Pittsburgh Steelers: 3 Players to watch vs. Titans in Preseason Week 3
By Samuel Teets
As the Pittsburgh Steelers preseason continues, our focus will be drawn more toward position battles for superiority on the depth chart.
The Pittsburgh Steelers managed to get through a sloppy game against the Kansas City Chiefs to advance their preseason record to 2-0. Now, Pittsburgh will turn its attention to the 1-1 Tennessee Titans.
Rolling into Week 3 of the preseason, most of the attention has shifted toward the starters that will be playing. Fans and media members are craving the regular season, so it’s only natural that starters have the biggest attention draw.
However, there are still plenty of players battling for depth chart positioning.
The three players this article focuses on are all fighting to keep ahead of in-house competition. For them, a strong preseason performance could mean the difference between retaining some level of prominence or seeing their hopes for the 2019 season fade away.
Diontae Johnson, WR
I used Johnson in a similar article last week, but the fans’ focus should remain on him. Johnson, who missed the first week of the preseason, had a solid outing against the Kansas City Chiefs. Although, his night didn’t start well. Pittsburgh was trying Johnson out as a punt returner and he muffed the first one that came his way. The Steelers did recover the fumble.
After that mistake, which can easily be attributed to nervousness, Johnson settled into the game. He finished the contest with three receptions on five targets for 46 yards and a touchdown. While that’s a respectable preseason outing, I’m hoping to see more from Johnson in Week 3. His training camp hype has outdone his play at this point.
While preseason games don’t mean much when carried over to the regular season, it would be nice to see Johnson have a James Washington-esque game. Washington has posted consistent numbers in both preseason games and has a total of eight receptions, 162 yards and a touchdown.
While Johnson is supposed to be a speedy deep threat, Washington has been the one gouging out large chunks of yards.