Extension season.

[43M]

1 hour ago, warfelg said:

I saw someone make a point of what should be in consideration. The time of these drops. Like a 3rd and 3 drop is far worse than a 1st and 10 drop. And that’s not something you can get without diving through every play. It always felt like DJs drops come at bad times. 

Thats exactly my main issue with paying him top dollar.   Drops are bad enough, but when your supposed top WR cant consistently make clutch catches, its probably time to look for a new top WR.

And what makes it even worse is that many of his drops, on top of coming at bad times, are pretty routine catches.   There have been at least 3 drops in his career thus far where he dropped a wide open perfect pass in or near the endzone, and we ended up settling for 3 at best.

[warfelg]

36 minutes ago, Dcash4 said:

And, oddly enough, his teammate was right behind him with 8. It’s no wonder we didn’t bring back the WR coach. How do your top 2 receivers lead the damn league in penalties?!?

His drops are infuriating because they are probably the easiest catches he would have on the day. Then he follows it up with his arm pinned to his side making a one handed grab. 

I think that was part of the issue with it.  Those penalties were killer.  Half of DJ’s came on 3rd down or short distance.  He had a 10 yard OPI on 2nd and 1 which we then failed to convert and a false start on 2nd and 3 we failed to convert.

 

As for the drops thing, it’s a more all around thing for DJ.  He’s just got so many concentration lapses.  Easy dropped passes where it you watch his eyes he’s looking downfield before he secures the ball.  He has those issues with route running too.  He’s randomly quit on routes and randomly just curled or broke the wrong way.

[warfelg]

28 minutes ago, 43M said:

Thats exactly my main issue with paying him top dollar.   Drops are bad enough, but when your supposed top WR cant consistently make clutch catches, its probably time to look for a new top WR.

And what makes it even worse is that many of his drops, on top of coming at bad times, are pretty routine catches.   There have been at least 3 drops in his career thus far where he dropped a wide open perfect pass in or near the endzone, and we ended up settling for 3 at best.

I’m against it because it’s concentration lapses.  And always seeing DJ’s offseason workouts he’s working on footwork and working with the route running guru.  He needs a jugs machine and work on seeing the ball all the way in.  And he needs to not get in twitter spats with fans after games with drops.

As a Sixers fan we saw it for years with Ben Simmons.  He sucked at shooting yet would spend all offseason working on dribbling, passing, dunking.  Like spend just one offseason working on that one thing that needs to be better.

[MOSteelers56]

1 hour ago, warfelg said:

 He has those issues with route running too.  He’s randomly quit on routes and randomly just curled or broke the wrong way.

This is my major issue with Diontae. I can handle the drops. Quitting on routes is tough to stomach, though. 

[Dcash4]

2 hours ago, jebrick said:

Personally, I think it is the type of routes that they made Claypool run.  Remember that they did not change the passing playbook.  I will bet they had Claypool running the same routes as Bryant did.  Claybook is actually a decent route runner from college but the Steelers used him to run flys and post routes. 

Will that change this year? I doubt is as they one big WR and that is Claypool.

I am not so sure there are more branches on the Claypool route tree. There are things he needs to clean up and get more detailed with on his current route set that would help a lot. IMO he is far more circumstance than hero. ND did a pretty good job of moving him around and setting up matchup problems (hey Navy MLB's with no help over the top). He got away with being bigger and faster for a long, long time and that doesn't cut it anymore. 

Way more "what can we do for you?" vs "what can he do for us?", IMO. 

1 hour ago, warfelg said:

As for the drops thing, it’s a more all around thing for DJ.  He’s just got so many concentration lapses.  Easy dropped passes where it you watch his eyes he’s looking downfield before he secures the ball.  He has those issues with route running too.  He’s randomly quit on routes and randomly just curled or broke the wrong way.

There is definitely a glaring flaw, but he still does the one thing that no one else does on the team and he does it at the a top of the NFL level. When it's 3rd and 6 with the game on the line, I'm not 100% sure he will catch it....but I know he will be open. And you can't say that for the others. 

This is all baskin robbins -- there's so many different flavors to what receivers people want. But Diontae Johnson is my chocolate. I will always, always, always take people that can get open on their own (he's just chocolate served without sprinkles, which is a bummer). 

3 hours ago, warfelg said:

And always seeing DJ’s offseason workouts he’s working on footwork and working with the route running guru.  He needs a jugs machine and work on seeing the ball all the way in.  And he needs to not get in twitter spats with fans after games with drops.

To be fair, he did do a ton of work regarding his drops and concentration. They talked about it during just about every game. 

 

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2021/12/03/How-tennis-balls-and-hard-work-made-Diontae-Johnson-one-of-the-most-dependable-receivers-in-the-NFL-Steelers-receiver-drops/stories/202112030106

There's a lot of documented info out there about his work to correct the issue. 

 

[43M]

49 minutes ago, Dcash4 said:

I am not so sure there are more branches on the Claypool route tree. There are things he needs to clean up and get more detailed with on his current route set that would help a lot. IMO he is far more circumstance than hero. ND did a pretty good job of moving him around and setting up matchup problems (hey Navy MLB's with no help over the top). He got away with being bigger and faster for a long, long time and that doesn't cut it anymore. 

Way more "what can we do for you?" vs "what can he do for us?", IMO. 

There is definitely a glaring flaw, but he still does the one thing that no one else does on the team and he does it at the a top of the NFL level. When it's 3rd and 6 with the game on the line, I'm not 100% sure he will catch it....but I know he will be open. And you can't say that for the others. 

This is all baskin robbins -- there's so many different flavors to what receivers people want. But Diontae Johnson is my chocolate. I will always, always, always take people that can get open on their own (he's just chocolate served without sprinkles, which is a bummer). 

To be fair, he did do a ton of work regarding his drops and concentration. They talked about it during just about every game. 

 

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2021/12/03/How-tennis-balls-and-hard-work-made-Diontae-Johnson-one-of-the-most-dependable-receivers-in-the-NFL-Steelers-receiver-drops/stories/202112030106

There's a lot of documented info out there about his work to correct the issue. 

 

There was one game they were going on and on about the tennis ball thing, and he dropped 2 or 3 passes, because I remember everyone making fun of it.

[Dcash4]

3 minutes ago, 43M said:

There was one game they were going on and on about the tennis ball thing, and he dropped 2 or 3 passes, because I remember everyone making fun of it.

Everytime they talked about it I could only think of:

[warfelg]

DJ is seemingly indicating on Twitter that he is holding out of everything until camp due to contract status. 

[BradfordSteeler]

4 hours ago, warfelg said:

DJ is seemingly indicating on Twitter that he is holding out of everything until camp due to contract status. 

I think he may be overplaying his hand a little here. It's one thing TJ doing it as the undisputed superstar of the team, it's a whole other thing trying to pull this when you're already viewed as replaceable by plenty of fans.

[MOSteelers56]

If he’s holding out, it’s for a trade. He has no leverage for a contract. We just drafted two of his replacements. I like Diontae more than most, but this probably doesn’t end with him getting a new deal from us.