Dj contract as camp approaches

[Fiji Mariner]

Just because a bunch of dumbass teams are jumping off a bridge shelling out ludicrous receiver money to ok guys doesn’t mean the Steelers will.

No way I pay him 20m per or tag him. He’ll get paid elsewhere as we know how to draft WRs and it’s pointless to allocate that much money to him when we should be spending the money elsewhere next year (OT, DE or CB all come to mind)

Ball out this year, grab a ring then grab the bag DJ (from someone else) and we’ll take the 3rd round comp

 

[Hines57]

Huh????? DJ weak minded?

He is ******* soft. Fumbles, drops. Ain't worth $20M and if he is let someone else pay him that.

 

[F83]

its the market its harder they consider these new young guys about hometown discount when they see guys they are way better than get paid, this is all the Jags fault if they smartly did not rush kirk signing and started with a 8-10 mill start point they could of likely locked Kirk in around 12-14 mill, I think they just rushed all their weird signings Kirk Jones Engram.
When Kenny is ready to start you want a reliable guy he can go to whether he is lined inside or outside.

 

[Steel Reign]

DJ will ONLY get signed if he and his agents are reasonable. I don't mean taking a hometown discount or any such things; just reasonable. Just can't see the Steelers overpaying him based on where the team is right now. The problem is, and not intended as sarcasm, I can admit it would be awful darn hard for a WR to be reasonable right now when teams are handing out batshit crazy contracts.

 

[Fiji Mariner]

its the market its harder they consider these new young guys about hometown discount when they see guys they are way better than get paid, this is all the Jags fault if they smartly did not rush kirk signing and started with a 8-10 mill start point they could of likely locked Kirk in around 12-14 mill, I think they just rushed all their weird signings Kirk Jones Engram.
When Kenny is ready to start you want a reliable guy he can go to whether he is lined inside or outside.

When Kenny is ready to start Mitch is gonna be coming off back to back SB victories and he’ll still be the backup…at a reasonable price.

 

[Superman]

DJ gets a bad rap from some (@Hines57) but is our best WR. But, is that saying anything?
We have Claypool who COULD be a monster. All the attributes to be a dominating WR. But ***** himself on seemingly every play by either jumping for non-jump balls or trying to make something out of nothing and ******* up.

Looking at who we drafted ... Pickens is a dog. Dude is going to turn heads. He has #1 WR written all over him. His QBs at Georgia were short and slow on delivery. But he made up for it. Dude just drips talent.

Austin hopefully is a good #3 WR. Perfect for slot or motion. And with THAT speed... damn.

Personally, I'd pay DJ. Not quite $20 mil per but 17-18. He's good, and he'll be better when he's not the focus of the safeties and CBs.

Tag DJ this year. Chase is going to be a FA after 2023, so the FO will need to make a decision now between the two. No way we sign both. By 2024, Pickens will be hitting his third year and if all goes well, he'll skyrocket that year. Paying DJ now will be cheaper than paying Claypool next season.

 

[slashsteel]

He is ******* soft. Fumbles, drops. Ain't worth $20M and if he is let someone else pay him that.

He has cleaned up a lot of those drops. If I had to point out the annoying part of his game to me it would be when he backtracks trying to get extra yardage. That **** annoys the hell out of me.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Claypool needs to be coached to drop the ******* high-school catching of balls. Become a professional catcher, catch on the stride run, catch on the stop then go, catch on the body positioning to muscle it away from defender, Combat catch, all those things don't include that little freaking jump to catch. Drives me insane to see a professional doing that crap and missing opportunities to make catches.

I'm hoping with his hard work over the off-season he has significantly honed his catchability.!!!

He and DJ could be a very dynamic pair in what each brings.


Salute the nation

 

[SteelerFan448]

Claypool needs to be coached to drop the ******* high-school catching of balls. Become a professional catcher, catch on the stride run, catch on the stop then go, catch on the body positioning to muscle it away from defender, Combat catch, all those things don't include that little freaking jump to catch. Drives me insane to see a professional doing that crap and missing opportunities to make catches.

I'm hoping with his hard work over the off-season he has significantly honed his catchability.!!!

He and DJ could be a very dynamic pair in what each brings.


