The Cleveland Browns might end up being the worst team in the NFL for the 2025 season, so I guess they have nothing to lose. When a team is in this position where they truly may not have much to lose, they could absolutely take more risks. Cleveland isn't going to go much of anywhere in 2025, and them being able to acquire a first-round pick for the 2026 NFL Draft kind of tells us what this team plans to do.
Well, one of their free agency moves this offseason was signing Diontae Johnson, who has now played for three teams in the AFC North, but Johnson recently offered up a quite sad statement that perhaps indicates he was almost out of work for 2025.
Diontae Johnson said the Browns were the only team that contacted him
Johnson spoke recently about his free agency excursion, and it's kind of pathetic:
Diontae Johnson says the Browns were “really the only team that hit me up.” He says former Steelers teammate Kenny Pickett factored, as well.
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) June 11, 2025
Johnson is still just 28 years old but has played for a whopping four teams since the start of the 2023 NFL Season; Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens, and Houston Texans. Johnson seems to have quite the personality, and it seems to have really derailed his NFL career.
Across the first five years of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Johnson caught 391 passes for 4,363 yards and 25 touchdowns, so his career got off to a great start, but it seems like things just went south ever since he was traded to the Carolina Panthers, and if he can't make any noise in the 2025 NFL Season with the Cleveland Browns, he may not have any more interest in the NFL.
Diontae Johnson absolutely has a ton of talent, but it seems like there are off-field factors that have prevented him from finding some consistency ever since leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers.