MIAMI — More than a year ago, Deandre Johnson got the opportunity to return home to Miami to play one final college season with the Hurricanes. Now, he gets his first crack at making an NFL roster with his hometown Dolphins.
The edge defender and Miami Southridge High grad was one of the Dolphins’ undrafted free agent signings at the conclusion of the draft on April 30. After a four-year detour in Tennessee, he can now say he has played football at every level in Miami following Dolphins rookie minicamp this weekend.
“Being a young kid, you always see the Hurricanes and the Miami Dolphins growing up playing,” said Johnson. “To be in these colors, to be in the locker room, growing up right down the street, it’s an opportunity, and I’m blessed for it.”
Johnson considered going pro last year after his original four seasons of college eligibility at Tennessee, but with the NCAA allowing athletes an extra season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of the transfer portal in college athletics, he found his way to UM for one more year before beginning his professional journey.
With the Hurricanes, he recorded 4 1/2 sacks, matching his career high from his time with the Volunteers the year before.
Johnson said he felt he impressed the Dolphins with his pre-draft local workout day. Although he went undrafted, signing to the Dolphins gives him a chance to continue playing at Hard Rock Stadium as a pro. The rookies, after completing rookie minicamp, will new go through organized team activities and the team’s mandatory minicamp in the coming month before training camp starts in late July.
“I was just playing in that stadium right there across the street,” he said, with Hard Rock Stadium in sight from the Dolphins’ practice field. “It’s just a blessing. It’s an opportunity I’m thankful for, and it’s something that I’m striving for each day to become a reality.”
At 6-foot-3, 252 pounds, Johnson will work at outside linebacker with the Dolphins. That’s where he predominantly played at Tennessee, but UM had him as a 4-3 defensive end, similar to how the Hurricanes used Jaelan Phillips before the 2021 first-round draft pick was used a versatile edge defender that finished with a Dolphins rookie record of 8 1/2 sacks last season.
“I feel my skill set can fit any scheme,” Johnson said, “but most definitely the linebackers here are interchangeable, being able to cover and run. That’s what I can do, so just showing off my versatility is the thing that fits my game.”
Johnson was a key member of Southridge’s 2016 Class 8A state championship-winning football team that was anchored by its vaunted defense. He transferred to Southridge from Miami Killian, also the alma mater of former UM and now Dolphins safety Sheldrick Redwine. As a sophomore there in spring of 2015, Johnson survived a stabbing.
“I was minutes away from losing my life, so I’m thankful,” he said Saturday.
Johnson isn’t the only Miami-Dade County 2017 recruiting class edge defender that completed rookie minicamp with the Dolphins. Defensive end Owen Carney graduated from Miami Central and is working out with the Dolphins this offseason as an undrafted free agent out of Illinois. Johnson and Carney were recruited by some of the same schools, shared recruiting stories back then and maintained communication over the years before reuniting with the Dolphins.
“It feels amazing to be back home,” Carney said. “I’m actually five minutes away from my house where I grew up at, so it’s actually full circle for me.”
At Central High, Carney was part of a 2015 team that won a fourth consecutive Class 6A state title for the school. Playing in the same district as Miami Northwestern and Carol City, the toughest competition usually came locally within the district before whichever team that survived would roll on to a state championship against opponents from elsewhere in Florida.
“When I was in high school, it was 6A, also known as the SEC of Florida football, so just great competition there,” Carney recalled of his high school experience. “I feel like it prepared me just for battles every day. We had a lot of talented guys on that team, some five-star [recruits], some four-star, all dogs. That competition every day in practice got me ready for the college jump.”
Carney said the Dolphins, in signing him after the draft, liked his versatility on the defensive line at 6-3, 269 pounds.
While growing up in Miami, Carney said he wasn’t necessarily a Dolphins fan growing up. He would watch them when they were on TV on Sundays, but he grew more attached to the Indianapolis Colts, watching them as a kid in their Peyton Manning era when they played in two Super Bowls in Miami, winning one, during his youth.
