MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - He has the look of a top wide receiver, he has the game to back it up and the name, well, that speaks for itself.
Chad Johnson, Jr., is a 2020 standout from Los Angeles Venice and he’s the son of Ochocinco, or Chad Johnson, or however you might know him - NFL receiver, Pro Bowler, the guy with a lot of talk and a lot of action to back it up.
“There’s a lot of pressure because you come out here and they expect you to be just like him,” Johnson said last weekend at the Under Armour Camp. “It takes a lot of hard work. I’m not there yet but I will be eventually.
“I have to prove myself everywhere I go.”
Still just a kid trying to carve out his own path in football, Johnson is savvy enough to know people are gunning for him at every event. Shut down Ochocinco’s kid and make a name for yourself. He knows it - and embraces it.
And he does it with his mouth shut.
“I just feel I have to be better than them, in every aspect of the game,” Johnson said. “He was pretty good so I have to be very good.
“For me right now, to be doing all that talking and stuff, I’m not there yet. I just keep my mouth shut and not change my number to a Spanish number. I’m just being me and playing my game.”
That’s not to say father and son don’t talk football regularly because they do. All the time, the 2020 receiver goes to his father for tips, advice, lessons. He wants to be great - and his dad knows how to get there.
“After every game I go straight to him, send him a couple videos, ask him what I did wrong, what I did right,” Johnson said. “We always chop it up.”
As for recruiting, things are just kicking off for Johnson, who has offers from FAU, Oregon State and Arizona State so far. The Beavers - to no one’s surprise - is the “dream school” for Johnson, whose father played in Corvallis before an NFL career that lasted more than a decade.
“The coaches, the relationship with the coaches, stand out (at Oregon State),” Johnson said. “I don’t know, it’s always been the dream school.
“He doesn’t care about (recruiting). He says just work on your craft. The recruiting comes easy. That’s the easy part. Work on your craft and they’ll come to you.”
They’ve already started - partly because of his name, but mainly because of his game.
