{"id":141004,"date":"2023-04-28T16:30:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T20:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=141004"},"modified":"2023-04-28T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T20:25:12","slug":"arizona-cardinals-draft-paris-johnson-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/04\/28\/arizona-cardinals-draft-paris-johnson-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Johnson Jr. Following In Father&#8217;s Footsteps With Arizona Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To borrow from the 1970\u2019s English rock band Supertramp, the Arizona Cardinals took the long way home, going from No. 3 overall to No. 12, and then back up to No. 6 to select Paris Johnson Jr.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 6\u2019-6\u201d offensive tackle from Ohio State is a behemoth of a man who has Cardinal\u2019s football in his blood. His father, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/J\/JohnPa03.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris Johnson Sr<\/a>., played safety for the team in 1999, but lasted only one season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b><i>&#8220;I want to be here.\u201d \u201cI want to be an Arizona Cardinal. I want to finish what my Dad started.&#8221;<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the conclusion of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcardinals.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pre-draft visit<\/a>, Johnson had an opportunity to meet with Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort. As the two talked, the Buckeye lineman expressed his heartfelt desire to be in Arizona. Almost as if he was fulfilling the quest his father began but was not able to fulfill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;We&#39;re going to make you an Arizona Cardinal Paris&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcde <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ParisJohnsonJr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ParisJohnsonJr<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D77PczlgCi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/D77PczlgCi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AZCardinals\/status\/1651792116308381696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;That really hit me,&#8221; Ossenfort would say on Thursday night. The Cardinals had made the Ohio State offensive lineman their first-round pick in the NFL draft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Paris Johnson Jr A Perfect Choice For Arizona Cardinals<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Ossenfort and new Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon made it known that quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MurrKy00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyler Murray<\/a>\u00a0would have input in the 2023 NFL Draft. Murray had made it clear that he wants Arizona to draft an offensive lineman. It should not be a coincidence that when Murray lobbied for Johnson, the organization listened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">did we just become best friends?<\/p>\n<p>yep. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nYPPdOGbIb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/nYPPdOGbIb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AZCardinals\/status\/1652033945427664896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paris Johnson Jr. is going to prove to be a good one for the Cardinals. The 2022 Consensus All-American, and First-team All-Big Ten was moved from guard to left tackle last season. Johnson majored in journalism at Ohio State, graduating in less than three years while starting 26 straight games. Johnson has his own foundation that provides assistance to veterans and speaks Mandarin Chinese as well as some Portuguese.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you read the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/03\/10\/paris-johnson-jr-2023-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">draft profile for Paris Johnson Jr<\/a>., you will note the author saying he has a high ceiling and will be a full-time starter right out of the gate. He has good footwork and technique for his size and he shows the athleticism that will translate to the next level. Additionally, Johnson has experience on both the left and right side of the football. While some NFL analysts believe he is a raw product who needs development, Ossenfort noted his football character and intellect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NFL.com<\/a> reported that the Falcons likely were going to take Johnson at No. 8. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/falcons\/\" target=\"_self\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bears\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Bears<\/a>\u00a0were also looking to draft an offensive lineman. Knowing that means the newest member of the Arizona Cardinals could have been in the AFC West, NFC South, or NFC North. The deal Ossenfort made with Detroit changed all that. The trade sent the Cardinals&#8217; original second-round pick (34) and their fifth rounder (168) to the Lions for No. 6 and their third-round pick (81).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the Cardinals and Murray, the 2023 NFL Draft needed to be a home run. By the look of things, the day after has proven a success by NFL analysts and those who track their up and down play. Either way you look at it, Arizona has found a good pick in Johnson.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Kirby Lee &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To borrow from the 1970\u2019s English rock band Supertramp, the Arizona Cardinals took the long way home, going from No. 3 overall to No. 12, and then back up to No. 6 to select Paris Johnson Jr.\u00a0 The 6\u2019-6\u201d offensive tackle from Ohio State is a behemoth of a man who has Cardinal\u2019s football in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4499,"featured_media":141016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[9546,7801,9713],"class_list":["post-141004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","tag-2023-nfl-draft","tag-arizona-cardinals-news","tag-paris-johnson-jr"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}