LANDOVER, Md. — Josh Johnson held his head in his hands. He fidgeted at the podium. As he began, he first wished the assembled media a Merry Christmas. And he spoke from the heart, about a game that almost no one will remember, between two teams going nowhere, in two lost seasons. The “Hard Knocks” crew will make Cowboys 30, Commanders 23 look like the Super Bowl when they’re done with the highlights, but this was not the Christmas Day tripleheader kickoff that Netflix had in mind when it scheduled this game last spring.
Tell that, though, to Josh Johnson, age 39, in his second stint with the Washington Commanders, one of 14 NFL teams for which he’s played in a nomadic career featuring stints in the Alliance of American Football and the second version of the XFL — the Vince McMahon-inspired nuttery. Tell that to Josh Johnson, who knows, more than any of you, that this could well be his last shot in pro football, his last chance to show he can lead a team to a win in a real game — something he’s now managed just once in 10 career starts over 10 NFL seasons, dating back to 2009 in Tampa.
“I’m just grateful for everybody in this organization, for supporting me in a tough situation,” Johnson said. “And, you know, it just hurts, man. S—.”
Johnson, of course, was not supposed to play a down this season in Washington. He was signed in April to be the third-string quarterback, the guy who could impart wisdom to the rest of the QB room, show Jayden Daniels a thing or two from the comfort of an iPad. But Daniels got hurt, and aggravated his elbow injury in Minnesota 19 days ago. Then, Marcus Mariota hurt his quad and hand against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, and couldn’t play against the Cowboys. Enter Johnson, Oakland born and raised, to try and give Washington a chance against a Dallas defense that is just as bad as Washington’s.
With almost no time for Johnson to prepare, though, the Commanders kept things simpler than they normally do on offense. There was less tempo and fewer quick snaps, more huddling and deliberation. Knee and ankle injuries to starting center Tyler Biadasz forced even more offensive line shuffling, with Nick Allegretti spelling Biadasz for the second half. Fortunately for Washington, Johnson had been taking snaps from Allegretti as the two waited their turn all season to play.
So there were lots of checkdowns and deep outs and screens, one of which Deebo Samuel used to truck Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson. Unfortunately, the Commanders couldn’t punch in two drives deep into the Dallas red zone, settling for two field goals. That made the difference on a day when Johnson was unremarkable statistically (15-of-23, 198 yards), but steady as she goes behind center, not committing a turnover. He scrambled when he could, threw the ball away when he had to, and kept his team in the game.
Washington’s defense, however, was far less efficient. The Cowboys ran … 87 plays from scrimmage. Eighty. Seven. They held the ball for more than 38 minutes. They went for it six times on fourth down against the Commanders, and converted all six times.
There isn’t a better metaphor for how the wheels have fallen off Washington’s bus this season.
Last season, Washington owned fourth downs, going for it on fourth down 23 times during the regular season and playoffs, and converting an astounding 20 times, a success rate of 87 percent. It was Dan Quinn’s brand: aggressive, pedal to the metal football, the same patina that Dan Campbell had put on the Lions in Detroit. But on this day, it was the Cowboys who paid no mind to down or distance, or the defense trying to stop them. Meanwhile, down 27-20 early in the fourth, and facing fourth-and-8 from midfield, Quinn opted to punt rather than go for it.
Initially, Washington faced fourth-and-3 at the Dallas 45, and was planning to go for it. But a false start on left tackle Brandon Coleman pushed Washington back. Quinn said afterward that the Commanders would have gone for a fourth down of four yards to go or less.
But a lot of the air went out of the game afterward, as Dallas (naturally) drove 52 yards in 14 plays, and took half of the fourth-quarter clock off before Brandon Aubrey kicked a 51-yard field goal for a 30-20 Dallas lead. That was too much for Johnson to overcome, even as he completed five straight passes to set up Jake Moody’s 51-yard field goal with 2:09 left.
Everyone wanted to see Johnson succeed. Washington’s other four quarterbacks — Daniels, Mariota, newly signed backup Jeff Driskel and Sam Hartman — were with him for the morning walkthrough Thursday at 7:45, to go over everything they could to help him out. But, this is 2025, not ’24. Nothing goes as it’s supposed to for the Commanders this season.
Josh Johnson gave the Commanders everything he had during a 30-23 loss to the Cowboys. (Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
“When you get your moments, you want to establish what you can do, and prove it,” Quinn said. “I think that’s at the core of it, that the prove-it moments are so important. That’s why I was bummed for Marcus, when he got injured. He had these games to go prove it. … That’s what you want, when you’re in that space. It’s unlikely you get that chance, as the third (quarterback). And so, especially at this stage of his career, all right, this may be my last chance to go show I can do this.”
The Commanders have so much to fix. QB3 is important, but it doesn’t necessarily require a wizened hand. Hartman’s been here two years, is close with Daniels and knows the system. It may be his time in 2026. That may mean Johnson’s time here is short.
The NFL just requires more out of the people who play it than any other major team sport. When it doesn’t go well, as it hasn’t this season in Washington, it’s easy to equate results with effort. A bad won-loss record must equate to bad effort or preparation. Sometimes, that’s true.
But Johnson was prepared Thursday, under the most trying circumstances possible. He is 39 and there aren’t many 40-year-old quarterbacks in the NFL, and certainly not many who aren’t starting. Philip Rivers coming off his couch to start for the Colts at 44 is a great story, but there’s a reason his story is so compelling — because it’s so unbelievably rare. Rivers has done everything possible the last two weeks to keep the Colts’ flickering playoff hopes alive. But Indy’s lost both of his starts. That doesn’t make what he’s done any less impressive.
In the same way, Josh Johnson’s play Thursday, for a terrible team going nowhere in a lost season, and his pain at not getting his team the win, spoke volumes about what competing really means.
“Everybody kind of sees it on Sunday,” Frankie Luvu said. “All the fans, they just see it on Sunday, or Saturday, or Monday, or Thursday. I feel like where he’s coming from, and he can speak for a lot of us, is we put the work in all week. We don’t come here just like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go out there and lose.’ That’s never the mentality. We’re all competitors at the end of the day, and Josh is a good example of that. He’s a leader. He played his ass off.”