NC State’s cornerback competition just got a lot more interesting.
Jamel Johnson is back for a fifth year with the Wolfpack, giving the program its first player to take advantage of the recent court ruling that granted members of the 2022 high school recruiting class an extra year of eligibility. For NC State, that means a familiar and proven defender is re-entering a secondary that was already sorting out roles.
Johnson was a steady presence in 2025 after transferring in from Temple, starting all 10 games he played. He finished the season with 27 tackles and five pass breakups, and his numbers backed up what NC State saw on Saturdays. His 68.8 overall PFF grade ranked fifth on the team among players with at least 200 snaps, while his 80.5 run-defense grade placed third on the defense behind Devon Marshall and Sabastian Harsh.
He was no slouch in coverage, either. Quarterbacks completed only 59% of their throws when targeting Johnson, the second-best figure on the Wolfpack defense behind All-American Devon Marshall, who sat at 43.5%.
And this wasn’t a one-off stretch from Johnson. Before arriving in Raleigh, he posted a 77.3 PFF grade at Temple in 2024, which ranked second on the Owls’ defense.
His return drops into a cornerback room that was already in motion. Brian Nelson II has seemed locked into one starting spot throughout the offseason, while the other side has featured a battle between Georgia transfer Ondre Evans and second-year corner Caden Gordon. Dave Doeren has also said Jaren Sensabaugh is in the mix.
Johnson doesn’t erase that competition. If anything, he deepens it.
He technically started ahead of Nelson last season, but Nelson actually averaged more snaps per game, and NC State spent much of the year rotating three corners. That kind of setup could easily carry over into 2026, especially with Johnson already showing he can start and produce in DJ Eliot’s defense. Nelson looks set for a bigger workload, Evans and Gordon will keep pushing for reps, and Sensabaugh could also slide back to Nickel, where he played last season, adding more depth behind Jackson Vick.
For NC State, the key point is simple: this is not a project addition. Johnson is an experienced starter who has already shown he can handle the job. With the season opener a little more than two weeks away, that’s a meaningful boost for the Wolfpack defense.
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