a new contract. There was reporting that he has a dispute
with the Steelers. I saw something yesterday that he
wasn't there, for the start of the offseason program.
He says don't believe everything
you see after reports of a contract dispute.
So,
okay. We'll see. If they don't have a story they're going to
make one. Look. I mean deante Johnson. All due respect. We
got plenty of other stuff to talk about the NFL. We didn't
need to make
a story about a nothing. The bottom line is if he's truly
Not there, and he's one of the guys who's in line for a new
contract then. Yeah. People think about that. Right? And
Chris. I thought of this the other day there was a time when
the Steelers had
Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown. Yeah,
early in their careers.
They tried to sign
Mike Wallace.
Mike Wallace didn't want the money. They were offering it,
right? So they said fine fine, basically.
We're done. We'll give it dantonio brown and they did and
Wallace left
and I could see the Steelers right now. They're not going to
pay both in my opinion. Maybe I'm Wrong.
Wouldn't be the first time
today that I am but
maybe they're not going to pay both deante Johnson and Chase
Claypool and they're trying to figure out who gets it now and
claypool's. Not even eligible yet. He's a year away. So they
may try to slow Pella slow play easy for him to say, slow play.
Deante Johnson until they decide what they're going to do
with Chase. Claypool
because I think it's going to be one of the other. That's why
I keep mentioning Claypool is a guy could potentially be traded
to the Packers. I think at the end of the day, the Steelers
know, they're only going to have one of
those two guys. Well,
yeah, and yeah, they're in that process of trying to figure out
which of the two guys they're going to have. And, and you
know, deante Johnson downplaying it. But
you know, I think there's an issue there.
Yeah. Well, the the
it seems like it. I mean, listen, there's, it's on the horizon.
A deante Johnson, firm, my money,
you know, is not in the
Some of the other receivers were talking about. He's really
good. I'm certainly not trying to disrespect the player, but
he's not Debo or AJ brown or DK Metcalf or Terry McLaren for
that. Crook
for that, for that matter.
All right, but like, no, an awesome player. A number one
wide receiver. No doubt about that. Then can do everything
but also like not been,
you know, we got to remember here to like those other guys
have been dependable and also like the mainstay. They or
the the main piece of the offense. Deante Johnson has been
one of the one of the top pieces of the offense, but I'm
not going to sit here and say it's the main piece. I'm not,
he had drop issues two years ago, right? So we had those
issues and a lot of drops and some big moments and things
like that.
So to me, he hasn't performed at the level those other guys have
I think hey, it's fair to
start striking these conversations up, but
I don't look at it. Quite the same as like all you got to
hold out and get your money. Now you deserve to be paid like
Debo AJ Brown to me. It's a little bit of a different
situation and scenario there.
And then you couple that on with the Claypool aspect of it.
I think that makes it even a little more interesting Mike
because you're right, Pittsburgh's always got
receivers coming down the barrel. That's the one thing.
When you look back at their history. It was in will let go
of Santonio. Holmes. We got Wallace, San Antonio Brown.
Oh, well, we'll let got find. Okay, we can't get Wallace. All
right, fine. And this Martavis Bryant they draft and that
it's, you know, Juice and Schuster you later.
It's also they've always had guys coming up the ranks here.
I don't know if they got any more coming up the ranks past.
These two right now who are really good players, all
the more reason to find a way to keep Kevin. Kolbert around.
Remember, he told us during the scouting combine, depending
upon who
the new GM is he may stick around. I would keep him around
because somebody who's got the Golden Touch, no doubt come to
either drafting or developing young receivers contrary to New
England, Patriots. The Steelers have cracked the code and they
need to be sure that to the extent. That Kevin Colburn
has some secret, they figure out what it is or keep him
around, so he can help out.