{"id":1060,"date":"2025-06-21T01:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1060\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T01:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T01:48:08","slug":"i-checked-out-mentally-diontae-johnson-explains-what-went-wrong-with-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1060\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Checked Out Mentally:’ Diontae Johnson Explains What Went Wrong With Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long history of problematic wide receivers. George Pickens is the most recent example. While he wasn\u2019t as bad as some other receivers the Steelers have dealt with, his attitude was a problem. He could be following in the footsteps of Diontae Johnson, his former teammate in Pittsburgh. Since the Steelers traded him last year, Johnson\u2019s career has been on a downward spiral. That includes getting suspended and then cut by<\/a> the Baltimore Ravens. Recently, Johnson opened up about what went wrong in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaltimore, that was a tough situation for me,\u201d Johnson said on the YouTube channel Sport and Suits.<\/a> \u201cI love the players, I love the organization, but it wasn\u2019t for me. Going in, I checked out mentally. I just felt like I wasn\u2019t getting used, I don\u2019t wanna say used as being selfish, just feeling a part of the team. I just checked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 2019-23, Johnson was a productive player with the Steelers. While he had his issues, he was relatively successful. However, they traded him to the Carolina Panthers last offseason, and he didn\u2019t have the same impact there. In seven games, he put up 30 catches for 357 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

During the season, Johnson was traded to the Ravens, and things really started to go off the rails for him. He played in four games there, including one start, but he only recorded one catch for six yards. It was a disaster.<\/p>\n

It sounds like Johnson just didn\u2019t fit with the Ravens. However, he didn\u2019t help himself when he refused to enter the Ravens\u2019 Week 13 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Baltimore lost that game, and it seriously fractured Johnson\u2019s relationship with the team.<\/p>\n

He elaborated on why he didn\u2019t enter that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t getting into no run plays, no pass plays, no nothing. It was cold, so I\u2019m on the sideline, just standing there, going to the heater, back and forth, waiting to hear my name called,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cEnd of the third, going into the fourth, they\u2019re like, \u2018Tae, we need you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea for me.\u2019 I was thinking about my legs. I don\u2019t want to go out there and put bad things on film. It\u2019s not like I didn\u2019t want to go in the game. I told them I wasn\u2019t going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

That situation wasn\u2019t a good look for Johnson, and his explanation doesn\u2019t help his case much, either. He said he was waiting to hear his name called, but when it was, he was worried about looking bad on film. That doesn\u2019t make him sound like a team player.<\/p>\n

That decision resulted in the Ravens suspending<\/a> Johnson for a week. After that, they waived him, but his year didn\u2019t improve after that. The Houston Texans picked him up, but he only appeared in one game there, catching two passes for 12 yards. Johnson\u2019s year continued to go poorly, while the Ravens looked like one of the best teams in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Now, Johnson is with the Cleveland Browns, and this might be his last chance in the NFL. Despite being a free agent this offseason, Johnson wasn\u2019t a hot commodity. His 2024 season seriously hurt his value. However, he has an opportunity to change the narrative around him.<\/a> Johnson used to be a good player, but he can\u2019t be the Ravens version of himself anymore.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long history of problematic wide receivers. George Pickens is the most recent example.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[532,1544,91,1232,1545,62,939,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-1060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-cleveland-browns","10":"tag-diontae-johnson","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trending","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114718841469279345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}