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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Diontae Johnson hears the noise.
It's becoming deafening at the moment to the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver. He remains intent on attempting to block it out, which isn't exactly easy when strangers keep offering opinions on your worth.
The 25-year-old has evolved in his brief career from a somewhat risky third-round pick in 2019 to Pittsburgh's most established pass catcher as he enters 2022. His productivity spiked last fall when he hauled in 107 receptions, tied for fifth best in the league and sixth most in a single season in franchise history and made the Pro Bowl for the first time.
The spike coincided with Johnson entering the final year of his rookie contract. He's scheduled to make a little more than $3 million this season, a modest sum considering the market for prolific receivers exploded in recent months, with Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams and A.J. Brown all signing monster deals.
Johnson is not in their category at the moment, which is where things get a little thorny. He's not a consistent gamebreaker such as Hill. He's not as dynamic as Adams and Brown. Still, Johnson has established himself in the upper echelon at his position. Barring injury or a mystifying drop in production, he's due a hefty raise at some point in the next year.
The question is how much, and whether it will come from the Steelers. In that sense, Johnson offers a Rorschach test of sorts. He is putting up No. 1 receiver numbers, even if he doesn't necessarily cut what has become the typical profile of a No. 1. It's a debate that Johnson has been unable to avoid.
"There's a lot of stuff going on out there saying certain stuff about me," Johnson said Tuesday as the Steelers began mandatory minicamp. "But at the end of the day, I can just only move forward and just control what I can control."
Such as showing up for work. Johnson skipped the majority of Pittsburgh's two weeks of voluntarily organized team activities, though teammates such as fellow wide receiver Chase Claypool stressed they weren't worried about Johnson getting his necessary work in.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin praised Johnson's ability to lead by example for an extremely young group, one in which Johnson is now the elder statesman after JuJu Smith-Schuster left in free agency.