Cowboys draft favorite Zion Johnson’s off-field interests are incredible

At this point, it’s no secret that Boston College guard Zion Johnson is a favorite of the Dallas Cowboys. He is on the top-30 pre-draft prospect invites list. He fills a huge positional need. He is a great athlete. Johnson is projected to go in the mid-late parts of the first round, so he could certainly be available when the Cowboys pick at 24th overall.

As a player, Johnson has immense potential. The 6-2, 314-pound guard was a transfer player who earned himself a starting job with the Eagles. His performance at Boston College made him stand out to NFL scouts. Johnson has a low center of gravity and impressive mobility for his size. He is also an excellent run blocker which would be a huge help for Dallas whose running game struggled immensely in the latter half of the season. The Boston College product was a first-team All-American selection and allowed just one sack in his final year of college.

So, we know that he is a great football player. But when he recently joined NFL’s “Good Morning Football” as a guest, we learned so much more about this young man off the field. The Cowboys’ prospect favorite is incredibly poised and well-spoken. He told the crew that he got degrees in both Computer Science and Cyber Security, which is incredibly impressive considering a handful of collegiate athletes tend to just pick the easiest major and skip class whenever they can. Boston College is also one of the most competitive private institutions in the country.

Hilariously, Peter Schrager found it more fascinating that the Boston College product has size 18 shoes. Something else that Johnson touched on was his versatility. After being a 0-star recruit out of high school, he learned several facets of the game and took snaps at guard, center, and tackle in college. The offensive lineman mentioned that he feels playing multiple positions gives him a leg up because he knows how the other parts of the line operate.

Cowboys prospect favorite OT Zion Johnson talks about his off-the-field hobbies and his football journey

Another interesting fact about Johnson is that his initial sport of choice was golf. He started playing football much later in life and even admitted that his mom was the one who told him to try football. Johnson said that when he tried out for football he was a “small” 225 pounds and struggled at first. That’s likely part of the reason he only got one offer from Davidson College out of high school.

Understandably, Schrager labeled the lineman as someone you can’t put in a single category, and instead classified him as all the typical high school superlatives: nerd, jock, and teacher’s pet. In fact, high school is where his love of computers began. The 22-year-old used to build computers…for fun. Not just played on computers, built them himself. Then he starts listing off words like “graphics cards,” “CPU,” and other things that the average human does not understand. He even said that on one of his official visits a person (unnamed) said to him, “great you can play O-Line for us and you can be our tech guy.”

On why he should be drafted by a team:

"“The tape speaks for itself. But outside of that, I am a reliable guy. You talk to any of my teammates, my coaches, they’ll tell you I’m the first guy in and the last one out. I’m the one that’s going to put in extra time on film to get better.”"

This would be a welcome Dallas addition considering Jerry Jones often likes to pick players with several off-the-field issues from their past. Johnson has great attributes as a human and a player. The Boston College Eagle told GMFB that he will be attending the draft in person in Las Vegas. We look forward to seeing if he becomes a Cowboys player very soon.