 tds and 9 ints, and 2,263 yards. He also helped running back John White to 1,041 yards and 8 tds on just 218 carries. Backups Kelvin York, and Lucky Radley added 322 yards and 4 more tds, while QB Travis Wilson added 4 rushing tds of his own. In 2013, the QB play was atrocious. Travis Wilson was named the starter, but completed just 57% of his passes, threw 16 tds to 16 ints, and 1,827 yards, while backup Adam Shulz played even worse. Completing just 48.7% of his passes for 1,008 yards 6 tds and 5 ints. He also didnt offer the athletic ability of Wilson who ran 81 times for 386 yards and 5 tds this time, while Shulz managed 75 yards and 1 td. In the run game they had a 3 headed monster. James Poole, and Kelvin York split carries totalling 1,070 yards and 8 tds, Lucky Radley chimed in for 284 yards and 2 tds, while another 3 players logged 1 rushing td a piece. The biggest development was WR Dres Anderson, who had a career year with 52 receptions, 1002 yards 7 tds through the air, as well as 8 carries for 30 yards and 1 td. When he moved on to Mississippi State is when he started to take notice.
At Mississippi State Brian Johnson tutored a quarterback who he will now face twice a year as a member of the Eagles coaching staff. That player is Dak Prescott. It wasn't until Johnson arrived that Prescott's career took off. In 2013 Prescott completed less than 60% of his passes, did not top 2,000 yards passing, and had 10 tds to 7 ints. In 2014, and 2015 Prescott and Johnson teamed up to produce an NFL level stat line.
14:61.6% completion rate, 8.7 yards per attempt 3,449 yards 27 tds and 11 ints. 210 carries for 986 yards and 14 tds, 2 receptions 35 yards and 1 td.
15:66.2% completion rate, 8.0 yards per attempt 3,793 yards 29 tds and 5 ints. 160 carries for 588 yards, 10 tds.
As we know Prescott has turned out to be a pretty damn good NFL player too, dare I say we as Eagles fans are actually envious of the consistency he has shown. Johnson parlayed Prescott's success to take a coordinator and QB coach position with Houston.
In Houston he would coach future NFL players Josh Jones an offensive tackle drafted in round 3, Patrick Carr an undrafted RB, Marquez Stevenson a WR drafted in round 6, and Kyle Allen a QB who also resides in the NFC East with the Washington Football Team, as well as Steven Dunbar a CFL WR with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Johnson stayed just one season here, before Dan Mullen again recruited him this time to join him in Florida as a QB coach.
Johnson spent the next 3 seasons as the QB coach adding offensive coordinator in 2019. During his 3 seasons he oversaw the development of future second round pick, and potential Tom Brady successor Kyle Trask, who was often regarded as one of the top 7 quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL draft. During his time at Florida he also tutored Felipe Franks, who went undrafted in 2021 but signed with the Falcons, and Emory Jones who is headed into his senior season at Florida. During his one season as a coordinator there he oversaw an offense that had 3 different players get drafted in the first two rounds with Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney, and Trask went in the top two rounds. He also helped coach Trevon Grimes who was briefly in camp with the Eagles this offseason.
Now in 2021 he starts a new challenge. Coaching up second year quarterback and superb athlete Jalen Hurts. Hurts will give Johnson a player that more closely resembles Johnson's own style of play during his playing days, at 34 years old he is about as old as his backup in the QB room Joe Flaaco. Behind Flacco they have another young but experienced quarterback with Nick Mullens being signed. Johnson has really solid talent to work with in Philadelphia and if he makes the most of it he should be seeing an elevation to coordinator at the NFL level in a matter of a few seasons. In fact Eagles fans should consider ourselves lucky if we hold onto this guy for 3 years.
The college pipeline has helped many younger coaches move up the ranks fast before and Johnson should be no exception especially if Trask, Toney, and Pitts are as advertised when they start to see playing time.
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