WASHINGTON - This is what it's come to for the Washington Redskins: Their fourth quarterback of a once-promising, now-lost season, Josh Johnson, will be making his first NFL start since 2011 and spent time playing the "Madden NFL" video game to try to pick up something about his new teammates.
"I learned their names, first and foremost," Johnson said with a smile.
He will be playing the most important position on the field Sunday when the Redskins, who have gone from 6-3 and first place in the NFC East to 6-7 thanks to a four-game losing streak, play at the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-9), who might be the most disappointing team in the entire league.
Between Washington's Johnson and Jacksonville's Cody Kessler, the two QBs have a combined career mark of 1-14 as NFL starters. Johnson is 0-5 and hadn't even thrown a pass in a game in seven years until coming in to replace Mark Sanchez in the second half of Washington's 40-16 loss Sunday to the New York Giants.
"I've been a fourth-stringer, a third-stringer. I've been so many other things," the 32-year-old Johnson said.
He's been signed and discarded by nearly half of the league: The Redskins are the 13th team that's brought him in, although only the second for which he actually was allowed to attempt a throw in a regular-season game (Tampa Bay was the other).
So why has he bounced around so much with little game time to show for it?
"He can be hot and cold throwing the ball. He can throw a great ball, then throw one in the dirt, then throw a great ball," coach Jay Gruden said. "The (inconsistency), probably, is what people see."
Sanchez only got to start against New York because Colt McCoy broke his right leg during the prior game; McCoy was starting only because Alex Smith broke his right leg two games before that.