Given their familiarity, Diontae Johnson might be a little biased as to who he thinks will be the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback in what is the NFL’s most wide-open battle. But he predicts QB Kenny Pickett, his teammate in Pittsburgh, to open the season atop the depth chart.
“I think they’re going to roll with Kenny for right now,” Johnson said on the Sports and Suits podcast when asked who he thinks will start the regular season.
Cleveland opens 2025 hosting the Cincinnati Bengals on September 7. It’s a game in which the Browns will likely need to score in bunches to stay step-for-step with the Bengals’ potent offense.
Johnson and Pickett reunite after spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons in Pittsburgh. The Steelers parted ways with both during the 2024 offseason. Johnson was first shipped out to the Carolina Panthers. Pickett soon followed, dealt to the Philadelphia Eagles days after Pittsburgh signed Russell Wilson as the team’s presumed starter.
Johnson and Pickett had different seasons. Johnson bounced from team-to-team, admitting later in the interview he was mentally “checked out” during his brief stint with Baltimore in which he refused to enter one game. Pickett spent the season as Jalen Hurts’ backup but started one game and even briefly appeared in the Super Bowl, taking final kneel-downs in the Eagles’ blowout win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland signed Johnson and traded for Pickett this offseason, both players wrapping up spring workouts with the Browns.
“I’ve been seeing Kenny going right now with the 1’s,” Johnson said of the pecking order. “Then Joe [Flacco] will come in. I think they’re probably going to roll with him just coming off the season he was with Philly and having a Super Bowl. I think they’re going to stick with him through preseason.”
The Browns have the league’s messiest quarterback room. Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco are the veterans who are getting typical deference during OTAs and minicamp. Cleveland also drafted two quarterbacks, selecting Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel in the third round before trading up in the fifth round to stop Colorado Shedeur Sanders’ draft weekend fall. Conceivably, all four could get the nod or play at some point during the year. For now, Johnson thinks it’s Pickett.
On the show, Johnson admitted Pickett has small hands and wears gloves in every practice, something he began in college at Pitt, but that it doesn’t prevent Pickett from making plays from the pocket.
“He can spin it,” Johnson said.
As of the recording of the interview, Johnson shared he hadn’t taken a single rep with Sanders.
Ultimately, Johnson will have no influence on who the Browns start. His mission will merely be to make the roster and catch passes from whoever is deemed the starter. Signed to a one-year deal, Johnson will have to look like the player from his time in Pittsburgh instead of the one in 2024. Even then, Johnson will need to clean up the mistakes he made with the Steelers, improving his focus and consistency without negative plays, poor effort moments, or viral social media gaffes.
