Diamond in the Rough: Former Steelers UDFA Becomes Super Bowl Champ
NEW ORLEANS — The NFL career of former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Fred Johnson did not get off to the kind of start he was hoping for.
Johnson has persevered, and six years later, he’s a Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson, a reserve tackle, played on seven snaps of offense as the Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday.
But that isn’t necessarily something that Johnson saw in his mind’s eye on draft day in 2019.
“No, not at all,” Johnson admitted last week during Super Bowl media day.
“All I could see in that moment was empty faces and lost smiles from my family. And then trying to figure out what the next step was. I couldn’t control that situation. And I was looking for another opportunity.”
That next opportunity came with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who signed Johnson as an undrafted free agent. Johnson turned some heads at Steelers training camp as a rookie, and showed enough to earn a spot on the team’s initial 53-man roster.
But he was caught in a numbers game, and was waived midway through the season, starting a wayward journey through the NFL. He was claimed on waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals, and spent three years with the Bengals, before he was cut again in the 2022 offseason.
He signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but was cut again after five games. He cleared waivers and went to the Philadelphia Eagles for a tryout. He nearly got on a plane leaving Philadelphia, and was thinking his NFL journey might be over.
“When [Eagles offensive line coach] Jeff Stoutland and them took a chance on me, that whole process of getting in waived and going in and trying out,” he said. “Basically, the scouts were telling me, hey we’re going to take you to the airport. It seemed like a done deal. [Stoutland] ended up coming in at the last second and saying, hey we got an audible. We think you’re staying.
“That took me some time to really fully appreciate and realize, and I think that Stoutland, he never gave up on me.”
Now, Johnson has gone from an undrafted to bouncing around the league to a key reserve on one of the best offensive lines in football.
This season, when right tackle Lane Johnson missed a game and a half and left tackle Jordan Mailata was out four weeks, Johnson got the call. He made six starts, tying a career high, Johnson played well, and the Eagles went 6-1 in games where he played more than 50 snaps this year.
“I don’t think I did the best I could have, but I certainly put some good film out there,” Johnson said. “I definitely feel like I maximized my opportunity. And I helped this team get to this point.”
Now Johnson is a Super Bowl champion.
“I feel like I got here with God’s plan,” he said. “It wasn’t nothing I thought it was going to be. I’m just grateful to be here, grateful for the opportunities I had. Grateful for the people I’ve met, grateful for the experience I’ve dealt with. I’ve been cut, I’ve been picked up, I’ve been waived. I’ve been on practice squads. I feel like now is going to be the one moment in my life where I have the most aptitude for just being very appreciative of what I’ve had.
“It’s meant everything to me.”