Diontae Johnson‘s latest NFL gig has proven to be short-lived. The Texans waived the veteran wideout today, per a team announcement. In another roster move, tight end Cade Stover has been placed on injured reserve.
This continues an astoundingly eventful year for Johnson, who entered the 2024 offseason as one of the NFL’s top route runners and as a player who could have commanded considerable value in free agency — once he reached that point. A year later, a receiver who had been attached to a two-year, $36.7MM contract has torpedoed his value by wearing out his welcome everywhere he has gone. And he has now traveled to many NFL cities.
A fourth team has now given up on him in a 10-month span. Traded from the Steelers and Panthers, Johnson has now seen the Ravens and Texans waive him. Two teams — the Texans and Chargers — claimed Johnson once Baltimore moved on last month. Johnson, 28, now appears headed to free agency. It is difficult to overstate the damage the sixth-year wideout has done to his NFL stock.
Following the Texans’ wild-card rout over the Chargers, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson reports Johnson was visibly upset and needed to be calmed down by teammates. Issues with his usage, the theme of his Baltimore tenure, resurfaced in Houston.
Johnson played 16 offensive snaps for the Texans, who used the former Steelers target commander on 22 plays against the Titans. Johnson caught one pass for 12 yards against the Bolts; he snared two passes for 12 yards against the Titans in Week 18. This usage reminded of the role the Ravens gave the depressed asset, and Johnson has voiced considerable displeasure about this participation downturn.
It should be expected Johnson will generate internal discussions from teams who need receiver help for 2025, but anything beyond a one-year “prove it” deal seems unrealistic at this point. Johnson’s regular production with the Steelers aside, it will be difficult for teams to divorce that from his tumultuous 2024 season. Johnson still resembled his Pittsburgh version in Carolina, averaging 51 yards per game (30 catches, 357 yards); that is in line with some of his lower-octane Steelers seasons. But he has either wanted to leave teams (Steelers, Panthers) or seen them move on from him (Ravens, Texans). That will be a tough sell for personnel departments moving forward.
Johnson had wanted the Texans to trade for him at the deadline, but the Ravens did so instead. The former Steelers third-round find griped about his playing time in Baltimore and eventually refused to enter a Ravens-Eagles game, leading to a suspension. After that one-game ban, the Ravens did not activate him for their Week 16 game against the Giants. Days later, Baltimore waived the sunk cost. While Johnson was connected to the Chargers and Chiefs, the Texans swooped in with a claim. DeMeco Ryans had praised Johnson as recently as last week. Ditto Joe Mixon, via Wilson. None of it ultimately mattered, and the former 1,100-yard Ben Roethlisberger target will seek a fifth NFL home soon.
The Texans have not seen C.J. Stroud take a step forward after his breakthrough rookie season, but in the 2023 No. 2 overall pick’s defense, he lost his No. 2 and No. 3 receivers — Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell — for the season. Dell’s injury, a severe knee setback that required ambulance transportation from Arrowhead Stadium in Week 16, prompted the Johnson claim. The Texans, however, used Robert Woods, John Metchie and Xavier Hutchinson in front of Johnson in the wild-card round. That trio will again complement Nico Collins as the Texans aim to derail the Chiefs’ threepeat bid Saturday.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
Why waive him now ♂️ might need him to finish the season. I would’ve just stashed him
Johnson must be that much trouble to get cut now. Wow.
Dude must be a head case. I can’t remember a guy who did this much harm to his stock in a contract year. It boggles the mind.
If he was that upset over not playing much, imagine how petulant and annoying he would have been not playing at all.
Because he is a net negative.
Don’t trade for Steeler wrs. Guys taking the chase claypool route
Good luck in free agency.
Makes you wonder if this coming from Antonio brown. Just look at the track record of the wideouts from the steelers when he was in the room. Bryant, Schuster, claypool,johnson. They’ve have had flashes and moved around the league or no longer play.
Johnson was actually selected with the pick the Steelers acquired for Antonio. And claypoole was drafted a year later.
It’s a cursed pick lol
@here we go. Ok yeah i didn’t look it up knew it was close. Just seems like they all fell apart quick. They probably just draft ones with checkered pasts. If you can get 3-4 yrs. I guess it works.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual. Sure, Johnson has talent. However, he was a cancer in the Carolina Panthers’ locker room and talked his way out of Baltimore. He claimed he always wanted to go to the Texans. Obviously, the feeling was not mutual.
