Diontae Johnson went from Pro Bowler to the owner of an embarrassing record from one year to the next. The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver was selected as an alternate for the final actual Pro Bowl game in 2021, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s final season. For an encore, he recorded more receptions in a single season than anybody had before while failing to score a touchdown.
While he did find the end zone twice via a pair of two-point conversions, it’s safe to say that nobody is looking for an encore performance of his 86-882-0 stat line, certainly not a year after he went 107-1161-8. But few actually anticipate that being an issue. Least of all wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson.
“We don’t even talk about that”, he said earlier this offseason about the fact that his top wide receiver last year failed to score a single touchdown after putting up 20 in his first three seasons combined, via Dale Lolley for the team’s website. “It’s in the past”.
While Johnson is the latest wide receiver to put up a goose egg in the end zone while being otherwise productive, he is certainly not without company. According to Pro Football Reference, there are 20 NFL seasons in which a wide receiver caught 50 or more passes without catching a touchdown, including one in each of the past three seasons. Some are more encouraging than others.
The previous record holder was Raymond Berry all the way back in 1961, who caught 75 passes that year without finding the end zone. He would score at least three times in each of the succeeding five years, including three years with six or more touchdowns, the latter three all age 31 or later.
Bobby Engram caught 50 passes in 2002 without scoring, only to have six touchdown catches the following year. Amani Toomer in 2004 had 51, following that year up with seven touchdowns on 60 receptions the next season.
There is plenty of reason to believe Johnson can bounce back comfortably, though as is always the case in such circumstances, he is not in control of all the variables. Most especially, Kenny Pickett is not expected to become a high-volume touchdown producer in year two at quarterback. He only three seven touchdowns last year, four of which went to George Pickens. Even if he doubles, or even triples his output, that may still not produce enough targets for a satisfactory stat line for Johnson.
But that all remains to be seen. He and Pickett had some chemistry issues last year that had to be worked on, since they did not work on the same ‘teams’ during most of the offseason, Pickett running with the backups, Johnson with the starters with Mitch Trubisky, with whom he did have a better and more frequent connection.
While it may be a struggle to replicate the sort of volume he had with a future Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger, an improved rapport with Pickett should make for a much smoother 2023 season for Johnson, one that should get some of the fans off of his back, at least. I’m sure the offseason feels a lot longer when you’ve got something to prove.
