Barber: 49ers QB Josh Johnson has gone from Oakland to Santa Clara, with 20 stops in between

I asked Josh Johnson if I could read him the Transactions section from his page on pro-football-reference.com. I wanted to make sure it was accurate, that an exhausted data inputter hadn’t overlooked something on the resume of the 49ers’ practice squad quarterback.

“If you want, I can just tell it to you,” Johnson said.

You know how Draymond Green can list, in order, the 34 players who were selected ahead of him in the 2012 NBA draft? How LeBron James can recount the final sequences of a big game, in minute detail, or how Kyle Shanahan can run through the play calls and outcomes of a long possession, days or weeks after the fact? I wish I had videotaped Josh Johnson reciting his travel odyssey, because he would instantly join them as a recall legend.

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True, these were the major moves of Johnson’s professional life. It isn’t surprising that he can recollect them. It’s the casual and thorough way he summons the memories, complete with the occasional editorial comment, that grabs you.

“I left Tampa Bay to come here and play for Coach (Jim) Harbaugh, got released that year when they decided to keep Alex Smith and Scott Tolzien. And Kap,” Johnson said midstream. “So I went to the Mountain Lions. Then the Cleveland Browns called, so I went there. But they cleaned house, so I went to the Bengals and made the roster as a backup. They released me next offseason for an older quarterback. So I rejoined Coach Harbaugh out here. Should have been the backup, but that’s a whole different story …”

And on and on. Professional athletes are more nomadic than most of us, and backup NFL quarterbacks are more nomadic than most of them, and Josh Johnson has been among the most itinerant of all. His official biography shows parts of seven NFL seasons with five different teams, and a total of eight career starts among his 33 games. A modest career.

But hiding in the empty spaces of those statistics is a vast and never-ending football road trip, one that has brought Johnson back to work in the Bay Area for the fourth time since he graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 2004.

A trip home, into the waiting arms of his partner and child, is always a welcome stop.

“Hell yeah,” Johnson said. “Hell yeah. Get to commute to work. No hotel. That’s golden.”

All in all, Johnson has worn the uniform of 14 NFL franchises, plus the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League (2012) and the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL (last February). The San Diego Fleet made Johnson the first overall pick of the Alliance of American Football draft in 2018, but he bypassed that offer and signed with the Washington NFL team eight days later.

Even this crammed employment history doesn’t fully represent the fits and starts of Johnson’s career, because peripheral athletes in professional sports are often on the move even when they aren’t changing teams. In baseball, they yo-yo up and down between MLB and the minor leagues. In the NBA, it’s back and forth to the G League. In the NFL, they simply get signed and cut as needed, as if they’re commodities being traded on the floor of the stock exchange.

Consider 2014, when Johnson rejoined Jim Harbaugh, the coach who helped make him great (and vice versa) at the University of San Diego, for the 49ers’ first season in Levi’s Stadium. The Niners signed the quarterback May 15, then released him Sept. 20. Then signed him Sept. 23. Then cut him Oct. 10. Then signed him four days later. Then cut him three days after that. Then signed him once again four days after that.

Johnson stuck around for the rest of that season, but the team did not renew his one-year contract.

By my count, Johnson has been cut, waived or otherwise cast adrift by an NFL team 20 times since he joined the Buccaneers as a fifth-round draft choice in 2008 — selected, appropriately, with a pick that was traded twice on draft day before Tampa Bay used it.

A remarkable thing about Johnson’s career is how little game action he has seen. He has spent a good portion of the past 12½ years on an NFL roster, but has attempted only 268 passes, the large majority of those coming with the Buccaneers in 2009 and Washington in 2018. Nick Mullens has attempted 243 in 2020 alone. Johnson once went seven years and 12 days between starts, and he didn’t attempt an official NFL pass from 2012 to 2017, though he did get sacked once during that period.

Exasperating? Unfair? Johnson insists he wouldn’t have done it any differently.

“Nope. Because every moment was a defining moment,” he said. “It defined my character. You are defined by hard times. You have to remember that 90% of the world don’t believe in you. I remember it like yesterday, and I wear it proudly.”

Surveying Johnson’s snaking path and the absence of employer loyalty it implies, I expected him to be a bit jaded on the NFL. Not bitter, because he has made a good living from football. Overthecap.com puts his career earnings at just under $5 million. But I figured he would take a cold, businesslike approach to the game by now, embracing his role as a career backup because of the paychecks it has guaranteed.

Johnson doesn’t come across like that. Not at all. He sounds as competitive and as confident — I might even say “defiant” — as the guy who thought he’d become the Bucs’ long-term starter after a brilliant small-school college career.

Johnson is happy to give the 49ers defense good looks on the scout team, and to mentor the team’s young QBs. But that’s not why he’s here. He’s here because he believes he is a better quarterback now than ever before, that he can win NFL games if given the opportunity.

“Anyone who watched me in Tampa, if they watch me now, they’ll know I’ve evolved as a passer,” Johnson said. “The only thing I don’t check off is I’m not 22 anymore. Throwing accuracy, different arm angles, reading defenses, leader of the team — I check all those boxes.”

Being a backup NFL quarterback, and especially a practice squad quarterback, seems like a cushy job if you only watch on game day. But consider the extra work an athlete must put in to take advantage of these limited openings.

For one thing, Johnson has to stay in something close to playing shape, often independent of team trainers and strength coaches. He dismisses his regimen as “Oakland ghetto aerobics,” but it has been advanced enough to keep him fit into his mid-30s.

And that’s nothing compared to the mental side of the job. I asked Johnson how many offensive systems he has played in during his NFL career. “Ooh. A lot,” he said.

Tallying the offenses in his head, he concluded that his only chances at repetition were a three-year period under Greg Olson in Tampa; his two stints with Harbaugh and Greg Roman in Santa Clara; and parts of two years with Jay Gruden, first in Cincinnati and then in Washington. Mostly, Johnson has had to learn new playbooks and terminology on the fly, then learn all over again.

“That’s exactly why I get these opportunities,” he said. “People look at my stats, but they don’t look at the situations I’ve been in. They’ll say, ‘Aw, he sucks.’ It doesn’t bother me. All I can do is things that trump that. Being a smartassed quarterback is all I can do.”

For now, Johnson must be content with his position on the 49ers’ practice squad, a development made possible by the coronavirus pandemic. Anticipating depleted rosters, the NFL suspended eligibility requirements for up to six practice squad players per team, meaning they can park accrued veterans there. The 49ers signed Johnson Nov. 11, six days after they placed Jimmy Garoppolo on the injured reserve.

At 34, Johnson thus becomes one of the oldest practice squadders in league history.

Perhaps because his place in the NFL has never been secure — he says that for him, everything must be “overearned” — Johnson has carved out other business opportunities. He has a clothing line, Family First US, that grew out of his charitable foundation, and an esports company, UGO World, that features streaming and content creation.

Johnson will give them more attention one day. But not right now, because he has to simulate opposing quarterbacks in practice and continue to absorb Kyle Shanahan’s playbook. He has been unexpectedly called into action before. If it happens during the 49ers’ extended stay in Arizona, Johnson will be ready.

“I’ve had time to question myself, because the waiting game brings a lot of questions,” he said. “When I’m out on that field, there’s no feeling like it. Don’t get me wrong. There are businesses that I run. But there’s nothing in the real world that equates to being a quarterback. I’m gonna ride it.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.