Salute the nation

I hope they use Claypool as a big slot this year. That should nearly eliminate the need for him to jump and then fall to the ground.

 

[Litos]

I hope they use Claypool as a big slot this year. That should nearly eliminate the need for him to jump and then fall to the ground.

Oh Claypool, you big slot!

 

[xjx]

He dropped a lot of passes. Around mid-season he improved a bit. The dropsies came back later in the season. Not the mark of a 20M receiver.

 

[Fiji Mariner]

While I wouldn’t pay him the 20m (or more) the most drops I can find him credited with last season on any statistics site is 5.

So was the arc 2 drops first 5 games, 1 over the middle 7 (when he figures it out) and then 2 more over the last 5 games when the “dropsies came back”?

Just asking for a friend so we can better understand.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Drops are a subjective stat so it’s hard to say for sure based on who’s evaluating the receivers. I want to wait and see on Johnson because he’s been handcuffed in this offense just as the other receivers with Roethlisberger’s limitations. The quick passing game eliminated mid-range and deep targets from the route running and this, IMO, is where good and great receivers make their money.

I’m willing to wait and spend a little more after this season if Johnson can prove to be an explosive player with an expanded playbook. The Steelers really should be using all area of the field this year.

 

[steelhurt]

My two cents, absolutely no way you give this guy a big contract of 22 million per or more. He’s a no 2 receiver and not a no. 1.
My opinion, try and move him for a premium pick in next year’s draft. Better that getting some fourth round compensatory pick. I’m fine with the young guys and besides, we’re not anywhere near going to a SB this year. Do not overpay for this guy. Not worth it!

 

[SteelerFan448]

My two cents, absolutely no way you give this guy a big contract of 22 million per or more. He’s a no 2 receiver and not a no. 1.
My opinion, try and move him for a premium pick in next year’s draft. Better that getting some fourth round compensatory pick. I’m fine with the young guys and besides, we’re not anywhere near going to a SB this year. Do not overpay for this guy. Not worth it!

If he's a No. 2, no team will give up a premium pick for him.

 

[steelhurt]

If he's a No. 2, no team will give up a premium pick for him.

Could be teams that may think he’s a no 1 though. Would be worth exploring that avenue. Lots of bad front offices out there so may be worth exploring rather than lose him to FA where someone will throw ridiculous money at him.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Could be teams that may think he’s a no 1 though. Would be worth exploring that avenue. Lots of bad front offices out there so may be worth exploring rather than lose him to FA where someone will throw ridiculous money at him.

Well this is true. The Dolphins gave up too much for Hill and the Cardinals gave up a first for Hollywood Brown.

 

[madinsomniac]

you don't get in cap trouble by paying great players, you get in cap trouble by paying good players at great player rates.

The Chiefs decided to let Tyreek Hill leave because it was too much money. Same with the Titans dealing AJ Brown. There have been tons of quality WRs coming into the league for years. There's a surplus now.

I can't see paying DJ top money.

But that kind of thing tends to work itself out… like Bell taking that money grab from the Jets… id take DJ into next year and see how he does.. if he has a down year, the problem fixes itself.. if he balls out, then you tag him and tell his agent that you love the player, but don’t think that market value will hold out long term.
Offer him 18 mil per for 3 years, this way he can still cash in once more… tell them that can explore the trade market if they like, but you need a pick back in comparison with his value… so depending on how good this year goes a second or first probably…

He dropped a lot of passes. Around mid-season he improved a bit. The dropsies came back later in the season. Not the mark of a 20M receiver.

Take a look at the drop rates for other big time wrs… wrs drop the ball more than people think

 

[tapeANaspirin2it]

Drops are a subjective stat so it’s hard to say for sure based on who’s evaluating the receivers. I want to wait and see on Johnson because he’s been handcuffed in this offense just as the other receivers with Roethlisberger’s limitations. The quick passing game eliminated mid-range and deep targets from the route running and this, IMO, is where good and great receivers make their money.

I’m willing to wait and spend a little more after this season if Johnson can prove to be an explosive player with an expanded playbook. The Steelers really should be using all area of the field this year.

