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Former Wildcat has sights set on NFL experience

Jun 01, 2016 09:49AM ● By Branigan Faurschou

By Branigan  Faurschou | branigan@ogdensource

Ogden - Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it was a solid but not great one for the local teams in the Beehive State.   The Beehive state saw five players being drafted from four of the five football schools. Sadly, Weber State is the only football school that did not have one of its players hear their name called.   Big Sky rival Southern Utah lead the state with two players drafted, and Utah, Utah State and BYU had one each.

Just because a player does not hear their name during the three-day event does not mean that their football career is over.  Immediately proceeding the draft, all 32 NFL teams start jockeying for the best undrafted rookie free agents.   Sometimes being undrafted can help a player because they can look over a roster and see if they fit a position of need, thus strengthening their chances of making the 53 man roster in September.

One such undrafted free agent hoping to make an NFL roster is former Weber State Wildcat and current Atlanta Falcons corner back Devonte Johnson.    Johnson, who played 21 games for the Wildcats, lead the team in pass breakups with 11 of them, which is the second most for a single season in school history.

Johnson will have a tough go at it with the Falcons, even though secondary players are an area of need for the Falcons.  To win a spot on the Falcons’ 53 man roster, Johnson is going to have to beat out several talented veteran corner backs with a lot of NFL experience.  

Most likely Johnson will not make the Falcon’s opening day roster, but there is a very good chance he will end up on theirs or another NFL teams practice squad. Being placed on a team’s practice squad would mean that Johnson would have the opportunity later in the season to be signed by the Falcons or any other NFL team.

There have been a lot of NFL high level talent who did not get drafted and still made an impact in the NFL, this includes Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo, Superbowl MVP James Harrison and former rushing champion Arian Foster.    So there is a very good chance that Johnson will at least get some reps in the NFL regular season should he stick with football.