When the first round of the NFL Draft takes place on Thursday, April 28, in Las Vegas, one of the 21 potential draft picks will be an EPHS alum.
The NFL recently announced the list of 21 attendees in-person for this year’s draft. That includes Jermaine Johnson II, who played his high school football at Eden Prairie before playing in college at Georgia and Florida State. Johnson is projected by many to be selected high in the first round of the draft.
Johnson played under head coach Mike Grant and graduated in 2017. In his final season of high school football, Johnson was a star defensive player with 37 tackles and seven sacks. That was good enough to be named to KARE 11’s All-Metro team.
Following his time in Eden Prairie, Johnson headed to Independence, Kansas, to play junior college football at Independence Community College and appeared in the Netflix documentary series, “Last Chance U” in the third season, which focused on Independence.
After a season in junior college, Johnson was recruited by many of the top schools in the country and settled on the University of Georgia. He played two seasons with the Bulldogs, where he accumulated 36 tackles and 6.5 sacks from 2019-20.
He eventually decided to transfer once more and spent his final college football season at Florida State. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference’s defensive player of the season and led the conference with 18 tackles for loss and 12 sacks.
With those successful numbers, Johnson is considered one of the top prospects in the draft as a defensive end. CBS Sports’ latest mock draft has Johnson going to the Baltimore Ravens with the No. 14 overall pick. Meanwhile, NFL.com has the hometown Vikings taking Johnson with the No. 12 pick.
If Johnson is taken where he is projected to be taken, he will be the first player who has come through EPHS to be taken in the NFL draft since Antoine Winfield Jr., who was taken in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The draft is set to take place at 7 p.m. on April 28 in Las Vegas. Fans can watch the draft on ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network.