The New Orleans Saints waited years for Juwan Johnson to break out to become the star tight end they needed him to be. While he never really worked out with them, could he be on his way to a big pay day simply because of a weak market in free agency?
Pro Football Focus recently released their ranking of every tight end available this offseason and Juwan Johnson took the top spot. The players listed behind him are Mike Gesicki of the Cincinnati Bengals and Tyler Conklin from the New York Jets.
Johnson would not be viewed as the best player in every free agent class, but this certainly isn’t one with a ton of competition.
The former Penn State Nittany Lions and Oregon Ducks star gets a little bit of grace for the weak start of his career, as he was a pure wide receiver in college and needed time to transition, but still wasn’t a huge receiving threat out of the tight end spot. At least not consistently.
His best season came in 2022 when he had 42 catches for 508 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s been massively inconsistent since then, though, failing to capitalize on the momentum. So far in his career, he has 146 catches for 1,622 yards and 18 scores across five seasons. That kind of production might be attractive to the right team on the open market.
