For the safe route, Johnson a great catch

Jon Gruden had witnessed almost everything he needed to see.

He watched Calvin Johnson run, the long, graceful strides covering the field with ease. Saw him catch passes, his mammoth hands swallowing the ball, and then watched him tear through the physical tests of his personal workout. Looked at the game tape and interviewed him, too.

Off-the-charts impressive, Gruden thought.

But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach figured there had to be some weakness yet to be detected. At that moment, he considered joking with Johnson, asking him to rub his stomach with one hand, his head with the other, while running down the field.

"There's got to be something the guy can't do," Gruden said with a laugh, recalling his thoughts that day.

Gruden didn't go that far, so he was left searching for some other drawbacks in the game of the player several scouts feel is the surest, safest pick in this year's NFL draft.

"He's as rare of a physical guy as I've ever seen," said Gruden, whose team holds the fourth overall pick tomorrow and will likely select Johnson if he's available. "You try to find a guy with as few holes as you can. If this guy doesn't make it, then there's going to be a lot of guys that are going to be wrong."

Lions coach Rod Marinelli, whose team picks second, has not found "anybody to say a bad word about the guy." Ditto for rookie Raiders coach Lane Kiffin.

"He seems perfect. You research him and you can't find a bad thing," Kiffin said at the NFL meetings in March. "When you're talking about the No. 1 pick, you're looking for bad things in your research. You want to find bad things, otherwise you'll just agree with everybody. But you can't find anything negative about the guy."

It starts with the physical makeup -- 6 feet 5 inches, 239 pounds. Players that size aren't supposed to run the 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds , or broad jump 11 feet 8 inches, or vertical jump 45 inches.

"That gets your attention," Gruden said. "You have to be enamored with his workout."

The on-field production has been solid, too. As a true freshman in 2004, Johnson started 12 games for Georgia Tech, totaling 48 catches for 837 yards (17.4 average) and seven touchdowns. The next season, he amassed 55 receptions for 888 yards (16.4 average) and six touchdowns in 12 games, before taking another step in 2006 with 76 grabs for 1,202 yards (15.8 average) and 15 touchdowns in 14 games.

Johnson did not miss a game in three seasons (38 total), setting school records for receiving yards and touchdowns, while finishing second in catches. With little to prove, he declared for the draft following his junior year, and it didn't take long for the comparisons with NFL receivers.

"Obviously, this year a lot has been made of Randy Moss and T.O. [Terrell Owens]," Johnson said at the NFL Combine in February. "But my character on the field, I'm like Marvin Harrison. Just trying to get the job done."

In college, Johnson mostly ran quick screens and bubble screens, according to Gruden. If there is one question regarding Johnson, perhaps that is it -- how he'll perform running a different set of routes in the NFL.

Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com.