Joshua Christian Shirley (born January 4, 1992) 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

who is a free agent. He played college football at

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

before transferring to

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the ...

Professional career

Oakland Raiders

Shirley was with the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

' practice squad for two weeks.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Shirley was signed to the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

practice squad on October 6, 2015. He was promoted to the active roster on October 31, 2015. The team waived tackle Reid Fragel to make room for Shirley. On December 15, 2015, Shirley was released from the Buccaneers.

Second stint with Oakland Raiders

On December 17, 2015, it was announced Shirley would again be joining the

practice squad.

Seattle Seahawks

On January 20, 2016, Shirley signed a futures contract with the Seattle Seahawks. On May 4, 2016, the Seahawks waived Shirley. On August 30, 2016, he was placed on injured reserve but was released on September 5, 2016.

Chicago Bears

On December 14, 2016 Shirley was signed to the Bears' practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on December 31, 2016. He was released by the Bears on January 9, 2017.

References

External links

Chicago Bears bioTampa Bay Buccaneers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, Josh 1992 births Living people American football linebackers American football defensive ends Washington Huskies football players UNLV Rebels football players Oakland Raiders players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Seattle Seahawks players Chicago Bears players BC Lions players