Why Diontae Johnson will be a WR1 in Carolina | Yahoo Fantasy Forecast
Yahoo fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens share their bold predictions for the wide receiver position this season. Hear the full conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Forecast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I think we all agree.
Like Deontay Johnson is gonna get more targets than a wide receiver that's typically ranked outside the top 30 at the position or going outside the top 30 at the position where he does go um in Yahoo drafts right now, he's wide receiver 32 65th, 65th overall player.
I've sort of heard people say, well, ok. Yeah, he's gonna have the targets but does he have the ceiling?
Why can't he have the ceiling?
Because in my opinion, Deonte Johnson is an excellent football player.
He's been one of the best Separators in the NFL period.
Certainly in reception perception.
He's coming off of all green route tree last year, baby.
Like that thing up like a freaking Christmas tree.
He's a separator all three levels.
He's been great.
But even if you wanna look at like other separation metrics, he's good in those too.
But don't look at that, only look at money.
I'm, I'm being facetious but seriously great separator.
We know that part of it.
He's, he's exactly what Bryce Young needed last year.
He's gonna have that guy this year.
But then you hear about who but the, the efficiency, the per target efficiency.
Uh, hey, haters and losers, he's coming off of his career best yards per target, career, best yards per route run.
And we wanna know why because he didn't play in Matt Canada's offense all season and he didn't have to just line up an ex receiver as a sub 6 ft, sub 200 pound player and just run a bunch of goes and curl routes.
That's all it took.
That's all it took for these efficiency metrics to, to the efficiency.
I mean, give me a freaking break.
So let's just say that efficiency from last year is combined with the target totals.
We know he can get, we know he can earn because of his separation ability.
And Bryce Young takes a step from bad to right around league average ish.
I think it's totally possible that Deonte Johnson could be a wide receiver one as the 32nd receiver off the board.
I love that you gave us the voice, not once but twice.
I love that you directly addressed the haters and losers of which there are many.
Um That's fantastic.
Yeah, I think I don't think anybody would even argue that Deontay Johnson, if he just stays healthy, it's gonna see 100 50 targets.
It's gonna be a, it's gonna be a ton of targets, right?
Like he's, he's absolutely gonna gonna finish among the league's target leaders.
And at that point, it's really hard for him not to beat his ad P.