Former Bruin Signs with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers

This fall, Leon Johnson III will have a chance to become the university’s first football player to make an NFL gameday roster or appear in a regular-season NFL game.

The star wide receiver, who played for George Fox from 2019 to 2022 before transferring to Division I Oklahoma State, has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Chargers following the 2024 NFL Draft. He hopes to join former Bruin soccer player Aaron Elling, a placekicker with the Vikings, Titans and Ravens in the early 2000s, to compete at the sport’s highest level.

A dual-sport athlete in both football and baseball, Johnson III had his best season for George Fox in 2022, when he set several program records, including all-purpose yards (1,205), receptions (55) and receiving touchdowns (14).

Johnson is believed to be the fourth George Fox athlete to sign with an NFL team alongside Elling, Robert Hadlock, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 12th round of the 1969 NFL/AFL Draft but did not appear in a game, and Randy Casey, who appeared in three preseason games for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s.