Former Texas football WR Marcus Johnson cut by Colts

The Indianapolis Colts were one of the teams over the weekend that parted ways with a former skill position player out of the Texas football program.

On the late afternoon of Sep. 5, all 32 NFL teams had to cut their rosters down to 53 players. And a number of those NFL teams wound up cutting former players out of the Texas football program over the weekend, including a few wide receivers in particular. One notable former Longhorn that was cut by the Indianapolis Colts this weekend ahead of their Sep. 13 season opener against the divisional foe Jacksonville Jaguars was wide receiver Marcus Johnson.

The 6-foot-1 and 205 pound Johnson was cut by the Colts as one of more than 20 players that were either waived or released. The Colts announced their latest round of roster cuts, to get it down from 80 to 32 names, in an official team release on Saturday afternoon.

Other significant names that were mentioned in this latest round of roster cuts for the Colts were Penn State defensive tackle Robert Windsor, South Alabama cornerback Travis Reed, Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly, Ole Miss center Javon Patterson, and Mississippi State tight end Farrod Green.

A few of the players that were cut by the Colts over the weekend did get brought back with the practice squad, but Johnson isn’t one of them at least as of yet. You can view the Colts practice squad signing tracker, thanks to USA Today’s Colts Wire here.

Journey of former Texas football receiver Marcus Johnson to date

Johnson was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles after going as an undrafted free agent following the 2015 NFL Draft. He stuck around with the Eagles for two years prior to getting shipped off to join head coach Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks in 2018.

But the Seahawks didn’t hold onto Johnson for long, as he would wind up with the Colts prior to the start of the 2018 season. Johnson spent the last two seasons with the Colts, prior to getting released this weekend.

In his career to date, Johnson played in 23 games (six of which he started in). All of his six starts came with the Colts last year. He’s registered 28 receptions for 424 receiving yards, and three touchdown catches in his career to date. Johnson also had one fumble that he coughed up in his three years between the Eagles and Colts.

He’s also had four drops on 41 targets in the Colts passing game in the last two seasons combined.

Since Johnson does bring a good bit of experience in the last few NFL regular seasons to the table, he could be a name to watch to land elsewhere with the 32 teams trying to fill out their practice squad rosters to cap the weekend. Johnson was a decent receiver for the Colts and Eagles in the last three seasons, and could be a reliable part of another team’s practice squad this year.

During his three years playing for Texas, Johnson registered 61 catches for 793 receiving yards, and four touchdown catches. But he spent much of his three years on the Forty Acres missing game time due to injury (played in just six games in his senior season).