Pittsburgh Steelers CB Donte Jackson couldn’t help reading the press when they traded WR Diontae Johnson for him. Almost universally, the coverage of the move framed it as “the Carolina Panthers trade for WR Diontae Johnson.” That the Steelers got back a starting cornerback in exchange seemed to be the footnote.
In terms of headlines, that turned out to be true, but that’s mostly thanks to Diontae Johnson’s lack of professionalism. In the end, though, the Steelers and Donte Jackson clearly “won” the trade. And perhaps that’s partly because of how people initially perceived it.
“I was kind of using that as fuel,” Jackson said of how he seemed like an afterthought in the Diontae Johnson trade on the Christian Kuntz podcast. “A lot of the fans were like, ‘Who? This is crazy’. And then on the other side, the Panthers fans were like, ‘Y’all can have him. We got this guy’. It was like everybody knew who I was getting traded for, but they didn’t know who the hell I was.”
That does mesh with the timeline if you recall his first interviews with the Steelers. Donte Jackson was clearly well aware that he was not the “name” in this trade, coming from the Panthers. He often talked about understanding Steelers fans don’t know who he is yet but wanting to show them.
“You get caught up reading comments and stuff like that. Fans are just like, ‘Who?’” Jackson said. “And based on who they traded for me, it’s like, they traded a great receiver, a guy who played a lot of ball here, who’s made a lot of plays here, who got paid here. Great receiver, ton of respect for who they traded for me, DJ [Diontae Johnson].”
He admitted you can’t expect Steelers fans at the time to be happy to lose a starting wide receiver in Diontae Johnson for himself. “We traded Diontae for what? This is a great player. We don’t even know this dude”.
Donte Jackson showed Steelers fans who he is this past year, leading the team with five interceptions. “You don’t have to know,” he said. “Y’all gonna find out.'”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the Steelers fans will know him for long. After just one season, Jackson is a pending free agent again (as is Johnson). The Steelers and Panthers traded two players on expiring contracts from which they were ready to move on. However, Pittsburgh got a much better year out of their cast-off than Carolina did.
And Johnson has already been traded or released three more times since the Steelers dealt him. Pittsburgh may well re-sign Jackson, but we’ll have to see the price tag. He did take less to facilitate the trade, but now he will be available on the open market. And teams like cornerbacks who can pick off five passes in a season.
