Steelers offense boosted by resurgence of Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool

After a December that largely wasn’t one to remember, Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson on the first Sunday of the new year turned back the clock to earlier in the 2020 season when it comes to their receiving production for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I felt like myself again,” Johnson said Monday after making three big-play catches during the regular-season finale the prior day in Cleveland.

Claypool closed out his first regular season with one of his most productive games as a pro.

“It was nice getting kind of warmed up,” he said, “for the playoffs.”

With their postseason opener set for Sunday, the Steelers offense figures to be buoyed by Johnson and Claypool getting back on track after each endured a late-season swoon. Johnson had two of his four longest receptions of the season with catches of 47 and 41 yards, in addition to a fourth-down reception in the fourth quarter Sunday against the same Cleveland Browns defense he will face in an AFC wild-card game this weekend.

Claypool, for his part, had two long receptions (28 and 41 yards) on “possession downs” in the second half as part of a 101-yard receiving outing, which is the second-most in his young career. Included in that was Claypool’s first touchdown since Nov. 22. After 10 touchdowns over his first 11 NFL games, the second-round pick was shut out in five December contests, only once managing more than four catches and never producing more than 54 receiving yards. It was a stretch in which coach Mike Tomlin was open about limiting Claypool’s snaps in an effort to avoid the “rookie wall.”

“I don’t mind getting less targets as long as other people are producing that have been,” Claypool said Monday. “(Johnson), JuJu (Smith-Schuster), James (Washington) all have been playing super well. As long we’re playing well offensively, I don’t mind (a lesser role) — but if we’re in a slump, I want to be in there.”

The Steelers offense certainly slumped late in the season, when their scoring average dropped from 29.7 in Games 1-10 to 19.0 in December.

Coincidence or not, during that time, Claypool’s snaps dropped, and his targets (6.6 per game) and catches (2.6 per game) did, too, after averaging eight targets and about 5 ½ receptions per game in October and November.

Johnson’s decline in production coincided during a 2 ½-game stretch with several dropped passes. It culminated when Johnson was benched for the remainder of the first half after he dropped two passes during a Dec. 13 game at the Buffalo Bills.

In the 3 ½ games since, he’s been a lot more like his old self: 34 targets, 22 catches, 257 yards and two touchdowns.

“After that Buffalo game, I just really sat down with myself and talked to myself to try to figure out what is going on with me,” Johnson said. “Really, it was just a mental thing and really just paying attention to outside noise, and once I got rid of that and starting dialing in on myself and just focusing on me (and on) the game, you didn’t see my try to think too much and try to double catch the ball or things like that.

“I just try to lock in and be ready to go and keep a positive mindset now, so if I drop a ball, next-play mentality so I am not worried about that drop… That’s been helping me.”

It’s been helping the Steelers, too, who enter the postseason with perhaps the playoff field’s deepest and most diverse group of wide receivers with Claypool and Johnson are back in their grooves.

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