Gartrell Godfrey Johnson, III (born June 21, 1986) is a former

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 with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He was drafted by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

in the fourth round of the

2009 NFL Draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. T ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

. Johnson has also played for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

Early years

As a senior at

Miami Springs High School Miami Springs Senior High School is a secondary school located at 751 Dove Avenue in Miami Springs, Florida, United States; its principal is Alfred Torossian (2020–Present). The school is part of Miami-Dade County Public School's nationally acc ...

in 2003, he was Dade County's leading rusher with 1,649 yards and accounted for 18 touchdowns. For his performance, he earned all-Conference and all-State honors and also holds Miami Springs High's single-season rushing record, especially significant considering that Miami Springs was also the high school attended by

Willis McGahee Willis Andrew McGahee III (born October 21, 1981) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Miami, where he was recognized as a consensus All-American, and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of t ...

, Mitch Green, Jon Lewis, Dwayne Hadley, and Freddie Myles. Buddy Goins was his coach at MSHS.

College career

He ended his five-year career at CSU with an outstanding 2008 campaign for which he received first-team All- MWC honors. Johnson accounted for over 3,000 yards of total offense and 26 touchdowns in his college career. Johnson became the first player to lead CSU in rushing for three straight seasons since E.J. Watson (1993–95), and recorded CSU's first 1,000-yard season since Kyle Bell in 2005. He showed an astonishing performance in the

2008 New Mexico Bowl The 2008 New Mexico Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 20, 2008 at University Stadium on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque as part of the 2008-09 NCAA Bowl season. The game, tele ...

when he rushed for 286 yards and two touchdowns, also receiving five passes for 90 yards, he sealed the game on a 77-yard touchdown with 1:46 remaining earning Offensive MVP honors. His 375 all-purpose yards ranks second all-time in a bowl game, behind East Carolina's Chris Johnson, who had 408 all-purpose yards; 153 in kickoff returns in the

2007 Hawaii Bowl The 2007 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the 2007 Boise State Broncos football team, Boise State University Broncos from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the East Carolina Pirates football, East ...

. He was named Team's Fum McGraw MVP as senior.

Statistics

Professional career

Johnson was drafted by the

in the fourth round (134th overall) in the

Pre-draft

San Diego Chargers

Johnson was drafted by the

in the fourth round of the

. After being inactive for the Chargers first game of the season, he was waived on September 14, 2009.

New York Giants

Johnson was claimed off waivers by the

on September 15, 2009. Johnson recorded his first regular season

NFL 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 major ...

carry with the Giants in 2009. He finished the year averaging 3.3 yards per carry; gaining 43 yards on 13 rushing attempts.

Atlanta Falcons

Johnson signed with the

on September 21, 2010. In the 2010 season, Gartrell carried the ball 10 times for 36 yards. He was waived on September 2, 2011.

References

External links

Official SiteSan Diego Chargers bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Gartrell 1986 births Living people American football running backs Atlanta Falcons players Colorado State Rams football players New York Giants players Players of American football from Miami San Diego Chargers players Miami Springs Senior High School alumni