The durability that defined Anthony Johnson Jr.’s five seasons at Iowa State has once again been tested on the NFL stage.
The former Cyclones defensive back was released by the Chicago Bears from the practice-squad injured list on Saturday, just before the team’s Week 8 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks.
For a player who once set the Big 12 record with 54 career starts and appeared in 62 games—the second-most in Iowa State history—the latest roster move represents another interruption in a professional path that began with promise in Ames.
Johnson arrived in Ames from St. Petersburg, Florida, and quickly proved his reliability.
He opened his career as a cornerback, earning honorable-mention All-Big 12 recognition in three of his first four seasons while starting virtually every game.
Before his final year he moved to safety, a transition that proved seamless.
In 2022, he started all 12 games, recorded 60 tackles, two interceptions and four pass breakups, and earned second-team All-Big 12 honors.
Across his Cyclone career he finished with 243 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, three sacks, 28 passes defensed, two interceptions and five forced fumbles.
Those numbers, paired with the endurance record he set, marked him as one of the most consistent defensive backs the program produced in the Matt Campbell era.
Green Bay selected him in the seventh round of the 2023 draft. He appeared in 12 games as a rookie, starting four, and recorded an interception among 24 tackles.
After the Packers waived him the following summer, the New York Giants claimed him; he played nine games in 2024 before an undisclosed injury placed him on the physically unable to perform list for all of 2025.
The Giants released him in March 2026. Chicago signed him in May, but he failed to make the initial 53-man roster.
The Bears added him to the practice squad in early September, only to place him on the practice-squad injured list roughly a week later. His release from that list on October 31 ends the current chapter with the Bears.
Johnson’s college résumé still reflects the traits that made him a reliable starter in the Big 12: toughness, positional versatility and the ability to contribute on every snap.
At 26 he remains a free agent with 21 regular-season games and one career interception on his NFL ledger.
Whether another club values the same durability and special-teams readiness that once defined his time in cardinal and gold will determine the next step for the former Cyclone.
