Is this the beginning of the Diontae Johnson breakout season we all hoped for?
After the first two weeks of the season, Johnson is the joint-third most-targeted player in the league with 23 targets together with Amari Cooper, behind only Cardinals receiver Deandre Hopkins with 25 and Darren Waller who has had 24. Johnson now looks to be building on his solid rookie campaign, potentially becoming a regular fantasy starter for the rest of the season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive woes in 2019 were well documented. The one clear bright spot was the emergence of third-round rookie Diontae Johnson, who was taken with the 66th pick in the 2019 draft, the pick Pittsburgh received from the Raiders in the Antonio Brown trade.
The Toledo-alum played in all 16 games last year, reaching 59 receptions on 92 targets, returning a total of 680 yards and five touchdowns – becoming the leading Steelers receiver across all four metrics. While this was partly due to Juju Smith-Schuster’s injury-plagued season, the talent is clear. Johnson received at least four targets in all but two games in 2019 and at least seven in the final four games of the regular season, with an average of 5.8 targets per game across the year – on par with Juju. It is worth reiterating that all these impressive figures were attained under second and third choice quarterbacks in Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges. With Big Ben back and healthy after his season-ending injury last year, the sky is the limit.
The main question coming into this year was whether Johnson would be able to build chemistry with Roethlisberger given the truncated off-season and whether the Steelers offense would return to its past successes. Despite a wobbly start to the season with a muffed punt in the first quarter against the New York Giants, Johnson has started to demonstrate that any prior fears should be alleviated. Although we’re just two games into the season, the promising start to the year shows us enough that last season was no fluke and it could be a big year ahead. Johnson is now seeing even more opportunities in 2020, appearing to solidify himself as Big Ben’s go-to guy, receiving over 30% of the Steelers’ targets so far this year.
The next step is more consistent production. In the two opening games, he has recorded 14 receptions for 149 yards and a touchdown. Last week’s outing versus Denver clearly demonstrated what he is capable of, totaling 92 yards and a touchdown from eight receptions, finishing as the WR7 in half-PPR scoring, according to FantasyData.
Going forward Johnson can be started with confidence, given the ample opportunities coming his way. There is now a very real possibility that Diontae Johnson will be the certified WR1 on this offense as the year progresses, which should present us with plenty of fantasy success. For those who didn’t draft Johnson, there may be a small window of opportunity to acquire him at a reasonable price, after the likes of Juju received plaudits for his performance against the Giants, while rookie receiver Chase Claypool has also shown flashes. It appears that his encouraging start to the year has been somewhat under the radar, I wouldn’t expect it to stay like that for much longer…