Buy Or Sell: The Steelers wouldn’t have traded Diontae Johnson if they knew how the offseason would go.
Explanation: The Steelers traded Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for Donte Jackson. While they added a needed upgrade at cornerback, they weakened the wide receiver position. Since then, most of the talk has focused on who they can trade for to address the void they created.
Buy:
This might be a better topic for October when they’ve gotten a better sense of life with this receiver room. Quite frankly, the Steelers don’t know what they’re missing yet. They do not have a player who can match Diontae Johnson’s strengths, and that will hurt this offense.
That will start with teams double-teaming George Pickens because the Steelers have no other receiver defenses need to respect. Pickens doesn’t create the necessary separation to be a reliable target, and Johnson was this offense’s release valve.
Guys like Van Jefferson and Roman Wilson simply are not going to cut it. And we are past the point at which the Steelers can reasonably trade for a meaningful upgrade. The Steelers have made their bed, and they’re not going to enjoy lying on it. 2024 will be rough to get through because they failed to adequately replace Diontae Johnson. They thought it would be easier to do, but they were wrong.
Sell:
The Steelers could have done more to replace Diontae Johnson. They chose not to. Why? Because they landed two long-term starting offensive linemen in the first two rounds of the draft. They probably didn’t anticipate that, but they rightly decided that was worth skimping on wide receiver.
There is so much else that goes into decisions like this, too. For one thing, Johnson was almost assuredly gone after this season, and he could have played the malcontent now. While Pickens had his own behavioral concerns, so did Johnson. And the Steelers needed help at cornerback, which they got in Donte Jackson. If we weren’t having this conversation about wide receiver, we might just be having it about cornerback instead.
With the Steelers’ 2023 season in the rearview mirror following a disappointing year that came up short in the playoffs once again, it’s time to start asking more questions. Questions about the team’s future in 2024 and beyond. Questions about The Standard.
The rookie class of a year ago was on the whole impressive, but they need to step up into staple starters in 2024. And they needed a strong influx of talent in both free agency and in the 2024 NFL Draft yet again. In addition to a revisitation of the coaching staff.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
