At the NFL owner’s meetings in late March, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin stated that the team’s desire to improve its cornerback position was the driving force behind the trade of veteran wide receiver Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers, and that Johnson did not specifically request a trade.
The Steelers acquired experienced cornerback Dontae Jackson as part of the Johnson deal package with Carolina, which Tomlin saw as an urgent need.
“Really, it was simple, man,” he said. “We traded player for player. We had an opportunity to get D-Jack (Donte Jackson). D-Jack is a guy that we’ve evaluated probably several times since he’s been in the league, when he came out of LSU, when he faced free agency. We needed some assistance in depth and quality players at that position, so we made the move. They needed Diontae, we needed D-Jack. It was a good exchange.”
