Charles A. Johnson Jr., known as J.R. Johnson (born June 20, 1979) is a former

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

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played one season in the

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(NFL) for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

and

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2002 by Baltimore and also had stints with 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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

and

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

Early life

J.R. Johnson was born on June 20, 1979, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He went to high school at Cicero–North Syracuse. In his high school career, he had 2,870 yards and 50 touchdowns.https://dbukjj6eu5tsf.cloudfront.net/suathletics.com/documents/2002/3/8/johnsonjrbio.pdf He also had 9 interceptions and 221 tackles.

High school awards and honors

*SuperPrep All-American (1996) *Grid Iron All-Star (1996) *First-team All-Central New York (1996) *Regional Elite Team (1996) *Top 50 Athletes in New York (1996)

College career

Johnson went to college at

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

. He was redshirted in 1997, in 1998, his freshmen year, he played in 9 games. He had 16 tackles in the season. The next year he played in 8 games, he had 16 tackles. In 1999, he had 60 tackles and a sack in 10 games. He had 44 tackles in 2001.

Career college statistics

College Awards and Honors

*1x BIG EAST Special Teams player of the week

Professional career

Baltimore Ravens

J.R. Johnson was signed as a undrafted free agent on April 25, 2002, by the

. He played in four games for the Ravens. He had 4 tackles. He also had one penalty. He was released on October 14.

New Orleans Saints

One day after being released, he was signed by the

. He played in one game for them. He was waived on December 8.

Seattle Seahawks

The day after he was waived, he was claimed by the

. He was waived two days later.

Indianapolis Colts

On January 7, 2003, he was signed by the

. He was released on August 26.

Carolina Panthers

He was later signed by the

, but he did not play in any games.

Oakland Raiders

On November 19, he was signed by the

. He was released on December 16. The Raiders were his 6th team in 2 years.

Atlanta Falcons

He was signed on January 19, 2004, by the

. He was released on May 18. The Falcons were his last team.

Personal life

His brother Curtis Johnson played in the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

also. He was a defensive end and linebacker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, J.R. 1979 births Living people Players of American football from Los Angeles American football linebackers Syracuse Orange football players Baltimore Ravens players New Orleans Saints players