Howie Johnson is Minnesota’s homegrown wrecking ball up front
In the 2025 season at Forest Lake, Howie Johnson looked like the kind of defensive lineman who changes game plans, piling up 60 tackles, 23 tackles for loss and 6 sacks in nine games while reportedly setting a Minnesota high school career record with 104 combined sacks and tackles for loss. He’s been praised as a game-changing interior disruptor with length, power and a motor that keeps leaking into the backfield, and he finished the 2026 recruiting cycle as a consensus four-star and Minnesota’s top in-state signee. If your team wants a high-IQ, high-upside DL who can wreck run fits and compress pockets, this one fits nicely.
