Can Jamon Dumas-Johnson break through and win the Butkus Award?

On Tuesday, Georgia football linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was one of the Butkus Award finalists. The Butkus Award is given to the best linebacker of the year, and Dumas-Johnson is the next Georgia player to be up for the award.

Dumas-Johnson is just a sophomore, but to make it as a finalist should show how much the Butkus committee thinks of him. He is one of the best linebackers in the country, and he is just getting started.

Does he have a legitimate shot at winning the Butkus? Maybe, but there are older players who are equally talented in the running, so it’ll be an exciting award to watch. The other finalists that join Dumas-Johnson are Arkansas’ Drew Sanders, Iowa’s Jack Campbell, Cincinnati’s Ivan Pace Jr., and Washington State’s Daiyan Henley.

Georgia football linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson has a strong shot at winning the Butkus Award.

Dumas-Johnson joins Georgia greats Nakobe Dean, who won the 2021 Butkus Award, Monty Rice, who was a finalist in 2020, and 2017 Butkus Award winner Roquan Smith.

As you can see, Dumas-Johnson joins an elite company to be a finalist, and it’s an honor to be one of the five best linebackers in the country.

Dumas-Johnson is the Dawgs’ second-leading tackler with 54 total tackles, seven tackles for loss, three sacks, and 17 quarterback hurries. He does lead the Dawgs in solo tackles at 37, and that is an impressive number because that means most of the time, he was making that stop by himself.

He doesn’t have the most impressive stats compared to the four other finalists, but Dumas-Johnson is a force on the field. After Dean left for the NFL, Dumas-Johnson had to take on the field general role and has done a tremendous job being the on-field leader.

While those other four have more impressive stats on paper, it shows that Dumas-Johnson has that it-factor the Butkus Award committee looks for in their winner. He may not win it this year, but who knows, Dumas-Johnson could impress these next few weeks and win it as a sophomore. However, the most important thing is that Dumas-Johnson will be back for at least one more year, giving him another opportunity to be a Butkus finalist or winner in 2023.