Saturday was one of those really confusing games for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson. One minute we are cheering for him when he makes a huge play and the next minute we are screaming his name for him making a monumental mistake.
Against the Baltimore Ravens, Johnson had three plays that really highlighted why we don’t know what to make of him. The good news was Johnson caught a beautiful 71-yard touchdown catch and run from quarterback Mason Rudolph. The play proved to be the difference in the game.
But then we have the play where Johnson had a perfect opportunity for another long reception and seemed to make zero effort to haul in a perfectly thrown ball. We’ve watched the replay over and over and cannot see any reason why Johnson seemed to not at least try to make a play.
Then there is the penalty. The Steelers were called for 12 men on the field on a punt try. Johnson was the 12th man on the field as he took his sweet time jogging off the field. A full 40+ seconds. Completely ridiculous.
the 12th man penalty on the punt was because Diontae Johnson took over 40 seconds to slowly jog across the field and didn’t make it off in time pic.twitter.com/viIUtYPizX
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 6, 2024
Pittsburgh is going to have to make some tough roster decisions in the offseason and you have to think about what to do with Johnson and his huge salary is one of them. Games like this really make you wonder which version of Johnson is the real deal.
