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), 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 ...

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, p ...

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, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...

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 league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2002 by Baltimore and also had stints with the

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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 club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

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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 life

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

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. 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 may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

. 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 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 ...

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