The Dallas Cowboys signed former New York Jets wide receiver Tyler Johnson on Monday, amid a flurry of veteran transactions following the 2026 NFL Draft, per The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Nick Harris.
Dallas also added veteran wideout Marquez Valdes-Scantling and linebacker Curtis Robinson to their ranks.
Johnson spent the 2025 season in New York, appearing in 12 games and starting five. He caught 12 passes for 197 yards and hauled in his lone receiving touchdown in Week 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jets’ first winning effort of the season.
Now, the 28-year-old Johnson will take his talents to the Cowboys, where he’ll likely serve as a complementary receiving option among the likes of Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens, and Ryan Flournoy.
Are the Jets Set at Pass Catcher?
Johnson was a key piece of the New York Jets‘ rotation of pass catchers last season, and with all due respect, that’s a fairly sad thing to say.
The Jets went into the season with Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, and Josh Reynolds as their main weapons for Justin Fields, and after Wilson went down with an injury in Week 6, it went about as poorly as you’d expect.
Despite not catching a pass after that Week 6 game in London, Wilson still ended up leading the team in receiving yards with 395, a damning indictment of the Jets’ weaponry.
It’s why general manager Darren Mougey was so aggressive in adding pass catchers at last year’s trade deadline, making sure he got back John Metchie and Adonai Mitchell in the Michael Carter II and Sauce Gardner trades, respectively.
Metchie and Mitchell usurped players like Johnson and Reynolds down the stretch last season, and for good reason. Both players provided a bit more juice in the passing game than their veteran counterparts.
Metchie is gone; the Jets declined to retain him as a restricted free agent, but Mitchell expects to play a major role in 2026 as one of the lone veterans in the Jets’ receiving room.
But Mougey made sure that New York would have no shortage of pass catchers in 2026 in this past weekend’s NFL Draft, adding Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq and Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. in the first round.
Now, things don’t look as bad as they did heading into 2025, and the Jets may have themselves a decent array of pass catchers for Geno Smith to work with.
Tyler Johnson’s Path to the NFL
Johnson spent all four years of his collegiate career at the University of Minnesota and was a hometown hero, having been born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In the 2020 NFL Draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him with the 161st overall pick in the fifth round, and it was a great place to land to start his professional career.
Johnson was a member of the Buccaneers’ 2020 team that won Super Bowl LV, and spent his first two years in the NFL in Tampa Bay.
After that, the Minnesota product spent a year with the Houston Texans and two years with the Los Angeles Rams, before landing with the New York Jets this past season.
In 61 career games, Johnson has accumulated 88 receptions, 1025 receiving yards, and five touchdowns.
Cowboys Sign Former Jets Wide Receiver Amid Flurry of Post-Draft Moves