Diontae Johnson has made headlines for the wrong reasons recently. Now his decision to unfollow the team on Instagram leaves Steelers fans guessing what is next.
Can we go one offseason without any wide receiver drama? Although the 2022 season just wrapped up, Diontae Johnson is already making the news… and not for the right reasons. Earlier this week, the starting receiver sent a cryptic tweet that made it sound like a big, juicy secret was forthcoming. Now Johnson may have taken things too far.
Ain gone say to much… but stay tuned 💯
— Diontae Johnson (@Juiceup__3) January 10, 2023
On Wednesday, fans discovered that Diontae has unfollowed the Pittsburgh Steelers on social media. This is a concerning sign that leaves us scratching our heads. This by itself may not be enough to read deeply into. However, when you couple this with the fact that he already sent a subliminal message on Twitter, it becomes very intriguing.
Diontae Johnson has unfollowed the Steelers on Instagram and removed Steelers from his Bio. #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/e2VayKNssu
— Blitzburgh (@Blitz_Burgh) January 11, 2023
The two of these things together might seem to indicate that Johnson will not be with the Steelers during the 2023 season. While the chances of a trade seem rare following a massive contract extension just last offseason, Pittsburgh may not want to keep him around if he’s disgruntled. As Mike Tomlin likes to say, ‘we can’t do this with hostages’.
After his tweet, some speculated that Johnson was pointing to other changes that could happen within the organization, while others said that it might not be football related at all. However, now that he has unfollowed the team on social media, Steelers fans have the right to wonder what’s going on.
Could the Steelers trade Diontae Johnson?
It’s not often you see a player get traded after just signing a new deal. However, we have seen Pittsburgh have to move on from disgruntled players, and this may be one of those cases. Financially, the Steelers could get away with a trade, though they would be forced to eat a whopping $11.6 million cap hit in 2023 if he’s traded before June 1st, per Over the Cap.
That might be a small price to pay if Pittsburgh could fetch a high pick for one of the least efficient starting receivers in the NFL from the 2022 season. For a team on the receiving end, they would be getting a very productive receiver who can separate with ease at the prime of his career. Because the guarantees have been paid by Pittsburgh, he would only cost his next team $7.5 million on average over the next two years.
Again, this is obviously speculation at this point in time, but signs seem to suggest that Diontae Johnson could possibly be on his way out. We will see what comes of this during the 2023 offseason.