With Chris Olave ruled out of the New Orleans Saints season finale, Juwan Johnson will be Tyler Shough's best available receiving threat on Sunday. Johnson just recorded his season high in receiving yards, and the Saints will hope he can build on that.
Johnson is currently having the best season of his career. He has far exceeded his career highs in receptions and receiving yards. He is still four touchdowns short of tying the most he's ever had. He's definitely proven himself to be worthy of the contract he signed this offseason.
The reason Johnson will need to lead the charge is the wide receiver room is depleted. Kevin Austin Jr. and Dante Pettis have made plays recently, but that was also with Olave drawing attention. The battle for those wide receivers to get open just got more difficult.
This isn't the first time the Saints have needed Juwan Johnson to step up
Johnson is unquestionably the top target in the receiving threat against the Falcons, but that isn’t too far from where he’s been all season long.
When Spencer Rattler was at the helm, targeting Johnson was a priority for the second year quarterback. To start the year, it even felt like he preferred to target Johnson over Olave.
While that eventually changed, Johnson remained a priority and the second or third option. That was when Rashid Shaheed and Brandin Cooks were still on the team.
Johnson’s connection with Shough was instant. The tight end has been a great catch and run threat with how quick Shough gets him the ball underneath.
Johnson has been a priority since Day 1 but he’s been forced into being the unquestioned second threat after Devaughn Vele’s injury. Johnson responded with 89 yards versus the Jets and 95 yards against the Titans. Those were good for his first and third highest yardage totals of the season.
The Saints needed Johnson to do more and he did. The Johnson-Olave show has been the engine of the passing attack for the last two weeks. With only Johnson available, the Saints will need the tight end to carry an even larger share of the workload. Whether through chemistry or necessity, Johnson has stepped into big roles for the Saints throughout the season.