Washington Redskins: Re-signing Josh Johnson a smart move

The Washington Redskins are in a quarterback conundrum. Re-signing Josh Johnson isn’t flashy, but it will at least give them depth stability.

The Washington Redskins need to bring back quarterback Josh Johnson — not as a starter, but as a veteran backup who now has experience in the system. He gives them depth and will prevent them from scrambling if something drastic happens, like they did last year.

After starting quarterback Alex Smith went down, the Redskins scrambled to find a backup quarterback for Colt McCoy, going with Mark Sanchez. McCoy quickly followed suit with a season ending injury of his own, leaving Washington scrambling once again. They landed on Johnson as the backup to the backup of the backup.

Johnson appeared in four games for the Redskins last season and I’m not going to pretend like he lit the world on fire. He averaged 147.5 yards in the air in those game (590 passing yards) and thew more interceptions (4) than touchdowns (3).

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At the same time though, Johnson did run for 120 more yards and another score. He also heads into 2019 as the only quarterback that finished 2019 healthy for the Redskins that should return. Smith will miss the entire upcoming season and McCoy isn’t a guarantee to be 100 percent. Would you trust a quarterback explicitly coming off a fractured fibula?

If last year proved anything, it’s that the Redskins need to carry three quarterbacks in 2019. They were painfully unprepared and went from 6-3 and firmly in the playoff picture, to 7-9 and one of the least threatening teams in football.

A big argument can be made that this wouldn’t have been the case if Washington was prepared. Imagine if Johnson had been with the team all year. He would’ve had time to gel with his teammates and maybe the offense wouldn’t have looked so miserable after Smith went down.

No, I’m not saying the Redskins would’ve still made the playoffs, or even one more games. They would’ve looked like a more competent team though.

You can’t really argue against the chemistry point either. Johnson literally admitted he played Madden to learn who his new teammates were. That’s not something you want to hear from your starting quarterback. That’s not a knock on him either, it’s just something you would hope would never be the case for your team.

The Redskins could go another route and bring in a different face for their third quarterback. That being said, Johnson is going to come cheap and is now familiar with the team. In the end, the important takeaway here is that the Washington Redskins need to carry three quarterbacks next season. There are plenty of options than can go with, but Josh Johnson is the logical choice due to his experience with the current roster.

I don’t think anyone would complain about having Redskins fan would complain about having him on the roster if it meant they didn’t have a quarterback learning their new teammates via Madden again in 2019.