Cleveland Browns Select St. Louisan Roderick Johnson in NFL Draft

Roderick Johnson is the latest St. Louisan to be selected in the 2017 NFL Draft.

It’s been a good weekend for St. Louis area football players hoping to make a living in the NFL, as four of them have been selected through the first four rounds of the 2017 NFL Draft. The most recent of those selections was Florida State offensive lineman, who was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 16th pick of the fifth round (160th overall).

Johnson, who attended Hazelwood Central High School in St. Louis, was a consensus four-star prospect and was rated as the top player in Missouri in 2014 by Scout.com and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He became a starter during his true freshman season at FSU, forcing Cameron Erving, the starter at left tackle on the 2013 National Champion Seminoles team, to the center position. In an interesting twist of fate, Erving and Johnson will be teammates once again with the Browns.

The 6-foot-7, 298-pounder was never quite able to live up to the hype, though. He was named to the first-team All ACC squad in both 2015 and 2016, but there wasn’t a really noticeable improvement in his technique during his time at FSU. He declared early for the NFL Draft, but that pretty obviously was a mistake, as he’ll have to fight for a spot in training camp this summer.

Next: Falcons Draft St. Louis Area Native Brian Hill

While there were obviously enough questions surrounding the 21-year-old Johnson that he fell to the later part of the draft, the Browns may see him as a low-risk potential long-term successor to future Hall of Famer Joe Thomas. Johnson will join fellow St. Louisan Christian Kirksey–who attended Johnson’s rival high school, Hazelwood East–in Cleveland.