This season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are having major issues not only on the field, but it appears to be leaking into the locker room as well.
Not only is the team’s play on the field bad right now, but the effort has been terrible as of well. No other position is this more obvious than at the wide receiver, especially Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Can they get over their issues and compete, and if so, should they be in your fantasy football lineup against the Indianapolis Colts?
Should You Start Diontae Johnson in Fantasy This Week?
There are some positives to how Johnson is playing. The good news is that he has scored a touchdown in each of his last three games, which is always nice for fantasy managers. He has been targeted at least five times in his last five games, with an average of 7.2 targets per game during that stretch.
In the game against the Colts, he had four catches for 62 yards and one touchdown. While this is definitely a positive, there are some reasons that could make you not want Johnson.
There are also several factors working against Johnson. First, the offense has been really bad over the last month. During this recent five-game stretch, Pittsburgh is averaging only 13.4 points per game. The Steelers have scored only seven touchdowns during these five games — Johnson has three of them.
That is disproportionately high, but in the other eight games he has played this year, he has only one touchdown.
It is hard to play any of the Steelers receivers because of their issues on the field. Johnson was the scapegoat a couple of weeks ago for a lack of effort. And last week, it was his teammate, Pickens.
Somehow, Pickens has taken the noise off Johnson’s lack of effort and topped it last week with his embarrassing lack of effort to help block for Jaylen Warren on the goal line. While that doesn’t necessarily influence fantasy football, it is a good indication of where the Steelers are right now as a team.
Besides the lack of blocking, the numbers aren’t worth being in your lineup as well. He had only three catches for 47 yards against the Colts. Pickens hasn’t scored a touchdown since an Oct. 29 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
MORE: PFN’s FREE NFL Playoff Predictor
The matchup against the Bengals on paper is a good one, as Cincinnati ranks 27th against the pass (254.1 yards per game). However, nothing the Steelers’ offense has done would indicate that this team is capable of exploiting that weakness and having a big game.
In the Pro Football Network Start/Sit Optimizer, PFN’s Consensus Rankings say that Johnson is the player to start. His projected 11.2 points include a projection of six receptions and 56 yards. That doesn’t seem like a big stat line, but it outperforms the consensus projection for Pickens (8.5 points).
Honestly, I don’t like either of them. As I mentioned, the body language of these two has been so bad that it’s hard for me to see them changing and having a big week for fantasy managers in the playoffs. I wouldn’t play them, but if you have to decide between these two, I’m going to go with Johnson.
He has obviously been more involved with the offense and is playing better fantasy-wise recently. He has three touchdowns in the last three games and is more likely of the two to have a big game.
Looking to make a trade in your fantasy league? Having trouble deciding who to start and who to sit? Setting DFS lineups? Check out PFN’s Free Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer, Start/Sit Optimizer, and DFS Lineup Optimizer to help you make the right decision!