Washington reportedly signs Josh Johnson after Colin Kaepernick was 'discussed'
On Monday night, Washington lost its starting quarterback to a significant injury for the second time in a few weeks after Colt McCoy suffered a broken right leg in the team’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Last month, Alex Smith suffered a severe broken leg.
That left Mark Sanchez, signed on Nov. 19, as the team’s only healthy player at the position.
The team signed NFL veteran Josh Johnson Tuesday evening, ESPN reports. Johnson hasn’t thrown an NFL pass since 2011 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and most recently was selected by the San Diego Fleet in the Alliance of American Football’s inaugural quarterback draft.
Prior to the signing, Twitter started to wonder whether Washington would call the NFL’s most prominent unemployed player: Colin Kaepernick.
In the least surprising news of the day, coach Jay Gruden told reporters that wouldn’t be happening.
“He’s been discussed but I think we will probably go in a different direction,” Gruden said, noting that the coaching staff isn’t sure it wants to bring in a quarterback who isn’t familiar with the coaches or offense.
Washington’s current offensive coordinator, Matt Cavanaugh, was quarterbacks coach with the New York Jets during Sanchez’s tenure there.
Gruden went on to say of Kaepernick, “If this was Week 1, it would have been a greater possibility,” mentioning that Kaepernick’s skills and how different it is from the team’s offensive system.
But Smith and Kaepernick were teammates in San Francisco for two season, and worked out of the same playbook.
When Washington brought in players last month for tryouts, it invited E.J. Manuel, T.J. Yates, Josh Johnson and Kellen Clemens along with Sanchez.
Kaepernick still works out, and those close to him have said he still would like to play again.
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