The Pittsburgh Steelers are plagued by injuries early in the 2023 season. They went into the Week 5 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens with several players out, including multiple key starters. Diontae Johnson, Cam Heyward, Pressley Harvin, Dan Moore Jr., Pat Freiermuth, DeMarvin Leal, and James Daniels led that impactful list. The Steelers had an early season bye during Week 6 which allowed several of those players to get healthy and return for the Week 7 game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Mariah Wild / Pittsburgh Steelers
Diontae Johnson turns and runs up the sideline against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 of 2023.
One of those healthy, returning players is the fifth-year wide receiver, Johnson. Johnson, always quiet and soft-spoken recently appeared on teammate Cameron Heyward's podcast, Not Just Football With Cam Heyward. He discussed his injury and how happy he is to be able to return for the Rams game.
Johnson suffered a hamstring injury during the horrific season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers and hasn't played since. Heyward, who suffered a groin injury that required surgery during that same game, said he and Johnson had a bet with each other to see who could return the quickest, and Johnson, whose injury obviously wasn't as serious, was able to return first. Johnson told Heyward that he did some real soul-searching while he was recovering.
"That was a tough process, a long four weeks. I did a lot of thinking during that whole process, it humbled me. I got to see it from a different perspective, from the sideline."
He spent four games on the sidelines helping his teammates, many of them young receivers, learn to fill his shoes. Johnson said he did everything he could, maximized his physical therapy, and focused on making small improvements every day. The goal for players is to get better incrementally, versus all at once and Johnson embraced that process of steady improvement.
"I didn't realize how much this game really means to me. So I'll just work, thinking everyday to myself just improve like 1% a day or 3% a day just based on how I felt. Then that last week, everything felt good and I am ready to go get back to work."
Johnson and the rest of the Steelers offense had an excellent preseason, but have struggled with inconsistencies since. After losing in Week 1, the team returned to gain a victory in Week 2 against the Cleveland Browns that was almost entirely won by the defense who scored two touchdowns. While the team is currently sitting at 3-2, the Ravens win in London pushed Pittsburgh to second place in the AFC North. Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin told the media the team has been missing his expert route running abilities and they are thrilled to have Johnson back.
Steelers' Diontae Johnson Has Faced Some Adversity In Recent Seasons
Johnson was a third-round draft pick by the Steelers in 2019 out of Toledo. The draft pick used to select him actually came via the Antonio Brown trade with the then-Oakland Raiders. He came out of the gates strong and had a good couple of early seasons and then a disturbing pattern began to appear. Johnson was inexplicably dropping the ball at a higher-than-average rate. As soon as his catch rate seemed to improve, he suddenly wasn't able to get in the end zone anymore.
Abigail Dean / Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers Diontae Johnson (18) and George Pickens (14).
During the 2022 season, Johnson felt like a letdown for fans. He was the most targeted player on the team, but you wouldn't know it. He had 147 targets but had only 882 receiving yards. The worst stat of all for 2022 is that he did not have a single, solitary touchdown all season.
Whether it was real or just the perception as the 2022 season wore on, it seemed as though quarterback Kenny Pickett was beginning to target other receivers like George Pickens more than Johnson. The touchdowns notwithstanding, Johnson is an excellent receiver that has had to battle some demons.
During the time that he was afflicted with a case of the dropsies, Johnson worked as hard as he could to rectify it. He spent hours with the equipment manager and other players catching tennis balls to improve his grabbing skills. He has since said that he knew he was in his head with all of the drops and that held him back until he could mentally get right. That has helped him with the lack of touchdowns. He knows that if he's patient, just keeps doing his job and working hard, it will happen. When it does, he has worked out a special touchdown celebration with Pickens.
Associated Press
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