An ability to accelerate, decelerate, and get in and out of his breaks with lightning quickness.
That’s Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson.
Entering Year Six in the NFL, Johnson remains a superb talent, though he does have issues with his consistency. That doesn’t hinder his reputation as an elite-level route runner, though.
In fact, the 33rd Team’s Andy Benoit believes Johnson is one of the very best route runners in the game today, placing him at No. 9 in his best route runners entering 2023.
“Diontae Johnson is a little different than Pittsburgh’s last prolific wide receiver, Antonio Brown, but he shares an important attribute: quickness and acceleration in and out of his breaks, which is just as important as a receiver’s ability to accelerate is an ability to decelerate,” Benoit writes regarding Johnson as a route runner. “Few players hit the brakes on intermediate routes as well as Johnson.”
While he is certainly not Antonio Brown — nobody is — Johnson has similar traits to Brown and wins in similar ways. Johnson finds himself open constantly and is a true No. 1 receiver in that fashion. Plus, he’s able to run any route in the route tree, which is key for the top route runners in the league.
Earlier in his career, Johnson had some struggles with his footing and being able to stay on his feet in and out of his breaks due to his quickness. But he has cleaned that up at this point in his career, which has helped him ascend to another level as a route runner.
The high-level route running from Johnson isn’t just an opinion based on the eye test either. Reception Perception’s Matt Harmon, who tracks and charts each receiver’s success and failure rate on every route run, believes Johnson is an elite-level route runner, stating that there’s no route that Johnson can’t run.
Johnson ran 47.7 percent of his routes in 2022 against man coverage and had a success rate of 76.1 percent. Against zone, Johnson ran 52.3 percent of his routes, and had a success rate of 83.7 percent. Johnson saw press coverage 27.4 percent of the time in 2022 and had a success rate of 77.9 percent. All elite numbers from a clear-cut No. 1 receiver in the NFL.
He gets open at an elite rate. That matters. With a full offseason under his belt with Pickett and hopefully in an offense in Year Three under Canada that is opened up a bit more in the passing game, Johnson should be able to get back to his 2021 level of play. He’s a high-caliber receiver overall.
