New York Giants 2024 Training Camp Preview: LB Dyontae Johnson
The New York Giants replaced defensive coordinator Wink Martindale with former Tennessee Titans coordinator Shane Bowen. This change brings a shift in what the team will look for in its linebacker room.
How so? Coverage ability will be placed at a premium over pass-rush ability, and this is due to the drastic drop in blitz frequency from Martindale to Bowen.
Bowen’s favorite coverage to play with the Titans was quarters, requiring linebackers to cover more range than any other coverage call underneath.
For linebacker Dyontae Johnson, that could bode well for his position in the system considering he came from Toledo as an undrafted free agent last season and Toledo’s most-called coverage in recent years has been quarters.
That kind of experience playing similar coverages could give Johnson a leg up on players who are used to Martindale’s system in earning snaps.
The Giants' linebacker play has been inconsistent in recent years, and Bobby Okereke is the only guaranteed starter at the position. There should be open competition not only for the starting spots on either side of Okereke but also for the rotational and depth players.
DYONTAE JOHNSON, LB
Height: 6-2
Weight: 230
EXP: 1
School: Toledo
How Acquired: UDFA-23
2023 in Review
Johnson’s 2023 season was uneventful as he spent the entire season on the practice squad for the Giants. He spent the preseason playing almost exclusively as an off-ball linebacker with sporadic snaps downplaying off the edge.
- Miss a 2024 Giants Training Camp profile? We've got them all archived for you here.
Contract/Cap Info
Johnson will play the 2024 season on a one-year minimum contract worth $795,000 with no guaranteed money attached. Making the minimum is both positive and negative for Johnson because his contract is so team-friendly, so it’s highly unlikely that he would be released as a cap casualty.
The Giants currently have eight off-ball linebackers on their roster and all but one of them will make more money than Johnson this season. Luckily for him, most of those contracts carry low guarantees for the 2024 season that probably won’t leave the Giants hamstrung to keep players to avoid those penalties.
Johnson will be an exclusive-rights free agent after the season if he stays under contract for the year.
If the Giants want to keep Johnson, they would need to be able to keep him for the minimum again during the 2025 season. If they don’t want to keep Johnson, they can let him walk.
2024 Preview
With his athletic upside and familiarity with Bowen's coverage calls, Johnson will be in a better position than ever to prove what he can bring to an NFL defense.
Johnson's benefit in this defense is that, given how talented the Giants' defensive front is, there should be clean lanes for linebackers to come up and make stops in the run game, putting an added emphasis on athleticism and making block-shedding ability less important.
Bowen tends to bring up a light box, keeping five or six defenders in the box to emphasize coverage ability. Johnson’s potential as an underneath defender who can play in the box and cover ground underneath sets him up for a role here.
Given the new kickoff rule, I’m expecting linebackers to be more relevant than they previously were on special teams. Johnson’s athleticism and his experience contributing on special teams in college and in the preseason last year should help him establish himself as a potential contributor there.
Johnson will need to prove that he’s mentally capable of handling a role on the defense. His physical skillset will put him in position for success but being able to read coverage keys underneath and make the right decision when filling lanes as a run defender will decide his fate.
If Johnson shows promise but the team doesn’t view him as an impact player in 2024, he can be kept on the practice squad for another year.
BRANDON OLSEN
Brandon Olsen is the founder of Whole Nine Sports, specializing in NFL Draft coverage, and is the host of the Locked On Gators Podcast.