Cade Johnson (born April 10, 1998) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

wide receiver for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL). He played college football at

South Dakota State South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...

Early life and high school

Johnson grew up in

Papillion, Nebraska Papillion is a city in Sarpy County in the state of Nebraska, United States. Designated as the county seat, it developed as an 1870s railroad town and suburb of Omaha. The city is part of the larger five-county metro area of Omaha. Papillion's ...

and attended

Bellevue West High School Bellevue West High School is a public secondary school located in Bellevue, Nebraska, United States. It had a 2013 enrollment of 1,584 students. The principal is Kevin Rohlfs. The school's athletic teams are the Thunderbirds, and their school ...

. As a senior, he caught 43 passes for 1,061 yards and 16 touchdowns and was named first-team All-State.

College career

Johnson redshirted his true freshman season after joining the team as a walk-on. As a redshirt freshman he caught 23 passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns and returned 30 kickoffs for a school-record 839 yards with two touchdowns and was named the

Missouri Valley Football Conference The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivi ...

(MVFC) All-Newcomer team. He led the Jackrabbits with 67 receptions for 1,332 yards and a single-season school-record 17 touchdown catches in his redshirt sophomore season and was named first-team All-MVFC. As a redshirt junior, Johnson was named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press and Walter Camp as well as first-team All-MVFC after finishing the season with 72 catches for 1,222 yards and eight touchdowns. After South Dakota State's 2020 season was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, Johnson initially entered the transfer portal with the intention of transferring to an

FBS FBS may refer to: People * Frederik Batti Sorring, known as FBS, Indonesian politician Schools * Faith Baptist School (disambiguation) * France Business School, in France * Friern Barnet School, in London * Friends Boys' School, one of two ...

Power Five program for his final season before ultimately deciding to declare for the 2021 NFL Draft.

Professional career

Johnson signed with the

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

on May 14, 2021. He was waived on August 31, 2021 and re-signed to the practice squad the next day. He was released on November 24, but re-signed a week later. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Seahawks on January 10, 2022. On August 30, 2022, Johnson was waived by the Seahawks and signed to the practice squad the next day. In Week 18 against the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

, Johnson caught his first two career passes for 21 yards in the 19–16 victory. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 17, 2023. On August 29, 2023, Johnson was waived by the Seahawks and re-signed to the practice squad.

Personal life

Johnson's father, Clester Johnson, played college football at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...

and was a member of the team's

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

National Championship teams. His older brother, C.J., played wide receiver at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyomin ...

. His little brother, Keagan, is a wide receiver for Kansas State and was previously at the University of Iowa.

References

External links

South Dakota State Jackrabbits bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Cade 1998 births Living people People from Papillion, Nebraska Players of American football from Nebraska American football wide receivers South Dakota State Jackrabbits football players Seattle Seahawks players