And they play the Chiefs next week.
Still they decided: nah. We can make it work without you.
Do NFL players get unemployment?
It’s a privilege to play in the NFL. Sometimes people lose sight of that fact.
Say what you will about Mike Tomlin as a successful or unsuccessful head coach. But he got many good seasons out of Antonio Brown and Diontae Johnson, some good work out of Claypool and JuJu, and there are quite a few other examples… and just about all of them played, talked or behaves their way into multiple releases and eventually out of the league in short order after leaving Pittsburgh.
Tomlin may not know how to build a roster, but he can sure manage a head case.
Hardly. They played out their rookie contracts for the most part. And if Tomlin had actually lowered the boom on their egos and made them realize they weren’t bigger than the Steelers organization, they’d have finished their careers in Pittsburgh like Hines Ward, Swann and Stallworth. Tomlin coddled AB, Juju and the rest and danced with them in the locker room when he should have been teaching them teamwork.
Exactly, praising Tomlin for tolerating insanity in his WR room (it seems like Pittsburg almost always drafts the nuts) ignores the point that he just might be the problem.
Exactly.
Why can’t he get even more blood from those stones (that no one else can get a drop out off)?
@monkey. You can even add leveon bell. I don’t think the head case part is Tomlins fault, but they might need to rip off the bandaid and rebuild you can’t when you constantly make the playoffs. That will come when they get rid of him probably best to let his contract run out, because that’s the steelers way.
why even give him a chance in the first place
Cause they lost Diggs and Dell to season ending injuries.
Dude can’t hold down a six figure job lmao
Next up? The raiders!!
Or Cowboys.
Or titans. A lot of washed WRs go there for paychecks lol
If the Raiders find a QB, I could see it. Johnson would have a meltdown if they don’t find better QB play, though.
I was half joking when I said raiders but who knows it could work. Raiders need another threat to pair with bowers, someone like Isaiah bond or Xavier Restrepo and for goodness sakes draft a QB
Any GM that takes a chance on him next year deserves to be fired. Dude has made his bed.
Yep, I got that prediction right. If you cant help during the last two games, what help can you give in a divisional playoff? His value has taken a huge hit for next season.
The XFL or whatever it’s called now is on line 2…..
Very good talent…..zero head
Texans legend
Sounds like the guy needs therapy or something to help him deal with adversity.
What an incredible waste of talent. Get this guy into a psychiatric hospital before he unleashes whatever rage is built up inside of him on the rest of society.
If he is going to spend time on 3 different teams each season he might want to consider becoming a kicker.
That’d never work. He’d be the only kicker in the league complaining on the sidelines when the coach elects not to try for a Field Goal on first downs.
His season reminds me of Randy Moss in 2010. Randy mentally checked out with three teams. Was literally jogging on routes but ended up first ballot in Canton.
Pickens is next WR in Pittsburgh to implode and will be following the likes of Johnson, Claypool and Brown out of town.
Yr in CFL to try n resurrect his career. Shut up n just ball out n hopefully nfl team takes another chance on him. He’s in dire need of public relations CPR.
I agree with all but the CFL. Despite Johnson’s tumultuous season, some team will probably give him a shot next year on a small deal. Organizations have signed worse players for longer (Chicago even traded draft capital for Claypool, who had similar issues with less production…albeit at a younger age, but point stands), and I don’t think that will end soon.
Of course, that team may regret it and the deal may not be fully actualized by the season’s end, but I don’t doubt that it will happen.
I’ll second that, AK. I’m not saying I think a team should sign him, but there will be a NFL team that takes the gamble. He sounds selfish, but if you put him on a bad football team where he gets a lot of looks from a capable QB, you might appease him. I’m not sure if Vrabel would tolerate his nonsense, but New England seems like a fit.
Wasn’t that long ago he was the Alpha for the Steelers but didn’t have a TD but, sure, complain about targets/usage
Finally a team quits on him instead of him quitting on them.
As far as “talent”, he had quite a few big drops in his time with the Steelers, averaged around 10 yards per catch, was allergic to the end zone, and ran backwards the majority of the time he actually caught the ball while rarely picking up extra yards (stat probably doesn’t exist but I’m sure it’s damn close to being a net negative). He vastly overestimated his skills throughout his career, as did the team in giving him his initial 2 year extension. He’ll get an opportunity next year but if he doesn’t check his inflated ego at the door and completely change his attitude, he’ll be out of the league in no time. And he has nobody to blame but himself.