Anthony Johnson Jr. once stepped into a starting role for the Green Bay Packers and made an immediate impact.
Drafted in the seventh round out of Iowa State in 2023, the safety appeared in 12 games as a rookie and started four of them.
He recorded 24 tackles, three passes defensed, and his first career interception in a 20-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams, when he hauled in a deflection from Jaire Alexander.
Those snaps came during a season in which the Packers relied on young defensive backs to stabilize the secondary, and Johnson contributed both on defense and special teams while helping the team reach the playoffs.
The Packers waived him before the 2024 season.
He was claimed by the New York Giants, where he appeared in nine games with a limited role that was mostly confined to special teams. After spending much of 2025 on the physically unable to perform list, he was released by New York in the spring of 2026.
That path led him to the Chicago Bears, who signed him in May as a free agent.
He spent the summer competing for a reserve spot, was waived at final roster cuts, then returned to Chicago’s practice squad in early September.
An injury soon placed him on the practice-squad injured list, and on October 31 the Bears released him entirely, ending his brief stint with the division rival just ahead of Week 8, via the NFL transaction wire.
From a Packers perspective, the transaction is a quiet reminder of how late-round defensive backs can flash early and then struggle to stick. Johnson’s interception and four starts in 2023 represented real production from a player selected near the end of the draft.
Yet after leaving Green Bay he never regained a consistent role, and his time with Chicago never advanced beyond the practice squad.
The Packers’ secondary has continued to evolve without him, relying on other young players and veterans who have remained on the roster or been added since his departure.
His release by the Bears closes another chapter for a player who once contributed meaningfully in Green Bay but has not been able to secure a lasting place elsewhere. For now he is a free agent again, available if another team needs depth in the secondary.
The Packers, meanwhile, move forward with the group they have built in his absence.
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