Can Texas A&M Recruit Thomas Johnson Outperform Dorial Green-Beckham in 2012?

With National Signing Day coming and going, it seems like we're only paying attention to a few key players in this year's recruiting class. Sure, there are some extremely impressive players out there, but what about some of them that may be flying under the radar?

Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham is probably the most talked about player in this year's class and everybody wanted to know where he would end up. Of course he went to the home school in Missouri and became a Tiger and will likely have a huge impact right away.

But then there is another wide receiver that may not receive much attention, but may be just as good. His name is Thomas Johnson and he committed to Texas A&M after heavily considering the Texas Longhorns.

With these two talented wide receivers playing in the same conference, it makes you wonder, who is going to have the better freshman season?

Dorial Green-Beckham

You look at Green-Beckham and the upside and potential just ooze out of his body. The guy is 6'6", 220 pounds and he runs a 40 in the 4.4 range. Can it possibly get any better? Just hearing that and I'd take him on my team any day of the week.

He's the ultimate deep threat as he can either blow by you in coverage or just leap over the defender that's trying to cover him. ("Trying" is the key word because there aren't too many players in the secondary that are 6'6".) He instantly makes any quarterback better with him on the field, as it is extremely hard to overthrow a target as big as he is.

Overall he's a mammoth of a target and a great runner as well. He's capable of going across the middle as well and picking up a huge chunk of yards after the catch.

Thomas Johnson

Johnson is nowhere near the same build as Green-Beckham is, although not too many are. He's your average small receiver at 6'0", 175 pounds, but he's just as fast as the Missouri receiver is. The first you notice about Johnson is his speed and his leaping ability. This guy can jump with the best of them to snag a football, and very few can keep up with his speed.

He gets off the line extremely quick, runs excellent routes and when he gets in the open field, good luck catching him. He can be used in so many different ways, as he can also line up as a running back and participate in special teams returning kicks and punts.

Johnson is a versatile player that will contribute in several different ways for the Aggies.

Who you got?

Both teams are losing key receivers from a year ago. Missouri will miss Wes Kemp and Michael Egnew and Texas A&M will say goodbye to Jeff Fuller and Cyrus Gray. That means that both of these receivers will be thrown into the fire from day one and expected to produce.

If we're talking about the most complete receiver, I'm going with Green-Beckham, of course. If you ask me who will have the better season, I'd probably say Johnson.

Why?

Because of his versatility. He's going to contribute in several different ways, including special teams. He's going to see the field a lot more often and he'll have the ball in his hands a lot more. You can't really go wrong with any of these receivers and they both will likely have great careers.

And of course this argument could be settled on Nov. 24 when both of these teams meet at College Station.

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail].