If you haven’t already, it might be time to get Diontae Johnson on your big boards.
The Carolina Panthers wide receiver was recently named a bounce-back candidate for the upcoming fantasy football season by Nic Bodiford of Pro Football Focus. Bodiford writes that after a pretty pedestrian 2023 campaign, Johnson is primed to produce as a borderline WR1/WR2 under head coach Dave Canales in 2024:
Carolina head coach Dave Canales has long coached wide receiver tandems featuring one plus-sized alpha wide receiver and one mid-size route running technician. The dynamic is detailed in the latter article linked above. When Seattle’s offense lacked an established big-bodied X-wide receiver, Canales coached up inside/outside wide receiver Doug Baldwin to handle No. 1 pass catcher duties–a remarkable accomplishment given Baldwin’s status as a 2011 undrafted free agent. Baldwin led the team in targets from 2014-17, thrice operating primarily as an intermediate-depth weapon with average depths of target (aDot) ranging from 9.1-to-10.2 seasonally. Canales’ experience with Baldwin factors heavily here; Johnson dominates the intermediate realm, producing 8.8-to-10.7-yard aDots in four-of-five NFL seasons.
While Johnson admitted that he didn’t know who Canales was when joining the team, the 27-year-old could return to Pro Bowl form thanks to his new head coach. That all-star campaign came back in 2021, when he reeled in 107 passes for 1,161 yards and eight touchdowns as a Pittsburgh Steeler.
