Ex-Gopher Tyler Johnson 'shocked' by reports of character concerns

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per Joe:

Tyler Johnson left the University of Minnesota on many high notes, including helping the Gophers win 10 games for the first time in more than 100 years and breaking virtually every receiving record in school history.

Johnson's college career was impressive enough to warrant him being ranked 38th on Benjamin Solak's NFL Draft big board for The Draft Network. But for reasons unknown, next to Johnson's name is "Red Flag: Character." Why? There is no explanation.

That report follows a similar claim from Bleacher Report's Matt Miller, who has said going back to last November that Johnson wasn't "getting good character reports from area scouts."

When questioned about his reporting, Miller stood tall and said: "Nope. I'm good with the information obtained from 10+ NFL teams on him."

"No teams asked me about it at all, it's never been brought up. To the person that made that, they really don't know me, honestly. I don't know where they got it from, but they definitely don't know me," Johnson said in an interview with KSTP's Darren Wolfson, adding that hearing the report "shocked" him.

"Those cats don't really know me. They don't know where I'm from and small things about me like many other people know about me," Johnson said. "You just put it in one ear and out the other. You can't let that distract you.
That right there is a distraction to me. I'm going to continue to be myself, be the best man I can possibly be, continue to love the game of football and be a huge impact to my community."

bringmethenews.com

Tyler Johnson 'shocked' by reports of character concerns

Johnson spoke with Darren Wolfson earlier this week.
bringmethenews.com bringmethenews.com

Go Gophers!!
 


It's hard to "know" much about any given person... but I did find it weird that I never heard of any issues and suddenly around draft time non specific / "issues" / rumors come up.
 

This genuinely feels like something Miller made up and other places ran on it because Miller said it. I've never heard anything but good things about Tyler from when I knew him more as a basketball player when he was 15-16.

If you have any involvement in the AAU circuit, you'd know it's a fricking sewing circle with gossip. You'd have heard grumblings about Hurt's dad, Humphries dad, White being a problem, etc. Put it this way, you'd have heard rumblings and grumblings, true or false, about people being jerks or having issues.

I have literally heard nothing but good things about Tyler Johnson during his time in HS. I suppose it's possible he had character issues at the U that we never heard about. That just doesn't seem possible with how he was covered by the U.

The red flag with Tyler Johnson is that he isn't enormous, he isn't incredibly fast and he never got a pro day. I think the NFL is much more concerned with his ability to get open at the next level than he will be a character problem. I think both concerns are unfounded but at least the football stuff seems like a legitimate question.
 

Back in the 90’s Terry Kirby was hurt on draft day due to some rumor that he was legally blind. 100% nonsense. Weird this stuff happens.
 


My theory is that it came from Jim Nagy, since the timing coincides with the Senior Bowl snub. Add to that, Nagy has openly dissed Johnson on Twitter, when there was no reason to do so. This went beyond offering a critique on a player, which is fair game.
 


I call BS. If these dinks openly spout this and give no credible backup from 10+ NFL teams, then it's absolute horseshit. I suppose it's possible, but in this day and age with all this internet stuff, someone would have heard the specific reason. Just some generic term like "character issues" is made up by someone that got butt hurt.
 

Seems like Miller takes most of his cues from Nagy and Johnson is no exception. For some reason Nagy doesn’t value TJ that highly, mostly separation concerns. I think Miller doesn’t really have all that great a sense of scouting so when really pressed on TJ he just made up the character concerns to justify his assessment, knowing that sort of thing is difficult to disprove.
 



Between time at North and at the U, Johnson has been on the radar and under the microscope for 6+ years. And NOBODY locally has peeped about a character concern. Fleck, who seemingly has zero issue sitting starters due to off-the-field issues, never punished Johnson or said a single critical word. But some national guy who has had zero interaction with him “heard some things”, and this is the gospel because now it’s on the internet. I call BS.

Luckily for Johnson, the NFL cares way more about ability than character, so this shouldn’t hurt him much. Not having a 40 time is going to hurt him more than this jackoff’s made up report.
 

