Desjuan Johnson becomes the latest Mr. Irrelevant when he’s selected 259th by the LA Rams

[stunewsnewport.com]

Fair Game

By TOM JOHNSON


Desjuan Johnson becomes the latest Mr. Irrelevant when he’s selected 259th by the LA Rams

Desjuan Johnson, a defensive lineman out of the University of Toledo, was selected with the 259th pick on Saturday (April 29), the final selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, to become this year’s Mr. Irrelevant. He was selected by the Los Angeles Rams with a pick obtained in an earlier trade with the Houston Texans.

At 6’3”, 275 pounds, Johnson won’t be difficult to pick out of a crowd.

Johnson told ESPN, “Just me getting picked, final pick, first pick, middle pick, everything [is] unique. I’m very blessed. I was blessed that God picked [me] and I’m blessed that I can continue to play the game that I love and I’m going to give it my all up there on the field and at practice.”

As is customary, Johnson will next venture to Newport Beach for Irrelevant Week, where IW’s Melanie Salata will have a full schedule of fun, parties and surprises.

This year’s pick will take a somewhat different approach, however. You see many times IW has to coordinate with the player’s new team and work around their difficult schedules to get the player to town. It hasn’t always been easy.

The Rams actually use Newport Beach as their preseason home, staying at the VEA Newport Beach and putting training camp work in at UCI. That all should make Mr. Irrelevant’s time here somewhat more relaxed.

Rams General Manager Les Snead said, “I didn’t know it was the last pick or Mr. Irrelevant until we made the trade, but I can say there is probably a, I would call it a non-business-like emotional attachment to doing Mr. Irrelevant for maybe the first time. I can’t remember that we have ever done that so it was kind of fun. But hey, it’s only because somebody made a big deal of being the last pick in the draft.”

That “somebody” was Newport Beach’s own Paul Salata, who started Irrelevant Week back in 1976. Boy is he missed, especially at this time of the year.

IW should release their plans for the week and always creative theme in the coming weeks.

Mr. Irrelevants were once talked about somewhat tongue-in-cheek because of the long odds of actually making it into the NFL. However, in recent years, with a more condensed NFL Draft in terms of rounds of selections, several Mr. Irrelevants have made it in the bigtime and done extremely well.

Obviously, the most famous was last year’s pick Brock Purdy by the San Francisco 49ers. Purdy, once he got on the field, steered the 49ers through a 5-0 season-ending run then onto the Conference Championship game, before losing to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Add to that Ryan Succop (Mr. IW 2009), a kicker, who last played for Tampa Bay and is presently a free agent, but who has managed a long and successful career.