NFL Draft Rewind: No. 15 Quentin Johnston
The NFL Draft kicks off with its opening round on April 27 in Kansas City, so Rivals is taking a look back at its projected first-round picks when they were high school prospects. We move on to our projected No. 15 – TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston, who was a four-star prospect in the 2020 class.
NFL DRAFT REWIND: No. 1 Bryce Young | No. 2 CJ Stroud | No. 3 Will Anderson | No. 4 Will Levis | No. 5 Tyree Wilson | No. 6 Jalen Carter | No. 7 Anthony Richardson | No. 8 Nolan Smith | No. 9 Peter Skoronski | No. 10 Christian Gonzalez | No. 11 Darnell Wright | No. 12 Jaxon Smith-NJigba | No. 13 Paris Johnson Jr. | No. 14 Broderick Jones
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No. 15: WR Quentin Johnston, TCU
Where they were ranked: Johnston was ranked as the No. 14 wide receiver in the 2020 class and third in the state of Texas behind five-stars Demond Demas and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He was the eighth-best player in the state rankings and No. 80 overall.
Recruitment: The four-star receiver from Temple, Texas, committed to the Longhorns in the summer before his senior season and he made it clear that staying close to home was always a priority. TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma were the other schools mainly involved in his recruitment. The Horned Frogs never stopped recruiting him and after Texas let go of some assistants, Johnston flipped to TCU in mid-December.
Biggest draft question: Johnston had an outstanding college career at TCU and was very productive, but he also never caught more than six touchdowns in a season in a conference that’s very friendly to receivers. Why?
Memories: I didn’t see much of Johnston in high school because the Temple, Texas, four-star receiver did not play in any of the major all-star games, surprisingly, and wasn’t really much on the 7on7 scene.
Rivals national recruiting analyst Nick Harris remembers seeing him in high school and he had great get-off from the line of scrimmage and he covered ground very quickly. It’s exactly what I see from his high school film.
It’s amazing – and really bad opposing strategy – to give Johnston free release because once he can get into his route unencumbered, it’s basically over. If the quarterback throws an accurate pass then Johnston has no problem running by defensive backs. He doesn’t need to win many 50/50 balls because the cornerback is left in the dust and Johnston is making another big play.
I wish I would’ve seen more of Johnston in person that recruiting cycle (or he showed up at a camp or 7on7 tournament), because he could’ve easily moved into that 5-7 range at the position, which would’ve probably still been too low. There were some significant misses in that receiver class, excluding Johnston, but getting an in-person evaluation would’ve been helpful.
I watched a lot of TCU games over the last couple years, and Johnston has been so phenomenal not only as a big outside receiver who can stretch the field but he has some make-you-miss ability as well. Over his three seasons, the four-star has increased his receptions and receiving yards every single year, but with his skill set it is a touch surprising he only had 14 career receiving TDs.
Seeing Johnston’s tape from high school and then watching him with the Horned Frogs, he could absolutely make the case to be the No. 1 receiver off the board on draft night.