If Ben showed up in camp , he'd still have more arm talent than any QB on the roster. Maybe Canada wanted to do some things with RPO or rollouts and such that he couldn't do with Ben but in terms of throws, there's no throw Pickett can make that last year's Ben couldn't.

It all started with the OL being awful. No fear of the run game so play action didn't do much. Pass pro wasn't great either so Ben had to throw quickly. When he did have time, the WRs made almost no plays for Ben. There were lots of deep throws where the WR (often Claypool) could have made a play and just watched the DB bat it down or didn't track it well enough to get in position to make a play.

I feel Canada has scapegoated Ben quite a bit.

 

[Litos]

But that kind of thing tends to work itself out… like Bell taking that money grab from the Jets… id take DJ into next year and see how he does.. if he has a down year, the problem fixes itself.. if he balls out, then you tag him and tell his agent that you love the player, but don’t think that market value will hold out long term.
Offer him 18 mil per for 3 years, this way he can still cash in once more… tell them that can explore the trade market if they like, but you need a pick back in comparison with his value… so depending on how good this year goes a second or first probably…

Take a look at the drop rates for other big time wrs… wrs drop the ball more than people think

If he balls out then an 18M offer would be a slap in his face

 

[bigben]

DJ is worth every bit of $20M a season, and the Steelers are dumb for not signing him already, because his price will continue to rise with mediocre WRs getting signed for that amount.

Think about it guys, Ben was getting the ball out in 1.7 seconds last 2 seasons. He caught 195 balls in 2 years, with most of them being around the 2sec mark. Look at his volume vs Ben's time in the pocket. It is no wonder why DJ had the best separation on his first break according to PFF. Kid is undefendable, like AB before him.

He's improved each year, has never been a problem and had less drops than both Hill and Kupp had last year. You don't hear their fan bases asking for them to be cut, do you? Worst argument I've ever heard against a Pro Bowl WR in my time as a Steeler fan...

Well Hill was traded and kupp had double the tds and almost 2k yards. Nobody would be complaining if johnson was putting up anywhere close to Kupps numbers.

 

[Fiji Mariner]

My two cents, absolutely no way you give this guy a big contract of 22 million per or more. He’s a no 2 receiver and not a no. 1.
My opinion, try and move him for a premium pick in next year’s draft. Better that getting some fourth round compensatory pick. I’m fine with the young guys and besides, we’re not anywhere near going to a SB this year. Do not overpay for this guy. Not worth it!

How do you intend to move him for a premium pick next year? Or are you saying move him now and send the message to all the vets that we’re in rebuild mode. I wouldn’t move him this year to get a 2nd when we’ll likely get a third round comp for him anyways

 

[BLITZ]

I think the time to trade him was before or during the draft. We missed the time frame of crazy teams throwing crazy money at someone who touches the ball 5-10 times a game. Crazy.

 

[SteelerFan448]

If Ben showed up in camp , he'd still have more arm talent than any QB on the roster. Maybe Canada wanted to do some things with RPO or rollouts and such that he couldn't do with Ben but in terms of throws, there's no throw Pickett can make that last year's Ben couldn't.

It all started with the OL being awful. No fear of the run game so play action didn't do much. Pass pro wasn't great either so Ben had to throw quickly. When he did have time, the WRs made almost no plays for Ben. There were lots of deep throws where the WR (often Claypool) could have made a play and just watched the DB bat it down or didn't track it well enough to get in position to make a play.

I feel Canada has scapegoated Ben quite a bit.

The arm talent is still there but the legs were gone. If Ben could do more he would have and would still be playing this year. I don’t think Canada is that good of a coordinator and his track record has shown that, but no OC comes in and wants to throw short passes most of the time and not use the middle of the field at all. The QB was a limiting factor last season.

 

[madinsomniac]

If he balls out then an 18M offer would be a slap in his face

Then he is free to seek a trade… even at the 300 million the cap will be at when his next deal likely expires, 20 mil plus for a wr is way overpriced… the contract for a good, not great, wr, QB and Lt cant add up to be 1/3 of your cap and thats the direction its going even with the cap raising 20 mil a year for the next six years

i was on board signing him long term when the discussion was 12-15… i can sort of flesh out 18 mil though that is pushing it, but 20 mil plus is stupid money… let other teams do that ****.. get the right qb and wr matters a lot less…