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Though there was more playing time available because teammates at his position dealt with injuries, rookie New Orleans Saints linebacker Rufus Johnson turned in nondescript outings in his first two preseason games.

He didn’t post any of the sacks the Saints recorded in wins against Kansas City and Oakland, and he didn’t make a tackle.

Johnson’s lack of statistics doesn’t mean he’s doing a poor job for the Saints, for whom he is suiting up at linebacker after playing defensive end in college. But he hopes to strengthen his odds of landing on the team’s active roster by making some plays around the ball the rest of this preseason, and Sunday’s showdown with the Houston Texans represents his next chance to begin doing that.

“I’ve been a little quiet so far,” Johnson said Tuesday. “This game is going to be a huge opportunity. I’m ready to come out explosive and play hard.”

Johnson, 23, was an all-district player at Spruce High in Dallas and attracted recruiting attention from universities such as Mississippi State and Baylor.

But he was a nonqualifier and enrolled at Kilgore Junior College in Texas.

He later transferred to Tarleton State, where he had 15.5 sacks on 96 combined tackles in two seasons as a defensive end. He won second-team Division II All-America honors, was his conference’s defensive lineman of the year, and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.69 seconds before being drafted, prompting the Saints to believe he could mature into a productive pass rusher at outside linebacker.

Johnson headed into the summer under Victor Butler, Will Smith, Junior Galette and Martez Wilson on the depth chart at outside linebacker.

Then Butler tore an anterior cruciate ligament during organized team activities in June, and both Wilson and Galette have missed practices and the two preseason games with injuries they suffered in training camp.

Those injuries haven’t resulted in increased work for Johnson, however.

After Butler, Galette and Wilson were hurt, Johnson saw fewer preseason game snaps than did teammates Jay Richardson and Baraka Atkins, who have been rotating between linebacker and defensive end depending on whether the Saints are using a three-man or four-man front.

Read more: Saints rookie linebacker Johnson says it

I'm thinking practice squad if he clears waivers... and hopefully he does.

saintsfan1976

Do no-qualifier mean he didn't make grades to get accepted to those schools?

Halo

I was also confused by this and think it was poorly expressed and written.
We can only assume it means he didn't make the grades, but why not just say that?

rezburna

I believe it can be grades or too low of an ACT/SAT score. I know in the south we take the ACT, and you've got to have at least an 18 too qualify for division 1. That's why so many players down here go JUCO.

ProMallNinja

Spot on, Rez. I'd bet a dollar to a donut that this was a case of not making a qualifying ACT score, which is a damn travesty. There is a complete lack of consideration during the process for people that just aren't "good test-takers". I knew "A/B students" in school that struggled mightily with test scores, and it had nothing to do with their intelligence level. It's nice to see that some kids, like Johnson, are finding "back roads" to success.

SmashMouth

Doesn't 18 on an ACT seem like a low bar to achieve? The first time I took it (and that was over 30 years ago now) I scored a 28. In those days, there weren't any practice tests or online trainings for you to prep for this.

K Major

Per The Princeton review, scores below 15 on ACT are considered low at just about any four-year college.

rezburna

I made a 23, but most of my friends who also played ball just barely made the required 18. A 28 is really high though, we can't compare kids to you. Lol. They start giving out academic scholarships if you make that.

ProMallNinja

I scored a 27 10+ years ago, but I was a solid test-taker. Like I said, to say that answering 100 questions in 45 minutes is a good judge of someone's intelligence level or capability to be a successful person is unfair, at best. There are so many examples throughout history of successful people (even perceived geniuses) that did not do make good test scores in grammar school/high school. Einstein comes to mind initially for me. He failed his college entrance exam, which was the equivalent to the modern day ACT/SAT at the time.

Papa Voodoo

Good point. Many folks get nervous which is understandable for such a test due to it's impact on a person's future. I was in the first group in LA that took the LEAP test and the same thing happened. I wasn't the best or smartest student by any means, but tests never rattled me. I got a 32 on the ACT and lost my scholarship for poor grades 1 semester later

I studied education in college and there are different types of intelligence...one of those being athletic intelligence. Barry Sanders is a good example of athletic intelligence or Drew (although they also have academic inteliigence). The probelm is that it's hard to develop a school system that incorporates all intelligence/learning types. The current system leaves a student with a very low amount of retention after compelting the courses.