CLEVELAND, Ohio –
Browns have agreed to terms on a one-year. with Diontae Johnson. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)AP
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Kenny Pickett will have an old, familiar target on hand as he tries to win the Browns starting quarterback job.
After not selecting any receivers in the NFL draft over the weekend, the Browns on Monday agreed to terms on a one-year deal with controversial former Steelers Pro Bowl receiver Diontae Johnson, 28, who spent two seasons in Pittsburgh with Pickett.
The Browns also left open the door for their own free agent, Elijah Moore, to return.
A third-round pick of the Steelers out of Toledo in 2019, Johnson spent his first five seasons in Pittsburgh, but has bounced around to four other teams since March of 2024, largely because of apparent attitude or behavioral issues.
The Browns are his fifth team in the last 13 months, and the Ravens were his third as he makes his rounds in the AFC North. He also had a brief stint with the Texans, but hasn’t been able to make anything stick.
In his six-year career, he’s started 75 games, catching 424 passes for 4,738 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Johnson joins fellow Pro Bowler Jerry Jeudy and 2023 third-rounder Cedric Tillman on the receiving corps. He’ll be another potentially dangerous weapon for whoever starts at quarterback for the Browns, providing he can keep his cool.
In Johnson, the Browns are taking on a player with plenty of baggage from last season, with three teams giving up on him.
He was traded from the Steelers to the Panthers in March of 2024 in exchange for cornerback Donte Jackson, and led the team with 30 catches for 357 yards and three touchdowns through the first seven games. But he was traded to the Ravens on Oct. 29 along with a sixth-round pick in exchange for a fifth-rounder.
Things didn’t go well in Baltimore, where he caught 1 of 5 targets for 6 yards in his four games, and was suspended one game for conduct detrimental to the team for refusing to play Dec. 1 against the Eagles. The Ravens waived him and he was picked up by the Texans — his fourth team in nine months — but his troubles followed him there.
He managed just two receptions for 12 yard in a game against the Titans, and one catch for 12 yards in a wild card victory over the Chargers. But Johnson was reportedly visibly upset in the locker room after that game for his lack of playing time, and teammates had to calm him down.
The Texans waived him on Jan. 14, and he was claimed by the Ravens so they could possibly factor him into their compensatory pick formula in 2026.
His fifth team in just over a year, the Browns will have to determine if they can get the best out of Johnson without the drama that characterized his last four stops. Apparently, Browns GM Andrew Berry felt it was a risk worth taking.
In Johnson’s two seasons with Pickett as the starter in Pittsburgh, 2022 and 2023, he caught 86 passes for 882 yards and 0 TDs, and 51 for 717 yards and 5 TDs, respectively, although Pickett didn’t start all of those games.
It remains to be seen if Johnson will be catching the ball from Pickett again, because the Browns will conduct a four-way competition at quarterback among him, Joe Flacco, and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
Johnson’s lone 1,000-yard season came in 2021, Ben Roethlisberger’s last in Pittsburgh. That year, he caught 107 passes for 1,161 yards and 8 TDs.
In the 2020 season, Johnson caught 11 passes for 117 yards in the Steelers’ 48-37 loss to the Browns in the wild card game in Pittsburgh.
As for Moore, the Browns applied the rarely-used “May” unrestricted free agent tender to him, meaning he’ll still count toward their compensatory pick formula for 2026 if he signs elsewhere before the upcoming deadline. Moore visited the Bills on Monday and may or may not sign with them. If he remains with the Browns, the tender is worth $3.428 million for 2025.
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