The Raiders re-signed Eric Stokes, traded for Taron Johnson, and drafted defensive backs Treydan Stukes (FS), Jermod McCoy (CB), Hezekiah Masses (CB), and finally Dalton Johnson who played across the board for Arizona working at FS, NCB, and SS.
The Raiders heavily prioritized versatility this off-season at their linebacker core & also in the secondary. Johnson is athletic, he posted a 4.41 40, 36 Vert, 9’11 Broad, 4.53 shuttle and 7.07 3-Cone. Johnson does have adequate change of direction in short
yardage situations, but he does better when able to work across the field in larger zones to tap into his first step and long speed. Johnson is coming off a career at Arizona where the 5’11, 198-pounder worked his way up from a PWO to the teams starting DB in what turned out to be a heavily talented Wildcats secondary. Johnson logged 286 tackles, 13 TFL, 5 INT, 11 PBU, 7 FF, and allowed a 92.9 QBR across his college career while missing just 12% of his tackles. In 2025, Johnson had by far his best season in coverage allowing just 25 receptions and a touchdown, while hauling in 4 interceptions, 9 PBU, and allowing a 37.8 QBR. He added 3 FF, a 9% missed tackle rate, and led the Wildcats secondary in run stops (4th in B12 among DBs).
Johnson isn’t likely to push for a starting role in the Raiders secondary, but he certainly can play a fairly high rate of snaps given his versatility, ball skills, and open field athleticism. Johnson logged 574 snaps at FS in his time at Arizona, with 480 coming at a traditional split strong safety role, 702 as a rover nickel/overhang defender, and 463 as a nickel cornerback.
The Raiders will start Taron Johnson in the slot, Treydan Stukes at FS, and Jeremy Chinn at SS which doesn’t leave any real room for Johnson to force his way onto the field, though he does have a clear opening as the third safety off the bench. Johnson’s run defense, physicality, and overall instincts give him an advantage over Isaiah Pola-Mao who has struggled in coverage throughout most of his NFL career, and does best as an overhang defender near the LOS to capitalize on his size and run game abilities. Dalton Johnson can certainly push out Pola-Mao for the third safety role, though he will also likely see time to come in at FS when Treydan Stukes rotates down to play either nickel cornerback, nickel rover, or another role in the secondary given Las Vegas’ approach to versatility. Las Vegas wants to play versatile defense in the secondary, which will also come with match and rotational coverages, where safeties switch pre or post snap between free and strong, or drop from free down to rover and from rover they rotate up to free.
This style of defense is common for a Mike MacDonald defense, which is the origination tree of Rob Leonard. The ability to rotate safeties comes with positives and negatives, safeties need to be versatile and physical enough to play both the rover position with good short area quickness, physicality, and size to play the run and pass while also having open field athleticism and instincts to play the backend coverage safety. Jeremy Chinn does struggle in playing an open field safety look at times, due to the unfamiliarity with the position but he does have the ability to play downfield when necessary.
Treydan Stukes has been a natural nickel rover at Arizona, and he can crash down to rotate out with Chinn. Where Johnson has an ability to work is as a third safety who then rotates with Chinn, allowing Chinn to slide to SS and Johnson to a traditional FS role, or in place of Chinn at times as well in just a 1:1 swap. As mentioned this has it’s positives and negatives, players in your secondary need to have good communication, good athleticism, and be able to time their switches to confuse the QB but not reveal it too soon. Additionally, these DB switches can cause turnovers, forced throws, and more opportunity to play the ball but if done wrong can lead to big plays. Dalton Johnson has an experience of this during his time at Arizona, and doing so with Treydan Stukes helps increase their communication in the backend of the defense.
Dalton Johnson is a quality safety prospect, he didn’t wow in any facets outside of his ball skills, instincts, and open field ability while also having some concerns on where his ceiling was, not having the best tackling form, and he can get boxed out by bigger receivers/tight ends due to a relatively average frame. Despite this, players who have good ball skills, instincts, and can play across the defensive formation routinely find their ways onto the field as they aren’t teachable traits. Hyping up a fifth round safety to be a wildcard player on the defense is a bold choice, however, Johnson is advanced and he’s athletic enough to adapt to the NFL level quickly. Johnson has the ability to play immediately out of the gate for the Raiders and he can likely see anywhere from 200 – 500 snaps this season for Las Vegas, especially towards the higher end if he completely takes the third safety spot from Isaiah Pola-Mao.
