Florida State’s A.J. Westbrook towered over Nykeim Johnson. Westbrook, at 6-feet and 190 pounds, stood larger than the 5-foot-8, 163-pound Johnson. But that didn’t matter.

After catching a bubble route, Westbrook tried to tackle Johnson near the line of scrimmage. But the slot receiver lowered his body and bulldozed through Westbrook, who could only watch the remainder of the play from his back.

“You get a guy that size, you throw him a horizontal bubble and the first thing he does is run over a guy,” Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said. “I mean we got big guys that don’t run over guys. Here we’ve got a little guy running over a big guy and pushing it into a bigger run.”

Johnson was tackled seven yards after the broken tackle at the ankles by 6-foot-3, 215-pound defensive back Jaiden Woodbey, but not before the Carrier Dome crowd erupted following Johnson’s trucking of Westbrook. Johnson has never let his size slow him. He’s only used it for motivation. But after suffering an injury during training camp, he didn’t have any idea that he’d be making this sort of impact early on in the season.

In 2018, Johnson ranks third for Syracuse (4-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) in receiving yards. He ranked first when counting only the three games Johnson has played in. Despite not playing against Western Michigan, Johnson has been graded the fifth best receiver in the ACC by Pro Football Focus this season.

After what Babers called a great spring training camp, Johnson was injured for much of the fall camp, unable to practice with the team. A pulled hamstring sidelined him for a month and a half, Johnson said, even forcing him to miss the season opener against Western Michigan.

For weeks, Johnson couldn’t run routes and compete in game drills. While the rest of the receiving corps worked on developing chemistry with quarterbacks Eric Dungey and Tommy DeVito, Johnson rehabbed with lots of icing, heating and stretching, he said.

“When I first got hurt it was really nerve-wracking,” Johnson said. “But I really had to just keep pushing, keep fighting every day, going to get rehab, going to get treatment, just making sure I was staying on top of the hamstring.”

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What separates Johnson from other receivers is his speed and quickness. He’s a jitterbug, Babers said. Being just 5-foot-8, Johnson doesn’t have the same luxuries as 6-foot-5 Jamal Custis, where quarterbacks can just throw the ball upward in his direction because he towers over defensive backs. Johnson needs separation.

“I know I’m not the biggest guy,” Johnson said, “so I have to check every little box and work on everything I can.”

While hurt, Johnson couldn’t train his mobility. Instead, he only worked on his hands. So every day Johnson tested his press release — using his hands and leverage to create separation from defenders at the line of scrimmage — and his pass catching. Johnson sat stationary, having balls fed to him all over.

When his hamstring healed near the end of fall camp, Johnson worked on his speed and quickness to get back into game shape. He ran long sprints, stop and start routes, anything he could to catch up to the rest of the unit. He worked extra with Dungey to build the chemistry needed between quarterback and receiver.

After sitting out against Western Michigan, Johnson opened the 2018 season leading all SU receivers with 65 yards against Wagner. Having an extra weapon helped spread out the offense, Dungey said. Against Western Michigan, Custis was the only wide receiver with a catch. Against Wagner, six different wideouts caught passes, not including tight ends and running backs. Against Florida State, that number was four and against UConn it swelled back to six.

Johnson is somewhat unpredictable for opposing defenses. With his size, teams may expect him to be used in the roles that his teammate Sean Riley is in. Standing 5-foot-8, Riley is used in many bubble and slant routes for short catches across the middle and on the edges. But Johnson is used everywhere. Against Florida State, Johnson drew a pass interference call racing down the sideline going up to fight in the air against multiple 6-foot tall defenders. Later, he caught a ball in the backfield before bullying through Westbrook.

“(He’s) going out there and playing with the big dogs,” Babers said. “As a coach you have to appreciate that and as a teammate you have to appreciate that.”

Dungey certainly does.

“He plays like he’s 6’4”,” Dungey said.

Published on September 25, 2018 at 11:39 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu