Heading into a contract year, Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson is rumored to want to stay in Pittsburgh long-term, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. The fourth-year player out of Toledo has improved every year. Johnson’s reception-yardage-touchdown totals have increased from 59-680-5 in 2019 to 88-923-7 in 2020 to 107-1161-8 in 2021, and he received Pro Bowl honors in his last year with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback.
According to Fowler, Johnson appears to be willing to play out the end of his contract, believing he can once again improve his play in his fourth year and prove he can be a top NFL wide receiver.
Here are a few more rumors from around the AFC North, starting with some Draft rumors for the Browns:
- After trading the 13th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to the Texans in the Deshaun Watson-trade, Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry says it’s “unlikely” that the team will trade back up into the first round, according to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. Berry claims they haven’t ruled it out completely, but, for the most part, the Browns seem comfortable allowing Watson to act as their first round addition and waiting until the 44th overall pick to make their first official selection of the Draft.
- Not a rumor, but more of an AFC North note, the Steelers made an addition to their coaching staff this week. According to the team’s website, David Corley was named the Steelers’ assistant quarterbacks coach. Corley played quarterback in college, choosing to attend William & Mary despite being recruited by Clemson, South Carolina, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech. He also had short playing stints in the Canadian and Arena Football Leagues. Corley began his coaching career at C.A. Johnson Prep as the team’s quarterbacks coach. He alternated between position coaching gigs at his alma mater and NFL internships over the next couple of years going from the Tribe’s running backs coach to the Steelers to the Tribe’s quarterbacks coach to the Panthers and back to William & Mary as the receivers coach. Corley then took a job at UConn where he rose through the ranks from running backs coach to wide receivers/special teams coach to offensive coordinator/special teams coach. After stints at Army and Penn State as a wide receivers coach, Corley returned to the NFL taking an internship for the Texans. After spending a season each as the wide receivers coach at South Carolina State and running backs coach at Richmond, Corley took an internship with the Panthers. Despite the lengthy resume, this will be Corley’s first official NFL coaching job. He will be tasked with assisting new quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan in guiding the Steelers through the post-Roethlisberger era. Following the tragic death of former-Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, Corley’s position room currently holds only Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky. Whether drafted or otherwise, the Steelers will almost certainly add another young name to the room for Corley and Sullivan to start molding.
Johnson is good, but he’s had his fair share of untimely drops as well when needed. Would like to see how he fares with a subpar QB. Sure, Ben wasn’t good last year (or in recent years), but still better than most playing the game.
Ben was the best on those long 3 yard pass plays. Better than most is laughable.
Top 15 in yards passing and TDs…and no offensive line to speak of (which was horrible). No WR burners other than Claypool and an offensive philosophy that was focused on the short game. Sure, his arm wasn’t close to what it was and he lost that touch, but still better than many who played last year.
Ben was not better than most last year, unless you’re also counting amateur QBs.
Trubisky may be an average pro quarterback at best, but he’ll be a marked improvement over the Roethlisberger of the past couple years. Whether or not it’s enough to propel them to being competitive is another story
I’ll admit that I was never a fan of Ben. For my money, he was never near Bradshaw’s level here. But he did lead the team to a lot of winning seasons. Like Rodgers in Green Bay, his reluctance to see life beyond his playing days from a team standpoint put the team in the position it is now at QB
Ben was far from being “better than most” in recent years.
I tend to think Ben is better than Bradshaw due to the fact that he has had to do more with less throughout his career. Sure, he had a great defense throughout his first few years, but let’s not forget how bad his offensive line from 2008-2013 or how pitiful the defense was from 2013-2019. Despite this, Ben was undoubtedly a top ten quarterback nearly ever year between 2009 and 2018. Bradshaw played his role well, but I believe his legacy is overinflated because of the greatness of his teammates
Isn’t that the case with many of the greats? Montana and Rice? As for Ben vs Bradshaw, not sure it’s fair to compare since the eras are so far apart, impact of free agency, different philosophy of offense, and the size of the players have grown. Personally I believe Ben was the better QB of the two – two rings short but what he did behind the line, take the hits, not go down, and connect with any receiver you put in front of him was pretty damn good. Love Bradshaw, but he was a product of a great team for many years whereas Ben was a big part of creating one.
We can debate forever but it’s pointless. You and Wagner make many good points but the comment about being on a very good team versus creating one is silly. If you were around in the early 70’s, you know that’s a silly argument. The Steelers were dreadful and obviously had successful drafts in which Bradshaw was a leader in building a dynasty. Watch “A Football Life” and you’ll see his teammates say as much, and repeatedly so. Better arm strength, better vision and early on, just as much of a horse to try to tackle.
I respect what Roethlisberger did here but I just don’t see him in the same class
The Steelers are so good at drafting wide recievers (see Johnson, Diontae as one example) they should draft them, develop them and then trade them. Wash, rinse, repeat.
That’s exactly what they do now, except they just let them walk as FA’s.
Offer Johnson to the Jets and just draft his replacement on a rookie contract.
I think the Jets might be looking for a receiver who overlaps less with the types they have, but I could see New Orleans or Indy being a fit.