One look at some of the behavior of NFL players and you know a lot of teams only care about performance on the field. Character issues unless they come with an actual rap sheet are not important to most.
All of Kiper's BS, ESPN, sports networks with their draft 'predictions' and inside info are sheer nonsense.
Has anyone gone back to those predictions and compared to the actual draft and confronted Kiper?
 

Plato said:
All of Kiper's BS, ESPN, sports networks with their draft 'predictions' and inside info are sheer nonsense.
Has anyone gone back to those predictions and compared to the actual draft and confronted Kiper?
Click to expand...


I doubt the so-called "NFL draft experts" just make things up about college players. Their reputations and careers absolutely depend on the quality and accuracy of their analysis and predictions. One of the reasons these guys are "draft experts" is that they know and talk regularly to scouts from every NFL team about the college players they like and don't like. Their employers will fire them in a second if they ever get caught lying about the "character" of any college football player. And there will be "draft experts" all over the country who will be standing in line to take their place if that happens.


Grading the Gurus: Mel Kiper

Grade: B-minus

When it comes to predicting where each player will be selected (adjusted to take draft day trades into account), he holds a 33% success rate.

In almost every other profession, getting one in three correct is not a good thing; however, when it comes to draft gurus, Kiper is the best in the business.

Kiper also has proven to possess a good sense of what position each team will target; he correctly predicts the position of each pick at a 47% clip (adjusted).

Despite Kiper’s annoying attitude and goofy haircut, he is the king of the NFL draft, and has the best rate of correct predictions among the top dogs in the industry.

http://insidethehuddle.tv/draft-hq/grading-gurus-mel-kiper


Most Accurate 2019 NFL Mock Draft: Kiper, McShay, Miller or Jeremiah?

McShay: 9 correct picks
Jeremiah: 9
Miller: 8
Kiper: 7


Draft slot and team (e.g. Murray and the Cardinals at No. 1):


McShay: 8
Jeremiah: 8
Miller: 6
Kiper: 6


Team (e.g. credit for Daniel Jones to the Giants at No. 17):

Jeremiah: 9
McShay: 8
Kiper: 7
Miller: 6


First-rounders (number of their picks who went in the first round regardless of draft position):

McShay: 25
Jeremiah: 25
Kiper: 25
Miller: 24


Worst whiff (highest mocked player who wasn't selected in the first round):

McShay: 9 (Jawaan Taylor)
Jeremiah: 12 (Taylor)
Kiper: 12 (Taylor)
Miller: 16 (Taylor)

https://herosports.com/nfl-draft/accurate-2019-mock-draft-kiper-mcshay-miller-jeremiah-ahah
 
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33% correct gets a B-?
I stand by my comments.
If reading their stuff passes the time fine. But do not bet on what they are saying.
 




If anybody is curious, I googled "character" with each of the other players named by Benjamin Solak. Here is what I found:
Saahdiq Charles: Suspended 6 games for weed, described as "tremendously immature and constantly in trouble" from a source at LSU.
Willie Gay Jr: suspended by NCAA for academic fraud, missed games due to violation of team rules, got in a fight with his own QB and injured him to the point he missed a bowl game.
Cheyenne O'Grady: multiple suspensions, arrested for DWI, and quit team halfway through season
Tyler Johnson: willing to "color outside the lines" by skipping combine (also in this camp: Joe Burrow, Chase Young). Some moron named Matt Miller made baseless claims about him publicly. Universally praised by team and local media.

81FdHXwj8rL.jpg
 

So he didn't risk injury at the Shrine bowl, and wanted to run his 40 at the U's pro day.

= make up lies about his character? F'ing weak
 

MplsGopher said:
So he didn't risk injury at the Shrine bowl, and wanted to run his 40 at the U's pro day.

= make up lies about his character? F'ing weak
Click to expand...
This goes way back to the beginning of the season doesn't it? I remember an earlier thread focusing on Miller and his comments, and he was very cavalier about his stance with basically no support for it back then as well.
 

Tyler's agent was on KFAN a week or two ago and said he speculated it started when a scout reported to someone that Tyler didn't practice hard at the practice he attended. That snowballed into character concerns.

