The Pittsburgh Steelers have a few wide receivers worth paying attention to in the playoffs, whether you think they’ll get out of the first round or not. Let’s look at what the trio of Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and Ray-Ray McCloud can fare in the fantasy football playoffs and whether they’re sound investments for DFS lineups.
Diontae Johnson is a stud of all studs
All the talk about how Johnson wouldn’t be a top-tier fantasy asset because of his drops was washed away when Johnson put up 107 receptions, 1,161 receiving yards, and 8 TDs this year. In half-PPR scoring, Johnson finished the season as the WR9. No matter what your narratives are about how Ben Roethlisberger’s arm is declining and all that, it didn’t matter. Johnson was a locked-in WR1.
Johnson finished the 2021 season with the same average fantasy points per game (13.8) as Stefon Diggs, which should surprise no one. The Steelers’ WR1 is a technician and capable of generating great separation, and he’s a target hog. Johnson had the second-most targets in the NFL this year with 169, behind only Cooper Kupp.
Chase Claypool has been disappointing
After a rookie season full of splash plays and a lot of promise, Claypool has been more well-known this year for celebrating a first down with the clock expiring than any other act on the football field.
Claypool finished his second season with only 59 receptions, 860 yards, and 2 TDs.
If you compare this year’s numbers to last year, everything about his profile is almost identical, except for a sharp decrease in touchdowns. His receptions and targets are almost exactly the same — he had 62 receptions on 109 targets for 873 yards last year, and 59 receptions on 105 targets for 860 yards this year. In 2020, he managed 11 total touchdowns –compare that to the 2 he had this year.
It could be the emergence of rookie running back Najee Harris or rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth. Nonetheless, Claypool is simply not a key part of the Steelers’ red-zone plans.
How to treat Johnson, Claypool, and McCloud in DFS and playoff leagues
The fact of the matter is that the Steelers are a long shot to get beyond the Kansas City Chiefs. In one of the best examples of reverse psychology that I have ever seen, Roethlisberger said that the Steelers have no chance, so they should just go out there and have fun.
His reverse psychology doesn’t have a great chance of working. The Steelers limped into the playoffs because of a shocking win by the Jacksonville Jaguars over the Indianapolis Colts. While Johnson has been a WR1 this season, I wouldn’t invest highly in him in playoff leagues.
For DFS purposes, Johnson costs $6,700 on DraftKings, Claypool is $4,800, and McCloud is way down at $3,700. All Pittsburgh wide receivers feel like good options to consider. The Steelers are going against a Chiefs defense that has given up the most fantasy points per game to WRs over the last two weeks. Opposing wide receivers have racked up 502 yards and 4 TDs in the last two games.