Diontae Johnson Joins Texans | Will Johnson Regain Fantasy Relevance this Season?

It’s been quite the NFL season for wide receiver Diontae Johnson.

He began the season with the Carolina Panthers before being traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Johnson was waived by Baltimore on Friday and got claimed by the Houston Texans on Monday.

Let’s get into what the move means for Johnson and the other members of the Texans’ offense.

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Season Numbers

In seven games with Carolina, Johnson caught 30 of his 58 targets for 357 yards and three touchdowns. 

He played in four games with Baltimore. Johnson had just one six-yard catch across his five targets. He was barely playing and was absent from the team before being waived.

The move to the Texans makes a lot of sense for Houston, as they just lost Tank Dell for the season. The Texans still have Nico Collins and Dalton Schultz as proven pass catchers, but after those two, the cupboard is a little bare.

Johnson has had some success during his six-year NFL career, but now will join his fourth team in the past two seasons. There’s probably some character issues that keep Johnson from sticking on rosters, but the Texans are desperate enough to give him a chance.

Texans’ Fantasy Outlooks

Let’s start with Johnson, who gets to join forces with C.J. Stroud, who has had a down season in comparison to his rookie one.

With Dell out for the season and only a couple other proven pass catchers on the team, there’s a decent chance that Johnson can carve out a pretty good role in his new offense.

The problem with the Johnson signing is that the Texans play on Christmas against the Ravens (and that makes me think maybe Houston brought him in to “steal” some information for what is a critical game). It seems unlikely that Johnson would be ready on such short notice, but the matchup is solid enough to play Johnson if he’s going to be out there.

I’d only consider starting him in a deep fantasy league and if my team was absolutely desperate for wide receiver help. I’d probably also need to see a report that he was going to play (and play a lot) to really feel any sort of confidence in playing him.

Even having Johnson out there would be a plus for Stroud. I think he can get by with just Collins and Schultz, but having more playmakers out there isn’t a bad thing for a quarterback and his level of production.

Stroud already has a pretty favorable matchup against Baltimore, and the claim of Johnson doesn’t really move the needle either way for the quarterback. If anything, it’s a slight boost to his fantasy outlook.

Collins is already a must-start player, regardless of which pass catchers are active alongside him. The claim of Johnson does not affect his fantasy outlook all that much. Even if Johnson plays and takes away a couple targets, his presence on the field should also open some things for Collins up.

Schultz is a fantasy tight end that I really like this week, especially after learning Dell would miss the game. He’s a streaming option, and one I’d love to play this week. The claim of Johnson doesn’t really alter my opinion on Schultz all that much. Much like with Collins, having Johnson out there could take away some targets, but it should also help open some things up.

I’ll quickly hit on Joe Mixon, because I don’t think the claim of Johnson affects him at all. Mixon has been a good/great starting option all season, and I like him again in week 17, even though the Ravens are a tough defensive matchup for him.

Outside Collins, Dell and Stefon Diggs, not many Houston wide receivers have been fantasy relevant this season. In fact, Johnson is now the team’s No. 4 PPR scorer per week now, and he’s at just 7.8 points per week.

John Metchie is averaging 3.7 points per week, while Robert Woods is at 2.3 points. Xavier Hutchinson sits at just 1.3 points a week. None of them were deep-league options for week 17 even after the Dell injury, and the claim of Johnson pretty much says that the team doesn’t believe in any of them.

I’d avoid them all in all league types, even if Johnson doesn’t suit up on Wednesday.

We’ll cover the Texans in more detail in the Wednesday starting option story, so be sure to check back for that!