There has been plenty of talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers having a phenomenal offseason. They redid their quarterback room, reinforced their offensive line with young talent, added multiple inside linebackers, and addressed the safety position. There’s also been a lot of talk about where they haven’t made big moves, specifically at wide receiver and cornerback.
It’s a move involving those two positions that Sporting News tabs as the Steelers’ worst offseason move. It’s the trade with the Carolina Panthers that saw the Steelers flip WR Diontae Johnson for CB Donte Jackson.
“The Steelers have been working hard to fix corner with different combinations over multiple years,” Vinnie Iyer wrote. “They at least have rising star Joey Porter Jr. now but giving up wide receiver Diontae Johnson for Jackson wasn’t the same value in return.”
Based on what Iyer wrote, I don’t think he’s saying that Jackson is a bad addition to the Steelers’ roster. The point he’s making is that subtracting Johnson from the wide receiver room in return for Jackson isn’t an equal (and definitely not a net positive) move.
Now, Steelers fans have frequently used Johnson as a punching bag over the last few years. They’ll say things like he runs backward and loses yards or point out his drops. And in 2020, Johnson had a career-high 9.0 percent drop percentage per Pro Football Reference.
However, Johnson cut back on that drastically the following three years, never posting a drop percentage of five percent or higher. In 2023 alone, he only dropped two passes for a percentage of 2.3.
Johnson has also never posted a year averaging less than 10 yards per reception. He averaged 11.2 yards per reception for his Steelers career. The Steelers did not replace Johnson’s production this offseason, and that’s part of why Iyer did not like the move.
The other part is that Iyer doesn’t believe that Jackson is an equal talent to Johnson. Stats-wise, it’s hard to argue against that. Jackson has 14 career interceptions and 46 passes defended in six seasons, which is pretty good. However, PFR has him down for allowing 23 touchdowns in coverage. That’s not great.
Now part of that can be chalked up to the turmoil in Carolina during Donte Jackson’s tenure. He played for multiple head coaches, multiple interim head coaches, multiple defensive coordinators, and multiple positional coaches. It wasn’t exactly a picture of stability like Pittsburgh.
So it’s easy to understand why Iyer would tab this move as the worst one of the Steelers’ offseason. Thankfully, there isn’t a whole lot of “bad” moves to choose from. That’s a sign of a pretty darn good offseason in Pittsburgh.
