The spotlight was on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense on Friday night in their preseason debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as it has been for most of the offseason. We got our first, brief taste on the opening drive of what this passing game could look like. The results? They’re real, and they’re spectacular.
All of the obvious caveats apply for preseason football, naturally. Vanilla play-calling on both sides, imbalanced personnel—the Buccaneers withheld almost all of their starters—but one key ingredient stood out on that one drive helmed by QB Kenny Pickett: the obvious connection that he has with WR Diontae Johnson.
Their lack of rapport in 2022 was arguably one of the biggest issues facing the team all season, with their rhythm ebbing and flowing even late into the year. His target share increased, but not always the number of catchable balls.
That didn’t seem to be an issue on Friday night, the two connecting on all three pass attempts for a combined 32 yards on their one shared drive. It was the Pickett-Johnson connection that sustained the 10-play, 83-yard touchdown drive, which culminated in a 33-yard catch-and-run score with George Pickens on the receiving end.
But for as important to the offense as the continued progression of Pickens and his rapport with Pickett will be to the Steelers’ success, both short-term and long-term, we shouldn’t lose sight of the value of a receiver who gets open better than anybody else in football. If you get that guy on the same page with a quarterback who can consistently find him, you’re going to be okay.
Pickett and Johnson have worked hard on their relationship, and Johnson has started to see the results, as he said earlier this week. “I can see he’s starting to believe in me and trust me and come my way more” is exactly what he said.
Pickett certainly did on that drive. Three of his seven targets went to Johnson. He is the only player the quarterback targeted more than once. Pickens, Najee Harris, Pat Freiermuth, and Jaylen Warren made up the other four targets on that opening possession. Allen Robinson II was not targeted.
Here are Johnson’s three targets and three receptions.
You can only spread the ball around so much on a 10-play drive. I can’t say I’m shocked, though, that Johnson would be the one most often revisited. Now that he and Pickett are building that rhythm, that should result in the veteran wide receiver getting himself back on track and producing the numbers that he ought to.
