CFB Zeitgeist Score
69
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by interceptions at the 95th percentile.
Dalton Johnson
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
97 TACKLES · 1 SACKS
Where He Ended Up · NFL
Las Vegas2026 NFL rookie season
DB · ARIZONA · BIG 12
CFB Zeitgeist Score
69
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by interceptions at the 95th percentile.
Heisman Heat
#11342
<1% win probability
Fan Belief
Awaiting
Player-specific FI not yet ingested. Falls back to team mood below.
Respect Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
Reality Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
ACCOLADE PROBABILITY
Heisman
<1%
TOP DB AWARD
Jim Thorpe
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterImpact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
5 seasons on the ladder
2021
Arizona · DB
—
2022
Arizona · DB
—
2023
Arizona · DB
—
2024
Arizona · DB
—
2025
Arizona · DB
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
Career Arc
Heisman futures · live sportsbook odds
#29 in market ▼ from #23 · 5 books
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3-star | 0.8444 | No. 1344 recruit | HighSchool |
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No transfer portal moves on file for this player. | ||
Where the player landed at the end of the listed season — final nowcast rank, win/finalist/ballot probabilities, and the cleanest official Heisman placement on file.
HIGH CONFIDENCE· through week 16Heisman Futures
Not yet listed on major futures markets.
Selector Grid · 2025
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★★☆☆
to —
Composite
0.8444
#1344 national
NFL Draft
2026 · Rd 5, Pick 10
#150 overall · Las Vegas
Today’s Hot-Take
The Hot-Take engine fires when this player’s percentile profile crosses a defensible threshold (top 10% in a cohort, 100+ snap sample). When it’s quiet, the model is honoring its “must be defensible” rule.
Anti-Take
PENDINGThe contrarian read fires when the rules-engine detects a stat that complicates the Hot-Take. Quiet here means the model hasn’t found a defensible counter yet — not that one doesn’t exist.
Fan sentiment · Awaiting signal
The Room reads fan conversation around a player — who’s talking, what they believe, and how that shifts. It publishes once weekly volume rebuilds; for most players that’s in-season, when game-week chatter spikes.
Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
He hasn't written his page yet — we'll start filling it in when there are enough snaps to rank against his peers.
Signature Moment
No signature moment on the ledger yet.
Returns once this player puts together a multi-game body of work — single-game flashes alone don't clear the bar.
Season Pace · Projection
Where the defensive totals stand
✓ Hit 80-tackle season · finished with 97.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 97): needs 3/game over remaining 1.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 1): needs 5/game over remaining 1.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 1): needs 9/game over remaining 1.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Dalton Johnson is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Arizona's defense, with 1.0 sacks, 2.0 tackles for loss, and 4 interceptions through the current loaded season. For a defender, the question is never just production; it is whether elite disruption and team context can become nationally undeniable.
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
2025 season snapshot | final
30-second read
Coverage splash | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
Coverage & Takeaways
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 12 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 40-6vs Hawai'i | 10 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 48-3vs Weber State | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 23-17vs Kansas State | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | L 14-39@ Iowa State | 10 | 8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 41-13vs Oklahoma State | 5 | 5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 7 | L 27-33vs BYU | 10 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 28-31@ Houston | 11 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 52-17@ Colorado | 7 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 24-20vs Kansas | 9 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 12 | W 30-24@ Cincinnati | 8 | 4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | W 41-17vs Baylor | 18 | 7 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 18 tackles |
| Wk 14 | W 23-7@ Arizona State | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Total | 97 | 48 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 4 | 7 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
Advanced metrics second
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.
Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.
Every percentile is compared against players at the same position and level, so an FBS quarterback is judged against FBS quarterbacks, not the whole sport.
The top tables stick to the stats fans already know from broadcasts and box scores. Advanced context is pushed underneath instead of replacing the basics.
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 97 | #57/4942 | 99th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 2.0 | #1443/4972 | 71st pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 1.0 | #872/4972 | 82nd pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Interceptions | 4 | #23/869 | 97th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 7 | #85/2184 | 96th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 48 | #90/4584 | 98th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return yards | 39 | #159/578 | 73rd pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return avg | 9.8 | #374/578 | 35th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Fumbles recovered | 1 | #103/736 | 86th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 0 | #1/773 | 100th pct | Turnoversvs FBS DEF |
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
ALL-CONF HM
ALL-CONF HM · Rung 9 of 16
Why he’s here
All-Conference honorable mention / 2nd team — the recognition has started.
What moves him up
A best-at-position run lifts to 1st team.
What moves him down
A back-end conference finish drops out of the honor list.
Accolade streams
The Thorpe award tracker integrates per-week probability once a dedicated scraper for this award lands. Confirmed past winners and finalists for this player will surface here.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 8.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.6 |
| Road5g | 7.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins9g | 7.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.8 |
| Losses3g | 10.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 6.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 9.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.8 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the DB cohort
Elite: tackles (98th). Strength: solo tackles (96th). Concern: qb hurries (22nd).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · DB · 2024
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Nick Andersen’s 2025 season.
Nick Andersen
Ike Larsen
Myles Heard
Christian Izien
Jordan Lee
Matches Nick on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a graduate, his production profile tracks closest to Nick Andersen's graduate season at Wake Forest (2025).
Nick Andersen
J.J. Roberts
Jadon Pearson
Tyrone Lewis
Tahj Ra-El
Matches Nick on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Brent Brennan
Pass share
49.7%
447 pass / 452 run
Plays / game
69.2
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
7.9%
340 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2021–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Jedd Fisch → Brent Brennan. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2025)
All-Big 12
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
Conference-level recognition helps anchor whether a player is merely statistically loud or actually viewed as elite within his competitive lane.
Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.
| Season | Honor | Scope | Team / Selector | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | All-Big 12 | all_conference | Arizona | Big 12 | DB |
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Arizona | DB4 | #11342 | #11494 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Big 12 |
| 2023 | Arizona | DB4 | #7124 | #7259 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Pac-12 |
| 2022 | Arizona | DB4 | #13738 | #13769 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Pac-12 |
| 2021 | Arizona | DB4 | #12920 | #13012 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Pac-12 |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Arizona | Big 12 | DB | 4 | No. 43 | 5-11 | 198 lb | Katy, TX |
| 2024 | Arizona | Big 12 | DB | 4 | No. 43 | 5-11 | 198 lb | Katy, TX |
| 2023 | Arizona | Pac-12 | DB | 4 | No. 43 | 5-11 | 198 lb | Katy, TX |
| 2022 | Arizona | Pac-12 | DB | 4 | No. 43 | 5-11 | 198 lb | Katy, TX |
| 2021 | Arizona | Pac-12 | DB | 4 | No. 43 | 5-11 | 198 lb | Katy, TX |