Juwan Johnson found the free agency process draining, and he won't pretend otherwise.
It started with minimal contact from the Saints and included interest from multiple other teams. New Orleans did put an offer down on the table, but the Saints TE was still wrestling with it, so much so that on a night when he couldn't fall asleep, he got up and dialed new Saints head coach Kellen Moore. It was sometime around 11:30 p.m. or midnight, Moore answered and the pair talked for about a half-hour on the new head coach's plans and Moore's vision for Johnson in the offense.
Fast-forward to the eve of free agency and Johnson was inking a 3-year, $30 million extension to stick with the team that found him as an undrafted WR to start an NFL journey that has now seen him transition to tight end. The deal ranks 12th among NFL tight ends in terms of average salary.
"It just felt right," Johnson told WWL. "It just felt right being back in New Orleans, being somewhere I started."
Listen to WWL's exclusive interview with Saints TE Juwan Johnson in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The 28-year-old said he fielded offers from multiple teams, most notably the Broncos and former Saints coach Sean Payton, as well as the Seahawks with their offense now led by former Saints OC Klint Kubiak. Denver ultimately signed former Jaguars TE Evan Engram on a 2-year deal worth $23 million.
Johnson never truly wanted to leave, he said, just like how in his heart he didn't truly want to transfer to Oregon from Penn State ahead of his final college season. He pulled the trigger at that point, but told himself if he got a similar opportunity in the future, he'd do things differently. Johnson has two young children who were born in New Orleans and has fallen in love with the region and community around the team. He wants to leave a positive impact, but understood that might be out of his control. He wouldn't have held a grudge against the team if they decided to move in a different direction, but it'd mean he'd have to do the same. That's why Moore fielding his call late in the night, and the messaging therein, felt so important.
Johnson wouldn't go so far as to say a missed call might've sent him out of town. He just grinned and said it's impossible to know.
"Shoot, it meant a lot. ... It’s not really much of what he said, it’s like, the actions, because people can say a lot of things and just like I’m gonna go on later about, about just the team success," Johnson told reporters this week. "It’s not about what we say, it’s about what we do. People are tired of like, 'oh, we’re the Saints, we’re gonna do this.' No, we’ve got to do it at this point, but I think him answering that call that late at night. He’s got a wife, he’s got kids. He probably don’t want to be up, but him just answering my call, that really meant a lot to me.”
The call was answered. The contract -- which Johnson appreciated as a fair starting offer when many teams might've lowballed -- was signed. What's left to do is deliver on it.
In most cases a 28-year-old claiming his best football lies ahead would be greeted by an eyeroll. In Johnson's case it's more than fair to believe, with just three true seasons at tight end to gauge. Position switches at the NFL level are rare, but there's plenty of talent still to mine.
"I’m not gonna put a limit on myself and I don’t think anyone else should," Johnson said. "So yea this is a 3-year contract, but I want to be staying in New Orleans for a lot longer than that."
He's coming off a season with career highs in catches (50) and yardage (548), with his yardage total pacing the team due to key injuries to both Week 1 starting wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. Johnson finished the season strong after starting the year with a broken foot in the offseason. Despite a role that he didn't see as his most productive, he felt like his blocking stood out and his goal is to be a well-rounded tight end and, most importantly, put together a complete season.
The majority of Johnson's snaps came in-line to start the year, in part because injuries left the Saints needing blocking help in the run game. Johnson didn't play more than 28 offensive snaps in any of the third three weeks of the season, logging just 2 catches for 16 yards and a touchdown in that span. Over the first three weeks of the season Johnson ran a total of 29 routes, according to PFF. During the same span in 2023, Johnson ran 86 routes and was on the field for more than double the snaps.
"I wasn’t playing as much, to be quite honest with you, and that’s really what it was," Johnson told WWL. "It wasn’t anything that I had any hard feelings about or anything about that, it’s just that was the role that I had and that’s something that I accepted."
From the Week 13 mark on (6 games) Johnson never logged fewer that 40 offensive snaps, hauling in 25 catches for 271 yards and a touchdown.
"I ended the year how it was supposed to go and obviously there was a lot more that could’ve happened during the year that I would’ve wanted to get back and get more opportunities at," Johnson told WWL Radio, "but that just wasn’t in the cards and obviously I have another year to go and prove those things again, not to anybody else, but just to myself.”
The offense Moore is bringing to New Orleans is known to be friendly to tight ends, and Johnson got a good look at it this past season with Dallas Goedert and the Eagles coming to town in Week 3. Injuries limited Goedert's season to 10 games, but he still rolled up an impressive 42 catches for 496 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His biggest game of the season came against the Saints when he logged 10 catches for 170 yards.
It's a vision that Johnson sees for himself, and clearly one that the Saints see, too.
"There’s going to be a time where it’s gonna click and it’s gonna be scary," Johnson continued. "And so I’m not trying to say that to be like, 'oh, here he is saying something.' The action has to follow it. I mean, I know what I can do and everybody around knows what I can do in this building, so we’re gonna see.”