Anyone who has been to watch the open practices would counter that Tyler is always working hard and stays after quite often doing extra work.

Kinds of a flimsy reason to be assaulting a guy's character if true. Especially since Miller had Tyler as a potential first round pick just a couple of months before reporting the "character issues." So, the character issues were a "late add" to the report.
 

I'll say this - going back to his HS days, Minneapolis North had a very checkered reputation, so I thought it might be guilt by association.

Not talking about Johnson specifically, but I knew a guy who worked as a supervisor of officials for the MSHSL. This guy would watch playoff games and rate the officials, so he was considered an authority on the rules. And he told me - exact quote - "Minneapolis North is the dirtiest team I have ever seen."

There were also gripes about the way Mpls North ran up big scores on teams in basketball.

So, Johnson is coming out of that environment. Again, I am not accusing Johnson of anything, but he is coming out of a HS program that has some red flags connected to it.
 


Johnson was a great receiver at MN but he did have the dropsies his Junior and Senior year. We beat Iowa if he makes one more catch. That, coupled with a deep receiver class is the reason why he will not be in the top two rounds.

First team all Big Ten and his performance against Auburn are two reasons why he will get drafted and have a roster spot in the NFL.
 

Yes he did have issues with the drops. Hopefully he is over it. Character concerns? LOL! That is a joke. I think whoever started it is a joke.
 

I wonder if because he is from North Minneapolis and the scouts can't justify why they don't like him in the NFL if they just threw this tag at him. Seems like something that would certainly happen.
 

eker0016 said:
If anybody is curious, I googled "character" with each of the other players named by Benjamin Solak. Here is what I found:
Saahdiq Charles: Suspended 6 games for weed, described as "tremendously immature and constantly in trouble" from a source at LSU.
Willie Gay Jr: suspended by NCAA for academic fraud, missed games due to violation of team rules, got in a fight with his own QB and injured him to the point he missed a bowl game.
Cheyenne O'Grady: multiple suspensions, arrested for DWI, and quit team halfway through season
Tyler Johnson: willing to "color outside the lines" by skipping combine (also in this camp: Joe Burrow, Chase Young). Some moron named Matt Miller made baseless claims about him publicly. Universally praised by team and local media.

81FdHXwj8rL.jpg
Click to expand...


tremendously immature

That's brutal.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
tremendously immature

That's brutal.
Click to expand...
Indeed. I imagine he's the kind of guy that hadn't dealt with consequences much because people were willing to put up with his talent to this point. As a teacher/coach I have seen this before.

It's still crazy to me that we have externally documented reasons for character concern for these other guys...but with Johnson it is just some vague statement from Matt Miller.
 

eker0016 said:
Indeed. I imagine he's the kind of guy that hadn't dealt with consequences much because people were willing to put up with his talent to this point. As a teacher/coach I have seen this before.

It's still crazy to me that we have externally documented reasons for character concern for these other guys...but with Johnson it is just some vague statement from Matt Miller.
Click to expand...

I think consequences are essential to growing up ... but get too much focus too.

Jeff Jones had consequence after consequence after his stop at MN... didn't seem to learn.
 

Wasn’t TJ in Kill’s dog house and kept off the field. I recall no one gave a reason but the kill coaching staff kept him off the field.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I wonder if because he is from North Minneapolis and the scouts can't justify why they don't like him in the NFL if they just threw this tag at him. Seems like something that would certainly happen.
Click to expand...
I don't see why being from North would have anything to do with it, unless you were worried about players who grew up in areas with relatively high gang violence. But I'm guessing even North Mpls pales in comparison to some of the places that NFL stars come from.
 

This whole "character" thing is weird. I always want former Gophers to do well in the pros but in this case, my rooting is ratcheted up a notch. I hope TJ absolutely sets it on fire.
 

I wonder if this is "Kill." I can invision a scenario where they ask Claeys or Kill why he wasn't this good right away with them and they bring up lack of desire to work on craft or something. I dont see either of them saying anything about PJ's coaching helping.
 

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