Diontae Johnson evolving into more than a sidekick for Steelers wide receivers

Randy Fichtner not only wants his starting wide receivers catching bunches of passes, he apparently wants them to wear capes while doing it.

The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator used a superhero analogy Thursday to describe what is needed to succeed at wide receiver these days in the pass-happy NFL.

“You look across the league and everyone has to have at least one Superman and one Batman,” he said. “It would be nice to have two Supermen.”

Wait, doesn’t Fichtner mean Batman and Robin, a more compatible and comparable duo when discussing a star player and his sidekick?

“Hopefully this week, we will have one guy at least playing like Superman, and we will have one guy playing like Batman,” Fichtner said. “And they are both pretty good superheroes in my book. I’d be OK with that.”

Filling the Superman role presumably is JuJu Smith-Schuster, the most experienced and productive option for the Steelers as he moves into the No. 1 role vacated by the Antonio Brown trade.

Serving as Batman – to his own surprise – is rookie third-round draft pick Diontae Johnson. He is coming off his best game against the Miami Dolphins – five catches for 84 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown that was the turning point in a 27-14 victory – and has emerged as the team’s No. 2 threat.

Johnson became one of the Steelers’ three starters in Week 3 when Donte Moncrief was demoted to the scout team because of his drops. The start against the Dolphins was the fifth in a row for Johnson, who has 21 catches for 253 yards and three touchdowns in that span. That’s comparable to Smith-Schuster, who has 19 catches for 281 yards and three scores in the past five games. He’s also outproduced second-year receiver James Washington.

“It’s what you do with your opportunities,” Johnson said. “My number was called, and I stepped up and did what I do best. I took advantage of it and excelled ever since.”

Johnson didn’t expect to be in such an advantageous situation when he reported to training camp. He was coming off a hamstring injury that limited his offseason workouts and was behind Moncrief and Washington on the depth chart.

“I thought it was going to be long because I was trying to learn the offense,” Johnson said. “I was overwhelmed with a lot because being a rookie they just throw stuff at you and see how you pick up information.”

But while playing with the backups in training camp, he got plenty of work with quarterback Mason Rudolph and fewer snaps with Ben Roethlisberger. This proved instrumental when Rudolph stepped in when Roethlisberger sustained his season-ending elbow injury in the second week of the regular season.

“Looking back, it definitely helped our connection being on the same page, getting those ‘2’ reps going through spring and training camp,” Rudolph said.

Johnson has progressed to the point that entering Week 9, his 25 receptions for 296 yards and three scores rank among the NFL rookie leaders. He is third in catches – only Washington’s Terry McLaurin (28) and Miami’s Preston Williams (27) have more – seventh in yards and tied for fourth in touchdowns.

“I like his progress,” Fichtner said. “The challenge will be to continue to grow each week. I think we’re finding out things he can do really well and some things where we need areas of improvement. It’s a nice problem to have early.

“I think back to Antonio. He didn’t play early and did some special teams things, then kept growing. Diontae, maybe by circumstances, has been put into a role a little quicker, but he’s done a nice job.”

Johnson, in fact, is off to a faster pace than Smith-Schuster at this point of his 2017 rookie season. Smith-Schuster finished with a franchise rookie-record 917 receiving yards and had 58 catches and seven touchdowns, but after seven games he had just 17 catches for 231 yards and three scores.

“I went through the same thing so I understand,” Smith-Schuster said. “It’s really cool to see how far he has come and be a big player on our team, making big plays.”

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Smith-Schuster had his top performance this season – five catches, 103 yards and a touchdown – on the same night as Johnson, whose presence helped take some pressure off the Steelers’ No. 1 receiver.

“It helped me a lot,” Smith-Schuster said. “Having a guy on the other side making plays, doing their job creates more opportunities for me.”

Just like a trusty sidekick should. Or, if Fichtner has his way, a budding Superman.