3 reasons Steelers Chase Claypool will have a better season than Johnson

Claypool has improved his worst areas this offseason

My biggest concern for Diontae Johnson in 2020 was whether he had put enough work in on his ability to catch the ball. Unfortunately, throughout much of 2020, it didn’t look like he had. My biggest concern with Claypool isn’t his hands, it was his ability to run routes cleanly. I’m not saying Claypool has the best hands on the team as I would give that crown to JuJu. If I were to think of the biggest things he lacked in 2020 it would be his conditioning and his route-running.

Don’t get me wrong, Claypool came into his rookie training camp in great shape. However, it is particularly hard for rookies in skill positions to keep up late in the season. We saw Claypool hit the rookie wall for the last quarter of the season, but I’m not expecting that to happen to him as a sophomore. His route-running is what had me worried. From watching some of his preseason tape over again it is easy to see he spent time working on his footwork.

There is more snap to his cuts while his transitions into and out of them are seamless. He isn’t the next Chad Ochocinco, however, he definitely has worked on his ability to get open and with a larger route tree, I am excited to see him take a large step forward in 2021. Claypool has definitely put in the work to make up for his deficiencies in 2020 while Johnson hadn’t seemed to have done that. It is a large reason why he will have a better sophomore year than #18 had.