Saints TE Juwan Johnson managed just 4 catches for a season-low 16 yards in Sunday's loss to the Vikings, on 5 targets. Part of the issue was play volume, as Minnesota nearly doubled New Orleans in time of possession -- 39:37 to 20:23 -- and Tyler Shough attempted a season-low 25 passes. But Johnson has also seen negative impact to his role when TEs Noah Fant and Oscar Delp are both available. Fant returned from a one-week injury Sunday to play one more total snap than Johnson and run nine routes to Johnson's 18. Delp trailed them, playing 17 snaps (37.8%) and running two pass routes.
2026 Fantasy Football Impact: It Hasn't Hurt Him Yet, Though
Delp missed the opener, and Fant sat out Week 4. Those games saw Johnson run a route on 77% of dropbacks. The other three games have presented a 63.1% route rate for Johnson, according to Pro Football Focus.
That's not an enormous difference, but it does come out to 6.3 fewer routes when applied to Shough's average of 45 dropbacks per game so far.
That's enough to matter, and it chips away at Johnson's weekly floor. Fortunately, though, it has not damaged his target share thus far.
Johnson drew 14.4% of Shough's total pass attempts in the two games that one of his TE mates missed. He has garnered 16.8% of those passes the other three weeks. That included a 20% share of Sunday's 25 attempts.
We'll keep tracking the impact of a full TE depth chart on Johnson's playing time and production. For now, though, it's merely a factor to be aware of rather than something that should adjust your lineup plans.
The next two weeks bring a positive scoring matchup with the Giants but then a negative spot against Pittsburgh. After the Week 8 bye, New Orleans gets the fifth-best slate of TE matchups the rest of the way.
