Saints TE Juwan Johnson didn't miss a regular season game despite offseason foot surgery that kept him out a majority of training camp.
Still, his absence on the stat sheet and limited usage has been conspicuous over the first three games of the season with just a pair of catches, both coming in the season opener, for 26 yards and a touchdown.
That limited usage has been due, at least in part, to Johnson beginning the season on a "pitch count" of sorts as he ramps back from the injury, as Saints tight ends coach Clancy Barone explained to Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert on WWL this week.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints TEs coach Clancy Barone in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"We’re trying to be very smart with him," Barone said.
Johnson didn't get on the field until just ahead of the final preseason game after having a procedure to correct a stress fracture in his foot. The xx-year-old TE didn't realize there was any issue as he participated fully in OTAs, but felt foot pain ahead of veteran minicamp and the issue was discovered. He was out on the field working off to the side throughout the team's camp in Irvine, but didn't get cleared to participate in practice until the team returned to New Orleans for an open practice at Tulane. He saw limited work in the preseason finale and hasn't yet appeared on any of the first three injury reports.
"There’s a guy that hadn’t had a whole lot of time on task, and so to ask him to jump in there and get, you know, 45-50 snaps a game," Barone continued, "that wouldn’t have been very smart on our part, so a lot of it has been kind of ramping him up and getting him back up to speed to where he can have a bigger role in the offense."
The snap totals do support that idea, with Johnson logging 27 snaps against the Panthers in Week 1, 30 against the Cowboys in Week 2 and 33 against the Eagles this past weekend. Foster Moreau has been the leading snap-getter (59, 54 and 42) and has 5 catches for 45 yards and TD of his own, while Taysom Hill has also had significant involvement before missing Week 3 due to an injury.
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Still, it hasn't been a particularly busy start to the year for the tight ends in the passing game and that involves a variety of factors. "It's hard to argue with the production," head coach Dennis Allen told WWL this week as it pertained to the TE usage in Weeks 1-2, which saw the Saints offense drop 91 points in a pair of blowout wins.
Week 3 was a different story. That game came with its own unique set of challenges, particularly the loss of center Erik McCoy on the third play of the game. He'll miss significant time after undergoing surgery to address his groin injury. The gameplan was thrown into flux, Barone explained, and the blocking had to adjust on the fly, and that's often going to happen at the expense of the TEs in the passing game.
"Oftentimes we’re the ones that get caught up in the hey, we’ve got to kind of pick up the slack in certain areas just so we can try to execute the gameplan," Barone said, "and that happens with every team at some point throughout the year and it just so happened that this past weekend was that point in the year for us."
The Saints' next chance for the tight ends to get in on the action will come in Atlanta for a divisional showdown against the Falcons.