Nevada's James-Michael Johnson is not going to be a name that many people are talking about leading up to the 2012 NFL Draft, at least at this point, Yet in Drafttek's latest mock draft, they have the Kansas City Chiefs taking the inside linebacker in the fourth round -- a decent guess at least position wise for the Chiefs to pick up someone to possibly supplant Jovan Belcher and provide competition along with free agent holdover Brandon Siler.
Coming into this season, NFL Draft Scout said, "The senior led the Wolf Pack in tackles last season in his first season at middle linebacker. He might be the most important defensive player for the Wolf Pack given the depth issues at linebacker. In addition to his tackles, Johnson had eight tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and forced three fumbles."
This year, Johnson had 100 tackles and 1.5 sacks to go with 1 forced fumble and 3 pass deflections. Wes Bunting has a strong opinion of him over at the National Football Post and writes that he's "a good athlete who can run, close on the football and play with power in the run game. Needs to play a bit lower in coverage, but overall does everything at a pretty solid NFL level. Is a guy who can win a starting job at the next level."