Oklahoma State Lands Commitment From In-State DL Jaleel Johnson

For the first time in nearly two months, Oklahoma State has landed a commitment, this one coming in Father’s Day fashion.

Putnam City North defensive lineman Jaleel Johnson announced his commitment to Oklahoma State via Twitter earlier this morning. Johnson is the second defensive lineman commit in this recruiting cycle for the Cowboys, joining Landon Dean.

Johnson picked the Cowboys over 12 offers from Kansas State, Arkansas State, Baylor, Eastern Michigan, Iowa State, Memphis, Missouri, North Texas, SMU, Texas Tech, and Tulane.

This announcement comes just after he wrapped up his official visit with the Cowboys, making his pledge to the coaches before he left campus. 

This recruitment was a very quick one as Johnson only picked up his Oklahoma State offer 12 days ago on June 8 after he impressed the coaching staff during the Down and Dirty lineman camp. I interviewed Johnson minutes after he picked up his offer and he said the Cowboys were already in his top five and yesterday Johnson said the Cowboys were in his top two with Memphis. Today, he has committed. 

It was very telling how fast Oklahoma State was moving up his list when Johnson canceled an official visit to Missouri to make it to Stillwater this weekend. 

In eight games as a junior, Johnson racked up 49 total tackles with an impressive nine tackles for loss. He also tallied four sacks, 10 quarterback hurries, three pass deflections and a forced fumble. 

He is what would be classified as a speed to power rusher which is shown by his 4.69 40-yard dash time and 4.39 shuttle time, which just shows his explosion and change of direction. At 6’4 240 pounds, he is able to play both outside and inside. He also showed the ability to go through a lineman, which he happened to do against one of the biggest guys in the camp.

Johnson is a 3-star prospect and still has lots of room for growth with a very high ceiling of potential. He is fairly raw and has not really been in the spotlight much in terms of his recruiting prominence, but the Oklahoma State was thoroughly impressed with they saw at the lineman camp. 

Johnson is the 10th commitment for the Cowboys in the 2022 cycle and as I mentioned above, the second defensive lineman. As of now, it is likely the staff will bring in around four defensive linemen in this class with Jalen Marshall and Micheal Ibukun-Okeyode still being targeted, and a possible flip of the new Baylor commit Tre Emory.