Steelers’ Diontae Johnson goes past the drops and becomes an elite recipient – Pittsburgh Steelers Blog

PITTSBURGH – It was there.

A perfectly placed throw from Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to the outstretched hands of Diontae Johnson as he crossed the finish line in front of Baltimore Ravens corner defender Anthony Averett.

It should have been the touchdown, the spark the Steelers needed on Sunday after the halftime stalled attack.

But the ball glanced at Johnson’s fingertips as Averett dove into his ankles and bounced off the lawn as Johnson landed face up in Pittsburgh’s yellow G, which was painted in Heinz Field’s goal area. Instead of the Ravens leveling out one minute to the end of the half, the Steelers (6-5-1) had to settle for a field goal after the first drop of the Johnson season.

It was the kind of accident that would have buried Johnson a year ago. A mistake that could have gotten a snowball and destroyed his self-confidence.

Instead, Johnson didn’t respond with one, but two second-half touchdowns in the Steelers ’20-19 return victory, strengthening Johnson’s position as the number one player and keeping Steelers’ playoff aspirations alive.

“He’s a special talent,” Roethlisberger said of Johnson’s second result, a 5-yard game-winning touchdown. “And I think the bigger thing for me is a touch that would have been an amazing prey in the past, the one he didn’t catch. He’s not going to the tank. He comes back and just plays plays and goes on.

“It said a lot about who he is and his growth and maturity in such a young football career that he was able to recover and just play for us.”

A year ago, the selection for the third round of 2019 was on the bench for most of the first half in the Steelers ’December 14 match against Buffalo Bills after a first-quarter drop. He finished the season with 12 relegations – four more than any other player in 2020 and twice as many as the next closest Steelers pitcher.

Participating in Thursday night’s match against the Minnesota Vikings (20.20 ET, Fox / NFL Network), Johnson has one drop. He’s one of 12 players with at least 100 goals, and he’s in a draw with Bills ’Stefon Diggs and Packers’ Davante Adams with the fewest drops among those 12 players. With his sure hands, Johnson leads the Steelers with 914 yards and six touchdowns.

“He’s definitely number one,” said Steelers winger JuJu Smith-Schuster, who has been in the injury reserve since Oct. 10. “He plays like number one. It’s Ben’s number one. I love to see it. I love to see him finish. I love to see him dance his little dance. I love to see us win.”

Johnson did not play in the Steelers ’Week 3 match against Cincinnati Bengals due to a knee injury, but he was still on the field more than an hour before the start.

Equipment Assistant Lou Balde stood diagonally behind Johnson about five yards.

As Johnson looked back at Balde, the Steelers assistant threw the football over his right shoulder at the wide receiver and turned it in his hands at the release head to add a little spin. Johnson caught it and then threw the ball back at him. The couple worked on the exercise over and over again before moving on to another.

Balde and Johnson have been holding extra time together since training camp. Balde is often the exercise manager, helping Johnson work on prey and eye coordination.

“We just got together and said we were trying to get more work done,” Johnson said. “He does the exercises half the time.… I trust him to help me and promote my game at the same time. It’s been showing.”

Even before returning to his third NFL training camp, Johnson, 25, did extra work at his home in Florida. He bought a tennis ball machine for his house in the meantime and started grabbing tennis balls to improve hand-eye coordination.

“I was just trying to catch the ball from different angles,” Johnson said. “The ball isn’t going to be perfect for you every time. You catch a tennis ball, it’s a smaller surface, so you focus more on the tennis ball. When I get football started, it’s easy. “

The tennis ball machine stayed in Florida when he returned to Pittsburgh, but Balde throws him tennis balls before, during and after practice and before the games. Other players pay attention.

“He actually inspired me to do more work after the workouts,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said. – He’ll catch probably 100 extra passes and then catch up with tennis balls. I started doing the same. I had a hard time getting caught earlier this year. I feel like he’s helped me tremendously too, and he challenged me to take that extra step for sure.

To put it mildly, Johnson isn’t the lead singer, but after Tuesday’s rehearsals, a small group of Johnson’s teammates, including extensive receivers Chase Claypool and Cody White, were late to get extra feeds.

“I’ll just let my job speak, and anyone who decides to follow me, that’s how it will be,” Johnson said. “I’m going to continue to lead by example, play on the field, do extra practice, anyone wants to come out and do extra work with me, let’s be great together.”

At the beginning of each week, Johnson takes a printed investigation report of the next opponent’s secondary match and records it in his compartment. That was another suggestion from Balde.

“I want to see who I’m up against and who they get,” Johnson said. “Who ‘s traveling [when a cornerback stays on one receiver], they play right or left, certain things like. I also want to know who the backups are. So if any of them crash, I know what to expect. “

As the Steelers ’best recipient, Johnson draws the attention of the top corners of the league.

Before playing Ravens, he explored Marlon Humphrey’s tendencies, and it was worth it when he shook the cornerback with a tight-lipped Pat Freiermuth, a sharp route and a quick change of direction to free him into the game’s winning touchdown.

“I saw there were no safety devices,” Johnson said Sunday. “It had zero coverage. They do it a lot. So I knew a lot of times that we ran a pick route or something short. In that situation, Marlon likes to go over. So we had little traffic and got to open because of it.

Johnson caught 7 of eight goals in Ravens ’victory in the second half at 91 yards after scoring just one of three goals in the first half. And Johnson’s average difference was 4.3 yards in the second half, a significant increase from the first 1.4 yards.

“Special,” Roethlisberger said as he described Johnson’s ability to get rid of breaks. “It’s fast. Another touch, he runs his route and puts his feet on the ground, and I don’t know too many people who could stop it. And that’s why we put the play in. We performed plays so he could do things like that, and the best way to stop him is to hold him. “

With his first goal on Sunday night, at the 29-yard touchdown reception, Johnson had a 10.0-yard difference when the ball arrived – the most from Roethlisberger’s touchdown this season, according to Next Gen Stats.

All the Steelers except the experts … and Diontae Johnson are off the field right now. Johnson, who is not active due to a knee injury, has been mostly in place to intercept feeds for about the last 10 minutes. pic.twitter.com/NYuSXDWSA8

– Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) September 26, 2021

Johnson has an average distance of 3.09 yards, which is a good sixth among 12 receivers with at least 100 goals.

Thanks to his speed and improved hands, Johnson will fight either for another contract that is rare for a Steelers broad-based player, or for a big payday when he hits a free agency in 2023. And after that, he is the weapon the Steelers need. make a playoff.

“He’s going to be a veteran buddy, and that’s why it’s reasonable to expect him to get better physically, get better intellectually in terms of knowing and understanding the game, and leveraging that knowledge,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “And also the fact that we are able to withstand the ups and downs that are a game, a series or a season. We appreciate his growth and development, but I don’t think anyone is surprised by it. In fact, we were expecting it and we needed it. “