Josh Johnson unfazed about possibility of starting assignment
The best thing about the Redskins latest quarterback, Josh Johnson, is how unfazed he is about the chance to start a game for the first time since 2011.
“This is like going to Disneyland every day for me, for real, because just a week ago, I was at home in the hood, chilling with the kids, chilling with my family and thinking on the couch that I might never play in the NFL again,” said Johnson, who was back home in Oakland before he was signed last week as a backup to then-starter Mark Sanchez. “But a week later, look at me now, I’m here starting with a great opportunity to get us a victory this Sunday against Jacksonville.”
There should be little about this current Redskins team, losers of four in a row with a makeshift offensive line and their fourth starting quarterback in five games, that says they can make any kind of playoff run. And yet they are just a half game out of the last wild card spot in the NFC. If they are going to make the postseason, it appears Johnson will have to lead them.
He seemed fine with this pressure, leaning casually on the lectern and nodding calmly, as he talked about all the teams he has played for — 11 in the NFL (including two stints each with the Niners and Bengals) — and how the time he has spent with different coaches and systems has prepared him for almost anything.
He said that early in his career Jon Gruden, now the coach of the Oakland Raiders, advised him to keep a journal of all the things coaches had taught him, documenting all the changes in the game as the years have gone by.
“It’s a more wide open game,” he said. “It’s a lot more catered to spread offenses. When I came up, I never even got into shotgun until third down in college, high school I was never in shotgun. I had to learn how to throw out a shotgun once I got in the league because the game was transforming a little bit to that. Obviously, a lot of young quarterbacks’ college kind of caters to a spread offense, so really just keeping up with that and working it.
“[I’m] just working it any way possible, just try to be as resourceful as I can whether it is with another human being or that be with my old film, or even with a video game. Every little thing helps.”
In Sunday’s loss to the Giants, Johnson took over for a struggling Sanchez in the third quarter and threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 45 yards.