Diontae Johnson is Having a Great Career.........And You Guys are Missing it!

DJ will be fine, needs to return to fundamentals.

 

Diontae Johnson followed his 95th out of 152 receivers in yards per target in 2021 by ranking 117th out of 139 receivers in yards per target in 2022.

 

he will impose his will this year. i will catch a TD pass. i will not throw the ball on the ground while running with it. i will catch the ball. i will earn my money. if not i will end up like claypool.

 

I still believe in Diontae Johnson, but it's time for this dude to get it together.

Challenge or no challenge, Johnson dropped a touchdown catch he should have had.

His attitude sure seems to suck as of late. Not defending the Warren fumble was evident of that.

As one of his biggest supporters on the board, if he cant get his **** together it might be time to move on from him after the season.

Overall he was pretty solid today. I hope this kid can get it figured out.

 

The sad part is that he's not a kid anymore. This is his 5th season. He's 27 years old.

Some of the stuff he does is just bush league. You can't teach the dumbass out of players. They either want to play the game the right way, or they don't.

He's reaching the point where they're going to have to say that this is who he is as a player and he's not going to figure it out.

 

It's a shame. The talent is there. I still think he can be a top 10 receiver in this league. Right now he is headed down the Chase Claypool route instead of the Hines Ward route.

 

He's not down the Claypool path entirely. He's frustrated, and its somewhat understandable since it is REALLY hard to look good with Pickett as your QB. But part of why he isn't elite is mental stuff. He is the NFL's most open receiver. He is a really good player, but the mental stuff is why he isn't great. I think if we got better QB play he would be a lot more engaged mentally (like he was with Ben at QB). Not necessarily excusable, but he'd put up big numbers with a better QB. No doubt.

 

Just stop with always bashing Pickett. Diontae Johnson makes Diontae Johnson look bad.

Nobody made DJ be lazy and not take the time to secure the TD pass with two hands and squeeze so there was no chance of the ball coming out. He was wide open and got to catch the ball and spin around. He had time to make sure that didn't happen, but he didn't. The refs probably should have called it a TD, but if the ball didn't come out there would be no doubt.

Nobody made DJ not run a pattern on the Warren fumble.

Nobody made DJ not block on that same play.

Nobody made DJ not care that a ball was on the ground right in front of him.

Nobody made DJ not try to recover the fumble.

Nobody made DJ not make any effort whatsoever to run down or tackle the Bengal player that recovered the ball and ran right past him and down the sideline.

Nobody made DJ walk very slowly and directly off the field to the sideline with no effort or care about doing anything that would help the team on that play.

Nobody made DJ catch a pass and jump backwards and then run backwards to lose 5 yards.

And those are just the highlights from today's game.

You may have been a professional athlete, but you must not have ever been in a locker room fighting for a shared goal with other teammates. Nobody respects the player that is fighting with everyone, demands greatness from everyone else, but doesn't play hard, isn't a Dawg on the field, and doesn't get it done when most needed. That's just an immature whiner that many will be happy to see go.

What you say about the quarterback play is bull**** in regard to Johnson. He needs to be engaged because he got his money. He's getting paid to be a great receiver, but he's not a great receiver. Not because of his quarterback but because of who he is on the field and off. The 5th year veteran WR making $18 million a year needs to be the guy helping out the young QB and being a reason you win games, not a pain in the ass crybaby that gets in his own way and ultimately hurts the team.

 

So are you saying a better QB is going to cure his mental problems

 

That’s funny

 

He's a liability.

 

I will put it this way. When I started this thread I was advocating for Johnson to get paid. Based off what we have seen since he got paid, I would no longer advocate for that.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I do think Johnson is a great route runner. But he has had consistent drop issues every season. Pickett's play may be affecting Johnson, but Johnson's play is also affecting Pickett. Frankly Johnson needs to get his attitude in check. He had no one but himself to blame today.

 

He did make himself look bad on the fumble play. He has a bad tendency to have mental lapses which holds him back from being even better than he is. As for the backwards run thing, he was cutting outside and the momentum from the initial tackle he slipped out of made him stumble backwards. Can't blame him for that one.

Yes, I have been in a locker room in a team environment. I've fought for Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships as a part of a team and was team captain for a year of that pursuit. Not to mention anything I did personally as a professional for nearly a half decade. I feel like I have a unique perspective for these types of things because while I've never been an NFL player (or football player for that matter), I have competed in a team and individual environment at the highest level of college competition and professionally as well. I get that disgruntled players can be a distraction. I get that his teammates (Minkah apparently) let him have it. It happens, and its truly part of the team sport experience at this level. The stakes are just too high for it not to be.... DJ is pissed because either a coach or a player (Canada or Pickett, hard to know exactly which one DJ had issue with) has repeatedly held the offense back. Sometimes players/coaches need to be held accountable for their performances too. I have personally seen both sides of this argument from an inside perspective.

