Oakland native Josh Johnson lands in commercial for his journey in the NFL

OAKLAND, Calif. - In the past year, there seems to be a new appreciation for NFL backup quarterbacks. 

49ers backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs, Case Keenum, Colt McCoy, and Jacoby Brissett have been featured in commercials with Progressive Insurance.

Straight Talk Wireless decided to ride the wave by reaching out to arguably the GOAT when it comes to backup quarterbacks – Josh Johnson.

Johnson says people are starting to recognize backup quarterbacks.

"As the league continues to evolve and wants to continue to add more games. You're seeing more backup quarterbacks play and people are starting to recognize who you are" said Johnson.

Oakland native

Local perspective:

The Oakland Tech alum graduated in 2004. Before his long-tenured career, he started at the University of San Diego where he was coached by football royalty: The Harbaughs.

"Their dad was my coach in college. Me and Jim did a lot of great things together," Johnson said. "John actually coached us in one game in college."

He said the Harbaughs made a major impact.

"I'm grateful for their family because they played a major role in my life with football in putting me in different places in this world," he went on to say.

14 teams and four leagues

The backstory:

Fourteen teams and four leagues, no player in NFL history has played for more teams than Johnson. Before playing for the Baltimore Ravens for the past two seasons, he got an unexpected phone call from the team he grew up rooting for, the San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers were one game away from punching their ticket to Super Bowl LVII. Their chances became slim when Brock Purdy suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

This presented an opportunity for the West Oakland native.

"I was ready, you couldn't tell me nothing, but it helped because you can't control everything," Johnson said. "God had another plan for me that day. It hurt on a level that nobody could even imagine on top of me being in a dark room for a month in a half dealing with a concussion [and] brain bleed.

That wasn't even the most challenging moment in Johnson's journey.

In 2018, the then-Washington Redskins called him when he thought his career was over after not playing a down of football for five years.

"It went from nobody cares to 'why they signing him? We could've signed anybody' to "oh this guy can actually play' because I won a game," Johnson said. 

"So dealing with all that emotion, dealing with unpreparedness, dealing with [that] I wanted to make something out of this career -- that was one of the most challenging moments that I was grateful for," he went on to say.

Johnson is part of the Fam 1st Foundation with his cousins Marshawn Lynch and Marcus Peters, a nonprofit group whose mission is to assist in the empowerment and elevation of underserved youth. 

The three of them have made a lot of money in their NFL careers and want people who aspire to be in their positions to learn how to manage money at a young age.

"Everything is about financial literacy and if you don't learn it yourself, you're going to end up paying somebody to teach you anyway," Johnson said.