BIOGRAPHY
Roderick Johnson was born on November 28th, 1995, in Florissant, Missouri. He plays offensive tackle for the Houston Texans in the NFL.
In his early years, Johnson attended Hazelwood Central High School where he helped lead Hazelwood Central to a 12-1 record and the Suburban North Conference championship as a senior and advanced to the Missouri 6A state semifinals. He also helped the Hawks rack up 5,186 total yards of offense in 2013.
After he finished high school, Johnson committed to the University of Florida State where as a freshman in 2014, he started the last five games as a left tackle where he was a dominant presence on the Seminoles’ offensive line. Johnson appeared in eight overall contests and graded out to an average of 82.2 in his five starts. By the end of the season, he was captured Freshman All-America honors from USA Today, Athlon Sports, College Football News, and Campus Insiders. As a sophomore in 2015, Johnson started every game at left tackle and was one of just two offensive linemen to start every game. He posted the highest grade in five games including an impressive 89 percent against Texas State and 87 percent against Miami and earned ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week on September 14th after Dalvin Cook rushed for a career-high 266 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-14 victory over USF. He was a recipient of the 2015 ACC Jacobs Blocking Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s best blocker, was named to watch lists for the Outland Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award, garnered All-ACC first-team honors from both the media and the coaches and claimed second team and honorable mention All-America honors. In his junior season in 2016, Johnson was the leader of the offensive line, that has made 31 consecutive starts since first appearing in the starting lineup against Miami in 2014 and was a two-time ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week after games against USF and Syracuse. In his final season, he helped the Seminoles average 206.8 yards rushing per game and 267.6 yards passing, which was the most coming from quarterback Deondre Francois, the ACC Rookie and Offensive Rookie of the Year and the only freshman quarterback nationally with 3,000 passing yards, and against Florida in the season finale, FSU allowed zero sacks for the first time since the 2014 ACC Championship Game against Georgia Tech. By the end of the season, Johnson was voted to the Jacobs Blocking Trophy winner as the top offensive lineman in the Atlantic Coast Conference for a second consecutive season and was named First Team All-American by Walter Camp and First Team All-ACC by the media and coaches.
After he graduated from college, Johnson entered the 2017 NFL Draft where he was selected in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns. On September 4th, Johnson was placed on injured reserve and was waived by the Browns on June 19th, 2018. On June 20th, Johnson was claimed off waivers by the Houston Texans. He was promoted to the active roster on September 12th but was again waived by the team on October 4th and was re-signed to the practice squad. On December 8th, Johnson was promoted back to the active roster.
