{"id":165424,"date":"2024-03-10T13:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=165424"},"modified":"2024-03-09T18:38:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T23:38:44","slug":"diontae-johnson-trade-steelers-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/10\/diontae-johnson-trade-steelers-free-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"1,100-Yard Receiver On The Trade Block Ahead of Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even though they made the playoffs last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers enter the 2024 offseason in a bit of turmoil. The team could be looking for a new quarterback to replace Kenny Pickett, Mike Tomlin might be contemplating retirement, and the organization is looking to trade wide receiver Diontae Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>A third-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Johnson immediately joined the long list of receivers successfully developed under the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite never having a stable quarterback situation, the Toledo product has routinely been near the top of the leaderboard in targets per game and has an 1,100-yard season to show for it. Despite the success, however, Dianna Russini of <em>The<\/em> <em>Athletic<\/em> reportedly believes the team will try to trade Diontae Johnson in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Steelers are open to listening to trade offers on WR Diontae Johnson. There is interest from teams around the league as GMs are getting set for free agency.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DMRussini\/status\/1766489906597986530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pittsburgh Steelers Listening to Trade Offers For Wide Receiver Diontae Johnson<\/h2>\n<p>Good wide receivers are hard to find in today&#8217;s NFL, but there are a few reasons the Steelers could look to trade Diontae Johnson. First and foremost is the financial aspect. Johnson carries a $15.83 million cap hit, but the Steelers can save $10 million by trading him. This is a lot of savings for a cash-strapped team like Pittsburgh, especially when you consider Johnson is in the final year of his deal and the team already has a reliable option in George Pickens on the roster.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Diontae Johnson has had some effort problems in the past. Most notably, the receiver didn&#8217;t even attempt to jump on a fumble last year, and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/1728549612892352683?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter reported<\/a> that Johnson and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick got into a &#8220;heated post-game argument&#8221; a while back and needed to be physically separated.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Such a loser mentality by Diontae Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cjzKfwQr0o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/cjzKfwQr0o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Will Compton (@_willcompton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_willcompton\/status\/1728855510236242069?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite the negatives, the fact of the matter is that some teams are going to want to trade for a playmaker like Diontae Johnson. Even if there are some red flags, he shouldn&#8217;t cost much to acquire and there aren&#8217;t enough reliable receivers to go around.<\/p>\n<h3>Best Team Fits<\/h3>\n<h4>New England Patriots<\/h4>\n<p>The Patriots are in the unenviable position of needing to completely rebuild their offense from the ground up. While quarterback is the biggest need, they still could use 2-3 more reliable wide receivers in the passing attack. If the Patriots can trade a late-round pick for Diontae Johnson, they absolutely should consider it. Johnson&#8217;s shifty route running is an ideal fit for this offense, and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt should be very familiar with Johnson&#8217;s abilities from his time with the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n<h4>Carolina Panthers<\/h4>\n<p>If there&#8217;s any team that needs help at wide receiver more than the Patriots, it&#8217;s the Carolina Panthers. While Adam Thielen still has a little something in his tank, nobody else showed much of anything last year. Diontae Johnson excels at quickly getting open off the line, and that&#8217;s the type of player the Panthers should trade for. Maybe he won&#8217;t singlehandedly save this offense, but pairing him with a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/02\/ladd-mcconkey-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_self\">promising rookie like Ladd McConkey<\/a> should help save Bryce Young&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<h4>Dallas Cowboys<\/h4>\n<p>Mike McCarthy will not be back in 2025 if he cannot bring this team on a deep playoff run, so it&#8217;s in his best interests to go all-in for 2024. This starts with providing more reliable weapons for Dak Prescott. CeeDee Lamb is a star, but Brandin Cooks and Michael Gallup don&#8217;t bring anything of note to the table. If the Cowboys trade for Diontae Johnson, they&#8217;d be getting a much-needed second option in the passing game, which should make it easier for Dallas to go blow-for-blow with some of the top offenses in the NFC.<\/p>\n<h4>Buffalo Bills<\/h4>\n<p>The Buffalo Bills need another receiver, and they don&#8217;t have the resources to pay up for an expensive one. What they do have, however, is 11 picks in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024-nfl-draft-profiles\/\" target=\"_self\">2024 NFL Draft<\/a>. They could easily trade one for Diontae Johnson and still have plenty of young talent on the roster. While his $10 million cap hit would be hard to swallow, Buffalo could lower that number with an extension.<\/p>\n<h4>Kansas City Chiefs<\/h4>\n<p>The Kansas City Chiefs need a wide receiver if they want to go for the elusive three-peat. While Diontae Johnson is no Tyreek Hill, he&#8217;s a clear upgrade on Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney, and the departed Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Nobody wants to make Kansas City&#8217;s path to the playoffs easier, but if they make the best trade offer for Diontae Johnson, then the Steelers will have no choice but to accept.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Mark Konezny &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers are reportedly listening to trade offers for former 1,100-yard wide receiver Diontae Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":165457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,30,19,16,5],"tags":[7811,5702,7661,7366],"class_list":["post-165424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-steelers","category-bills","category-panthers","category-cowboys","category-chiefs","category-patriots","tag-chiefs-featured","tag-diontae-johnson","tag-panthers-featured","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}