The Bright Spot: Diontae Johnson Has Shined Through Steelers Struggle

There's at least one reason to smile through the Pittsburgh Steelers difficult time.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have given their fan base little to cheer about so far during the early portions of this NFL season. However, there has been one bright spot, and his name is Diontae Johnson. 

The best way to describe the start to Johnson's career would be a rollercoaster ride. The highs are exhilarating plays of making opponents look silly and the lows are the bevy of dropped passes. Through three games of his third season in the league, we've seen almost exclusively highlights as he's now starting to play with more snap to snap consistency. 

You can make an argument that Johnson is not only the Steelers' best player on the offensive side of the football right now but that he's starting to grow into a star in this league. Johnson's skill set is perfect for what the Steelers look for in their X receivers: a guy that can run every route necessary and excels at beating press coverage. Those traits are what led them to select the Toledo product much earlier than he was originally projected to be selected in the 2019 NFL Draft. 

You saw more evidence of his talent on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. He started the game off with a bang after beating the talented Jaire Alexander down the right sideline for a 45-yard touchdown on the Steelers opening drive. As talented as Alexander is, he's just the latest victim for Johnson as he's already put highlight level reps against other talented corners such as Tre White, Patrick Peterson and William Jackson. 

On the deep touchdown, Alexander lined up in press coverage but elected to bail out at the snap. When he did that, Johnson began to work Alexander's blind spot, which gave him a little bit of space to work with up top. After the ball was in the air and closing, Johnson gave a subtle push-off and displayed late hands to reel in the bomb to put the Steelers offense on the board. 

The push-off was a little more than you'd ideally want, but it still displays how refined he is at some of the more technical aspects of the game. Those late nudges to create separation down the field is something that all the elite receivers do very well - just ask Antonio Brown. Brown made a living on those types of savvy veteran moves here in Pittsburgh, catching balls from the same quarterback. 

What makes this guy so difficult to defend is that defenders really don't want to be in a phone booth with him at the line of scrimmage. His feet are some of the best in the league and he's got a plethora of different calculated releases to win off the ball. 

If you elect to play off against him, like the Packers did quite a bit following the first touchdown, you risk him catching those short passes underneath. Then comes the hard part, you've got to tackle him after the catch. 

Johnson has a punt returner background and that's evident when he catches the ball as he's a threat to take it to the house every play. Regardless of the coverage, Johnson's also the best route runner on the Steelers, arguably one of the most underrated, technically refined route runners in the league. 

So, what has Johnson done this year to take his game to another level? Well, not anything drastic. It looks like he's playing through contact a bit better at the top of his routes. The biggest improvement has simply been his hands. He's been targeted 35 times already this season, without a single drop. Although a smaller sample size, this comes just one year after leading the NFL with 15 dropped passes, something that got him benched last December against the Buffalo Bills. 

The concentration drops were all over his film at Toledo and those carried over in Pittsburgh, but there's been legitimate progress so far this season, and that has to be very encouraging for everyone in the Steelers organization. 

Hopefully, this strong start will be the beginning of Diontae Johnson's break out to stardom. The Steelers have a host of problems on the offensive side of the ball and they would be wise to use Johnson as the solution to some of those. While not necessarily a speedster, it would be wise to continue using him down the field and less on those underneath throws in the middle of the field where he's going to face immediate punishment from linebackers much bigger than him. 

Despite being Roethlisberger's favorite target over the past two seasons, there are still some chemistry issues between the two that will pop up occasionally. They still haven't seemed to get on the same page on back-shoulder throws, something that Roethlisberger and Brown made famous for almost a decade in Pittsburgh. It goes without saying that it would help if Roethlisberger settled in here soon, as he's struggled a good bit of the early going. If the Steelers are going to turn this season around, it very well might be because of the relationship between Roethlisberger and Johnson taking that next step. 

Realistically, the Steelers could be headed down a dark path after the 1-3 start, but seeing growth and development from some of their young weapons like Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and Najee Harris could make 2021 just a little less painful. 

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