Film Friday: North Carolina Commit O'Mari Johnson

Strengths

Ball Tracking: the Tar Heels' defensive back commit is a very good defender and has very good ball tracking skills, which allows him to get more interceptions on the fly. He is a very great safety and can get plenty of interceptions at the safety level. However, his ball-tracking skills also allow him to play cornerback. Coming from someone who watches film, he has some of the best ball-tracking skills that I’ve seen in the 2026 class.

Break To The Ball Speed: The way Johnson breaks to the ball is very phenomenal at the point of the throw. He is breaking and has the speed to be able to make a play. We saw this in this film where he is able to play cushion coverage and still break to the ball at the point of attack and come down with it for an interception in a certain instance of him doing this, he even took it back for his team to gain another touchdown.

Patient: Johnson has a good feel for when he should be patient and when he should be aggressive, I seen multiple times in his tape that he is willing to wait it out on what seems to be a play action instead of automatically committing to the run, this helped him in the long run as there was obvious designed plays where the QB would pass to the player that he was guarding, so for him to show as much patience as he did is a really solid sign for the Tar Heels.

Vicious: the talented prospect doesn’t just want to hit you, he wants to lay you out, and he is hitting people with bad intentions. He isn’t afraid of contact, nor does he shy away from it. He is hitting people at full speed, which is uncommon for players his size.

Things He Needs To Work On

Press Coverage: he excels as being a safety and cushion coverage, but one thing I would love to see him do more of is work out of press coverage. There aren't too many plays where you see him work out of press coverage. He has the speed to make me believe that he would do very well and press coverage, but unfortunately, his tape doesn’t allow you to see exactly how that looks so while this is something he needs to work on at the same time, it is also worth noting that this is not his fault.

Overall

Overall, the prospect will likely see the field very early. He has a ceiling as high as anyone in the class and has a floor that is better than the majority of the players in his class. He is college-ready for the most part and has plenty of talent to play at the safety spot. I would almost be shocked to see him playing cornerback instead of safety, as I feel his best upside is at the safety position.