New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson wrapped up his first season under a 3-year, $30.75 million contract. The sixth-year tight end finished the season as the Saints\u2019 second-leading receiver with 77 receptions for 889 yards and 3 touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Head coach Kellen Moore was eager to bring Johnson back for 2025, holding a meeting with the tight end that went on for hours, with Moore selling Johnson his vision for him in the offense. New Orleans\u2019 decision to bring Johnson back on a hefty contract was quite a surprise. While the former undrafted free agent has been serviceable for the Saints since entering the league, a lack of consistency and a failure to breakout made his significant contract turn heads. However, Johnson\u2019s contract made him the 13th highest-paid tight end in the league, and he exceeded his contract and finished as TE3.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s breakout season didn\u2019t come without its flaws. Despite a 75.49 catch percentage, which is the second-best among the top-10 tight ends in receiving yards, Johnson had a problem with drops. From turning his head too early before making the reception to simple drops, mistakes plagued the wide receiver-turned-tight end throughout the season. Johnson also fumbled twice in 2025.<\/p>\n
Johnson often made up for his mistakes. It felt as if when he made a mistake, Johnson would respond with an impressive reception or big play.<\/p>\n
Despite a solid first three weeks of the season, Johnson\u2019s best play came when rookie quarterback Tyler Shough took over at quarterback. Shough relied on his former college teammate as a safety net and looked for him whenever a play broke down. Johnson averaged 57.8 yards per game with Shough under center compared to just 46 yards per game with Spencer Rattler at quarterback.<\/p>\n
Johnson looks to be a crucial part of Shough\u2019s development down the line, and he performed more than his contract asked of him. With a full offseason to work with Kellen Moore and Shough, Juwan Johnson could be heading towards a better season in 2026, and with improvements on his mistakes from the season, the Saints could have gotten a steal on Johnson\u2019s annual $10 million contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson wrapped up his first season under a 3-year, $30.75 million contract.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,65685,84861,3578,401,12019,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-711907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-orleans","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints-analysis","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints-player-review","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints-free-agency","14":"tag-new-orleans-saints-news","15":"tag-new-orleans-saints-salary-cap","16":"tag-neworleans","17":"tag-neworleanssaints","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115973798218806319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}