The point I was giving is this: DJ is a really good player. He proved that for his 3 years prior to Kenny at QB. He hasn't been a really good player the last two years (at least statistically) and while some of it is on him (drops, mental lapses, etc.) a large portion of it is on the QB. It is a fact that DJ is the NFL's most open receiver by PFF's metrics. He was before Pickett, and that hasn't changed the last two years. The only thing that has changed is his stats. He's frustrated because the QB can't get him the damn ball with any consistency and it's hard to argue that fact.

Not every guy is a team leader. DJ is doing his job the same way he has been the past 5 years. He's open. He makes a lot of plays and misses some too with drops and mental lapses. He is looking worse out there because our QB has continued to struggle. DJ might not have to worry about it much longer though because if Pickett plays the next 6 games like he's played the 95% of the 23 before them, he's going to be catching balls from a different QB soon.

 

No of course not. It will ease the frustration and he will likely play a lot better because of it, but the mental side has always been what has kept him from being great. I've said that for 2-3 years now... However, his statistics would greatly improve with a better QB, no doubt.

 

The backward play was on him. Watch the play again. He catches the ball then decides to jump backwards. Then again goes back to try to get around the defender and got tripped up. It was all on him going backwards and he lost 5 yards making it 3rd and 12. This happens with him far too often.

He wouldn't be the most open receiver if he was the guy getting double-teamed and getting bracketed all the time. Pickens is the guy that everyone tries to take away and doubles, not Johnson.

DJ might be catching balls from a different quarterback because they may ship his a$$ out of town with his attitude. It might be more likely than your scenario if they can find a trade partner in the offseason.

 

I think he got paid very fairly for what his resume was at the time. If you look only at stats, I would tend to agree since they've greatly declined since that deal was signed. However, I do think there is a legitimate argument that QB play has held him back and that we got the guy we paid for, we just don't have the guy to get him the ball. Hard to look good in an offense when your main starting QB going into today averaged less than 180 yards passing a game and half of that yardage goes to the backs and tight ends. DJ averaged 83 yards a start when he got paid. There's been barely 83 yards a game available to the whole WR room combined the past 2 seasons...

DJ is by no means flawless. He is a very good player, but the mental lapses and occasional bouts of drops kept him from being great. I don't care if its Pickett or anyone else we HAVE to have better QB play. I honestly would be happy if it was KP. Less work for the FO. But a lot of players would look a lot better if we got better QB play. Kenny looked a bit better today than he has in a while. Lets hope that trend continues.

 

Disagree. It looked that way live and in slow motion. It was a pretty obvious stumble (he even put his hand down to try to regain balance). I just don't see it the same way you do. That is ok.

He was the leagues most open receiver before when Pickens was still at Georgia and has continued to be so afterwards. Pickens doesn't get DJ open, DJ is a great route runner... He gets himself open.

Maybe they do ship him out of town. Depending on how we want to build the team with Weidl and Khan they could opt to do that. They'd save 10 million with a 5.8 million dollar dead cap hit. It's the last year of his contract, so I am not sure there is much reason to do so, but you never know. I will say if they ship him out of town and someone with a top flight QB picks him up, I'd be shocked if he didn't bounce back statistically in a huge way.

 

You forgot one, the incomplete pass near the goal line. Johnson got lazy and waited for the ball to come to him, allowing the cornerback to break it up. If he had made a strong move to come back for the ball instead, at worst, it would have been first-and-goal at the two.

 

That's fine if you see it that way, but what I described is what happened on the play. He has no awareness of situational football. He does whatever he feels like and it is usually a bad decision far too often.

As I said, Johnson gets open but he doesn't have to defeat double coverage. He's a great route runner, but he's not considered an elite receiver. He's not, or he would be the one that defenses are trying to stop. This isn't arguable. Pickens is the wide receiver they throw everything at to stop, not Johnson. He's not even the best receiver on his own team so he is not an elite WR in the NFL.

I don't claim to know what the team will do. I always try to have hope that he cleans up his act, but I am just about out of hope with him. We have been seeing the same stuff with him for too long and I just don't believe in him enough to think he will put it all together. If they do move him, I hope they get something substantial for him. I hope there is another team that feels about him the way you do and believes in him. It's so disappointing because he could be much more if not for his head. I don't think you can fix the head.

 

I think Chicago is back in the market for a #2. Just saying.

 

I thought about that, but I also think Pickett could have thrown it a hair sooner as well. But you are right. He should have come back just a step and it should have been a completion.

Frankly, I didn't really grind to find the issues I wrote down. They just came out so quickly because they are seared into my mind and I was so angry and disappointed about the lack of effort.

 

It is what it is, we can agree to disagree on it.

No he isn't, nor did I ever say he was elite. We do have a guy that has the potential to be elite and a guy that has been to the Pro Bowl and we can't throw for 200 yards a game. That is certainly not good.

Yeah, you can't fix the head. Not at this point. He is what he is. A very good receiver who is an elite route runner, but he is going to make some mental errors and have a few costly drops. He's a #1 on some teams, but a really solid #2 option to have.

 

Lol maybe they would be willing to part with a top 32 pick again? Run it back?

 

I get that and you could put that one on Pickett, too, but it certainly belongs on Johnson's list of failures today.