High selection from small town plays big-time

Tyrell Johnson comes from Cleveland County in Arkansas, a rural area south of Little Rock. There are 1,300 people in his hometown of Rison, and the high school classes generally number in the 60s.

Johnson was a football and basketball star at Rison, but this did not bring big-time recruiters to his small town. He wound up at Arkansas State, which plays low-Division I-A football in the Sun Belt Conference.

Even at that level, Johnson was required to sit out a redshirt season in 2003. He was a starter for the next four years, working his way from second-team all-conference as a freshman to the Sun Belt's defensive player of the year as a senior.

The Vikings had a substantial interest in Johnson. They also were without a first-round choice after the trade for defensive end Jared Allen. So they waited through 11 selections in the second round and decided Johnson was worth an aggressive move.

The Vikings switched positions with Carolina -- getting No. 43 for 47 -- and to do so they agreed to give up a fourth-rounder for a fifth-rounder.

The Vikings drafted Johnson to have a safety ready when Darren Sharper's time was done in Minnesota. The 32-year-old is in the final season of his contract, and a popular theory was that the Vikings were looking at a Johnson-Madieu Williams combination come 2009.

Williams was brought in from Cincinnati as a free agent on a six-year deal with $13 million guaranteed. That's a gigantic amount of money to put in the pocket of a safety.

Sharper at strong safety and Johnson at free safety.

To remind him of his rookie status, Johnson opened the game on kick coverage and made a firm tackle of Pittsburgh's Rashard Mendenhall at the 26.

The first three possessions were easy duty for Johnson. Mostly, he lined up 10-12 yards deep, and the Vikings' pass rush was such that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger wasn't able to even look deep.

"He didn't have time to go downfield," Johnson said. "The front four was on him too quick."

The Steelers got the ball for the fourth time late in the first quarter. "I had been deep most of the time, but we changed things up for a couple of plays," Johnson said. "I was the one coming up into the play."

The ball came loose. A moment earlier, Johnson had freed himself from the tight end. And now he went sprawling and clawing his way to get the football.

"That fumble recovery was sheer determination," the rookie said. "I had to get there."

The recovery put the Vikings at Pittsburgh's 47. It took six plays from there to get a touchdown and the game's first points.

Mendenhall, the Steelers' first-rounder, would lose another fumble playing against the Vikings' reserves in the fourth quarter.

The two lost fumbles were a considerable contrast to Mendenhall's visit to the Metrodome last fall. He had 17 carries for 201 yards (including a 64-yarder) in Illinois' 44-17 victory over the Gophers.

Johnson had the fumble recovery. He was in on the coverage as Roethlisberger failed to hit Nate Washington in the short middle near the goal line in the middle of the second period.

The Steelers didn't get past him or complete anything near him during the first half in which he played.

Asked about Johnson at his postgame interview session, coach Brad Childress said: "If my memory serves, he ran down and made the first tackle to start the game. ... I like all the things he's done so far."

The 23-year-old from the Arkansas outback has the look of a composed, capable safety -- and there aren't many things Childress needs more than that at the moment.