Report: Redskins hoping to ink Josh Johnson as their new backup QB

In wake of another season-ending injury to their starting quarterback, the Redskins find themselves needing a new backup QB. According to reports, they want that man to be Josh Johnson.

As if the injury to Alex Smith wasn’t enough, the Washington Redskins lost a second starting quarterback just weeks after Smith went down. Colt McCoy, the long-time, respected Washington backup, broke his fibula against the Eagles. It was a brutal injury that struck just at the wrong time. McCoy finally had his chance to start and as quickly as it came, it evaporated.

While the team is holding out hope that he can return towards the end of 2018, if necessary, they will have to survive a few weeks with Mark Sanchez as the starter. And that could be a nightmare. But even if Sanchez starts, the team will need to find a new backup, so they are turning to the free agent market once again to locate a potential candidate.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the team has identified who that player would be. It’s Josh Johnson. Here’s what Rapoport said about the potential fit on Twitter.

This would be a fine move by the Redskins at this point in time. They’re not realistically going to find a true starting quarterback (unless they pursued Colin Kaepernick, but between Snyder’s ownership, Kaepernick’s lawsuit, and the Redskins name, that seems highly unlikely), so Johnson seems like the path of least resistance.

Johnson has played in Jay Gruden’s offense twice in his career. The first came when Johnson was drafted by the Buccaneers and played in Gruden’s system there. The second time was when Johnson came to Cincinnati to serve as a backup option there.

When Johnson first worked out for the Redskins in wake of the Smith injury, I said the following of his abilities and the concerns surrounding his potential as a passer.

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"What Johnson has on his side is athleticism. He’s a solid scrambler, and he has averaged 6.2 yards per carry on 44 career rushes. That will give him a chance to succeed as a mobile backup, but his passing ability leaves a lot to be desired. Johnson only threw 177 career passes, but he completed just 54 percent of them. That’s well below average, so that might make it difficult for him to succeed in the event that he had to take over as the starter."

That pretty much sums it up. Johnson is a good scrambler, but don’t expect much out of him as a passer. If he does, in fact, sign with the Redskins and is forced into game action, expect a lot of short passes and designed bootlegs to make his life easier and maximize his mobility.

As Rapoport mentioned, there are still some things to work out for Johnson, and it’s unclear if his status as the No. 1 overall pick of the San Diego Fleet will have an impact on his availability with the ‘Skins. In all likelihood, he will be able to join Washington for the end of the season and then return to San Diego and suit up for the AAF’s inaugural season. But, this is still something to watch.

At the end of the day, Johnson isn’t inspiring. But nothing is going to be at this point. He at least has familiarity with the offense, so that’s a bit of a plus. He’s unlikely to move the needle on what is looking like a lost, injury-plagued season for the Redskins.

UPDATE: Johnson has officially signed on to be the Redskins backup.