It hasn’t taken long for Diontae Johnson to be linked with new teams, following his release from the Baltimore Ravens, with the wide receiver tipped to join two of the AFC’s leading contenders, the Buffalo Bills or defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Either move would have plenty of significance for the Ravens.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Adam Schfter threw the Los Angeles Chargers into the mix as a potential landing spot, along with the Chiefs.
Both the Bills and Chiefs stand in the way of the Ravens and their ambitions for conference supremacy. Johnson has the raw talent to improve either team, provided he got along better than he did with the Ravens.
Not wanting to take the field earned Johnson a one-game suspension in Week 15. He was also made a healthy scratch for this week’s rematch with former team the Pittsburgh Steelers, despite a worrying list of injuries at receiver.
The writing was on the wall after those decisions, and the Ravens finally did the inevitable on Friday, December 20. They confirmed the decision to waive Johnson, along with revealing they promoted Anthony Miller from the practice squad.
Johnson left the Ravens with no choice, but the 28-year-old still has value for some of the AFC’s top teams.
Diontae Johnson Has Value for Chiefs, Bills
There are good reasons for both the Chiefs and Bills to pursue Johnson once he clears waivers on Monday. Starting with the Chiefs, those reasons are spelled out by TWSN’s Brent Hertzeneberg.
He thinks that “Although the Chiefs just reactivated Hollywood Brown from being injured all season, they are still extremely thin at receiver. Ravaged by injuries to Brown, Rashee Rice, Skyy Moore, and Mecole Hardman, it would benefit them to add some talent depth at a very cheap price. It’s unknown how quickly Hollywood will be back to normal and outside of Xavier Worthy, the only other options are aging veterans in DeAndre Hopkins and JuJu Smith-Schuster. With this group, it would surprise no one to see another injury before the end of the season.”
Adding Johnson makes sense for the Chiefs because”it would cost the team very little to pay.” Finally, Hertzenberg thinks “it also would not hurt to have someone in team meetings who played for both the Ravens and Steelers very recently. If they were to face them in the playoffs, Johnson would be able to help them prepare by knowing certain schemes and tendencies.”
All of those are plausible reasons, but the Bills have a similar need. Particularly for Johnson to help leading receiver Khalil Shakir, according to Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Massare.
He described how “Johnson’s speed and agility would open up opportunities for Shakir, allowing him to work more effectively against double coverage and freeing up space in the middle of the field for other offensive options.”
Those other options include veteran Amari Cooper and rookie Keon Coleman. As Massare put it, “the current window of opportunity for the Bills is open; acquiring a player of Johnson’s caliber can solidify their chances of making a deep playoff run. One of the bigger reasons would be for the Bills to keep him away from the Kansas City Chiefs, where he would be a perfect match for Patrick Mahomes.”
There’s a good case to be made for Johnson helping one of the Ravens’ main rivals. Yet, there’s an equally good case for why teams should steer clear of the unproductive and troubled wideout.
Diontae Johnson Gave the Ravens No Choice
The Ravens had little option but to cut ties with Johnson, even though they only traded for the pass-catcher back in November. Sending a fifth-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft to the Carolina Panthers now looks like folly, but it was worth paying a small price to add another potential playmaker to the passing game.
Things didn’t work out, with Carita Parks of Double Take Sports noting as early as November 26, Johnson had “gotten some opportunities to contribute over the past few weeks but he has not delivered. This time he tripped over his own feet. It’s been little things like that.”
Not making the grade in practice and beyond made it difficult for Johnson to earn the trust of the Ravens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken. The lack of trust cut into the wideout’s playing time and led to a dismal final stat line, per The Baltimore Banner’s Jonas Shaffer.
Those numbers made it easier to waive goodbye to Johnson, but it won’t be so easy to replace him. Not when Miller has played on three teams in four seasons and hasn’t registered a catch since 2021.
The Ravens do have other options, including rookie Devontez Walker, who caught his first pro touchdown against the New York Giants last week. There’s also Tylan Wallace, but his greater value is measured in the return game.
One member of this trio needs to emerge to support second-year pro Zay Flowers and veteran Rashod Bateman, who is enjoying a breakout season. If that happens, the Ravens won’t care where Johnson finishes the season.
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