The Las Vegas Raiders got ahead of NFL free agency, agreeing to a trade with the Buffalo Bills for cornerback Taron Johnson before he hit the open market.
Johnson was scheduled to be released, but the Raiders clearly wanted him on the roster and didn’t take any chances. From a needs perspective, it makes sense for Las Vegas. The defense could use someone who can cover the slot, struggling at that spot last season, and the eight-year veteran has recorded over 5,000 snaps at nickelback over his career, per Pro Football Focus.
The 2023 Second-Team All-Pro has been a quality player in the past, but his play has declined while battling injuries over the last two years. For example, he played in all 17 games and earned a career-high 77.3 PFF grade during the All-Pro campaign, but missed five contests and recorded a 58.8 mark in 2024 before being active for 13 weeks and logging a career-low 57.9 grade last fall.
Granted, Johnson did rank third among qualifying nickel corners (minimum 95 coverage snaps in the slot) with 11.3 coverage snaps per reception allowed and fourth in yards surrendered per coverage snap (0.83), per PFF, during the 2025 regular season. So, let’s flip on the tape and see what he can bring to Las Vegas.
For starters, Johnson is a good tackler, recording just eight misses at an 11.1 percent rate last season, per PFF. The latter isn’t a terrible number; it ranked within the top 40 of qualifying corners last year and was his highest since 2021. Also, he led the Bills with 11 coverage stops during the regular season in 2025, with the clip above accounting for one of them.
This play also highlights good situational football from the cornerback. It’s third and long, and he plays inside leverage to help take away an in-breaking route, which is especially important since Buffalo has its middle linebacker vacate the middle of the field to carry the seam route. So, Johnson forces his man toward the sideline, or the short side of the field, and looks to make the tackle after the catch.
Since it’s third down with the offense in the red zone, the defense doesn’t need a forced incompletion from the secondary because the offense is already in field goal range. They just need to keep the ball out of the end zone, which Johnson does by breaking down and making a sure tackle to send the field goal unit onto the field.
We’ll get a similar situation with the Houston Texans facing third and six. Buffalo is in man coverage, and Houston gets the matchup it wants by motioning a receiver across the formation (No. 81) and outside of speedy rookie, Jaylin Noel, setting up a one-on-one between Johnson and Noel on a drag route.
However, the nickelback plays it perfectly, recognizing the drag route and staying within about a yard of his man. That allows him to close and prevent any yards after the catch, limiting the play to about a three-yard gain and forcing the punt.
Coverage-wise, Johnson is at his best when playing press coverage, in my opinion. He’s not a good athlete or the quickest to consistently mirror and match slot receivers man-to-man, but he has the physicality and strength to control them when he gets his hands on their body.
In the clip above, Johnson is in man coverage against DeMario Douglas and playing with inside leverage. Douglas tries to attack his leverage, but the corner has good footwork and uses his hands to cut off the wideout and help take away the middle of the field. Then, when the wideout takes the route up the field, Johnson’s work at the line of scrimmage allows him to stay in-phase and take an option away from the quarterback to force the scramble.
Granted, Drake Maye picks up the first down with his legs, but that’s not what we’re concerned about here.
We’ll see almost the same rep as the last one, but this time it’s against a tight end, Hunter Henry. Again, Johnson does a good job of maintaining his leverage and using his hands/physicality to stay in-phase with his man.
Granted, this is a dagger concept (one of Josh McDaniels’ favorite play calls), where the seam route from Henry is a clear-out route or designed to create space for the wide receiver at the bottom of the screen running the in-breaker. However, against a split safety coverage like what the Bills are running here, the quarterback has the option to rip the seam route if it’s open. Johnson just takes that away from Maye with tight coverage on Henry.
Additionally, Johnson’s football IQ and open-field tackling show up when he’s playing zone coverage, too.
Buffalo is running Cover 8 here, which is basically Cover 6 but flipped, meaning the defense plays Cover 2 to the passing strength instead of quarters. Also, the Bills are playing Tampa 2, where the middle linebacker drops deep into coverage to take away the seam instead of sitting in the middle of the field and taking away a hook route. That’s important because as soon as Johnson sees the wide receiver he’s lined up across run past him, he knows he needs to squeeze or cover the hook route from the tight end since the linebacker won’t be there.
That takes away the tight end and forces the quarterback onto the next read. Then, Johnson reads Maye’s eyes to help anticipate the throw to the outside receiver, rallies to the football and makes the tackle to limit the gain.
As a run defender, the veteran defensive back isn’t someone who can consistently take on and escape blocks when playing in the box. But he is willing to mix it up against the rushing attack, and the tackling skills seen above carry over to the other phase of the game.
This play may seem easy at first, but it’s a lot more difficult than what meets the eye.
The Patriots have their No. 2 running back—rookie TreVeyon Henderson, who has 4.43 speed—line up out wide and motion him across the formation. Meanwhile, the Bills are in man coverage and have Johnson follow Henderson across the formation, where he has to take a wide angle to avoid getting picked by the linebackers, putting him behind the speedy running back as the back gets the ball on the fly sweep.
But Johnson manages to close the gap and meet Henderson about a yard or two past the line of scrimmage. While Henderson does get a couple of extra yards after contact and nearly picks up the first down, there isn’t much more that Johnson can do since the defensive back’s momentum is going toward the sideline instead of downhill, due to the motion/play call.
At the end of the day, this is a good run fit that gives the defense a chance to get off the field on third and one.
We’ll wrap up with an even better example of Johnson’s willingness to get involved in the run fit.
This might look like a typical counter play, but it’s actually an RPO where Maye can flip the ball to Henry for a shovel pass to the tight end. That means, while the offensive line is blocking for counter, the running back is executing a stretch run to try and take advantage of the two-on-two matchup at the top of the screen between the two wide receivers and defensive backs.
However, Johnson recognizes the running back’s path and adjusts to stay wide and keep the running back on his inside shoulder. That forces the back to cut up the field and into two pursuing defenders, i.e. the defensive back’s help. On top of that, Johnson manages to get involved in the tackle for a one-yard gain.
That’s excellent play recognition, understanding of leverage/where he fits into the run fit and a willingness to do the dirty work from the nickelback.
As mentioned above, Johnson isn’t the most athletic and isn’t very sticky in coverage at this stage in his career. But the Raiders did get a physical defensive back who can play press coverage, make tackles after the catch and isn’t afraid to mix it up in the running game.
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