3 sneaky important Steelers storylines to watch during OTAs
By Tommy Jaggi
The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the middle of organized team activities, and here are three sneaky important storylines to keep an eye on.
There isn’t a lot to get excited about when it comes to organized team activities (OTAs), but at least it’s football. During OTAs, players run through very basic positional drills, and no contact is allowed.
Regardless, there are still some things we can take away from the Pittsburgh Steelers first full team gathering in shorts. Here are three sneaky important OTA storylines to watch:
Is Diontae not showing up for contractual reasons?
Nearly everyone worth noting showed up to Steelers OTAs, but Diontae Johnson was not one of them. His absence comes just days after he missed his own youth football camp because his flight was delayed.
While I think his absence from OTAs is completely separate from his reasoning for missing his football camp, I do believe that his contract situation comes into play here. As you are probably aware, OTAs are not mandatory, so we aren’t going to go sounding the alarm. However, this situation is worth monitoring.
After topping 100 catches and 1,000 yards with the Steelers last season, Johnson is entering the final year of his rookie contract and he’s set to earn just $2.8 million in base salary this year, via Over the Cap. His agent is well aware of the going rate of good receivers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes an issue the Steelers need to deal with before the season. If Johnson is still absent for mandatory minicamp, then we should be worried.