Tim Benz: No comparison between Diontae Johnson's 'hold-in' and T.J. Watt's — beyond the action itself

While discussing the state of his contract negotiations with the Pittsburgh Steelers during a training camp media scrum Wednesday, wide receiver Diontae Johnson admitted that he was frustrated by some of the public reaction to his financial requests.

Specifically, those in fan and media circles who don’t believe he is worthy of being in the $20 million-$25 million range, as so many other team-leading receivers have soaked out of their franchises this offseason.

Players such as Terry McLaurin, A.J. Brown and Stefon Diggs.

“It is (frustrating),” Johnson said. “Because at the end of the day, you know what you are capable of doing on the field. … But I’m being as positive as I can. Not (worrying) about certain stuff and let it bother me. So I can just keep getting information from certain players to see how they handled it.”

Johnson said two of those players are his teammates, T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick. Both of them have received massive contract extensions from the Steelers in recent months. Both of them staged “hold-ins,” where they showed up for offseason practices but only did individual drills.

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For Watt, that situation dragged on throughout the 2021 training camp until the two sides struck a $112 million deal in the days leading up to the regular season opener in Buffalo. For Fitzpatrick, his was a barely noticeable reduction in OTAs and minicamp that culminated in a $73 million agreement on June 16.

During Wednesday’s first full training camp practice, Johnson appeared to be heading down the Watt path. He practiced with his position group during individual drills. But withheld participation the moment the practice switched over to any team-related interaction.

If Johnson doesn’t like people making unfavorable comparisons between him and other wide receivers, he is really going to hate it when people start making comparisons between him and Watt.

Because the only thing similar between Watt’s “hold in” last year and Johnson’s this year is their chosen method of protest. There are no other comps to be drawn between the two players or their situations.

And that’s going to make it much harder for Johnson to convince the Steelers he is worth the exorbitant cost that other wide receivers are commanding.

For example:

• Watt is a much better player. Johnson is very good, but Watt is overwhelming. Johnson was a Pro Bowl replacement in 2021. Watt was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2021.

• Watt is a pass rusher. Elite pass rushers are hard to find and more important to keep.

Pro Bowl (but not quite All-Pro) receivers like Johnson seem to be available all the time in the draft, free agency or the trade market.

Look at how Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams and Brown all changed teams. Look at how 10 of the first 50 picks of the draft were wideouts in 2022.

• As an outside linebacker in the Steelers’ 3-4 scheme, the Steelers knew that Watt was going to be worth whatever investment they gave him. His contract was always going to get done. It was just a matter of time.

They may not feel the same way about Johnson. It’s too harsh to say the Steelers view Johnson as “disposable.” It’d also be an extreme overreaction to say that the team views him as “irreplaceable” either.

I don’t believe that the organization is quite as convinced that any single wide receiver is going to be worth $20 million-$25 million — especially since Johnson himself was scooped out of MAC school (Toledo) in the third round.

• The Steelers may have already buttressed themselves for Johnson’s departure next year by drafting George Pickens and Calvin Austin III.

Meanwhile, the Steelers can’t seem to do better than finding backups for Watt than Derrek Tuszka and Genard Avery.

Many of these same points can also be applied to comparisons for Fitzpatrick. He’s an All-Pro player the Steelers traded a No. 1 pick to obtain, at a position they have struggled to populate.

Johnson is a high-quality wide receiver. The Steelers are a better team with him than without him. None of this is meant to disparage him. It’s only meant to offer him some advice.

Like, don’t take advice from players about how to leverage your contract status when they both have a lot more leverage than you do.

Thursday’s Bella Construction Training camp podcast looks at Diontae Johnson and the state of his contract negotiations.

Listen: Tim Benz reports from Steelers training camp