Paris Johnson Jr. (born July 3, 2001) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

for the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, 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 ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

and was selected by the Cardinals sixth overall in the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

. Johnson Jr. is the son of football player and coach Paris Johnson.

Early life

Johnson was born on July 3, 2001, in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. He attended St. Xavier High School before transferring to Princeton High School as a senior in 2019, where he won the Anthony Muñoz Award. The top-ranked offensive tackle of the class of 2020, he chose to attend

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

College career

Johnson played in five games as a freshman in 2020, including at

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative (Netherlands), Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tende ...

due to an injury in the

2021 College Football Playoff National Championship The 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship was a college football bowl game played on January 11, 2021, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The seventh College Football Playoff National Championship, the game determine ...

, and started every game at right guard the following season. He moved to

left tackle A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a tackle played on both offense and Defensive tackle, defense. In the modern system of ...

as a junior in 2022, where he was named a consensus

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

Professional career

The

selected Johnson Jr. in the first round (sixth overall) of the

. The Arizona Cardinals arranged a trade in order for them to secure the ability to acquire Johnson, by agreeing to send a first (12th overall), second (34th overall), and fifth round picks (168th overall) in the 2023 NFL Draft to the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

in exchange for their first (6th overall) and third round picks (81st overall). As a rookie, he started in all 17 games at right tackle for the Cardinals in the 2023 season. Following the release of longtime starter

D. J. Humphries Dierrias J. Humphries Jr. (born December 28, 1993) is an American professional American football, football offensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators fo ...

, Johnson was named the Cardinals starting left tackle.

Personal life

Paris Johnson Jr. is the son of Paris Johnson, who was selected by the Cardinals in the fifth round of the

1999 NFL draft The 1999 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 17–18, 1999, at the Theater at M ...

as a safety and spent one season with them before being released. He majored in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

at Ohio State, writing several articles for their student newspaper ''

The Lantern ''The Lantern'' is an independent daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, published by students at Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000. Copies of the paper are fre ...

'' before graduating in December 2022. Johnson founded a charity foundation under his name in high school; it was awarded the 2022

Armed Forces Merit Award The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

for their work in raising more than $10,000 to assist military veterans, student-athletes, and the homeless. He speaks

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

and some Portuguese, having studied the former since late childhood and the latter after gaining an interest in visiting

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

References

External links

*
Paris Johnson Jr. Foundation

Arizona Cardinals bio

Ohio State Buckeyes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Paris Jr. 2001 births Living people All-American college football players American football offensive tackles American football offensive guards Arizona Cardinals players Players of American football from Cincinnati Ohio State Buckeyes football players St. Xavier High School (Ohio) people