Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In the first installment, it’s time to give Los Angeles Chargers receiver Quentin Johnston some love for his game against the Kansas City Chiefs. After two disappointing seasons, could this mark the first step in Johnston’s career turnaround?
You don’t necessarily need to be a hardcore Los Angeles Chargers fan to understand
that receiver Quentin Johnst0n has been an overall disappointment since the team selected him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2023 draft out of TCU. At 6’3 and 215 pounds, and with measurables straight out of science fiction, Johnston was tagged as the team’s No. 1 alpha receiver, and that hasn’t happened.
Among receivers selected in the 2023 draft, Johnson came into the 2025 season ranked 13th in targets (163), 18th in receptions (93), 17th in receiving yards (1,142), and tied for third with 10 receiving touchdowns. One statistic that Johnson has had no issue with regarding the league leaders is drops — especially in the 2024 season, when he had six on 98 targets. Drop tendencies at this level generally don’t resolve themselves, and coming into Johnston’s third season, the deserved narrative was that this was a guy with all the physical gifts in the world, and little sense of how to unleash them.
Then came the Chargers’ 27-21 Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, and Johnston’s first step in taking a sad song and making it better. Johnston’s stats weren’t of the OMG variety — he caught five passes on seven targets for 79 yards — but he did bring in two touchdowns, and he was responsible for more than one explosive play.
Perhaps most importantly, there wasn’t a single drop on the day. Johnston looked far more like the consistent weapon the Chargers hoped they’d get when they drafted him. The Chargers had Johnston rolling to the intermediate and deep levels a lot of the time — a nice show of faith which Johnston reciprocated with his efforts.
In addition, Johnston’s mere presence on the field led to the most important play of the game — Justin Herbert’s 19-yard scramble on third-and-14 with 2:14 left. Herbert said postgame that a run was not part of the original plan.
“Yeah, [I] was trying to get the ball to Q,” Herbert recalled. “They ended up doubling him. I figured it was man coverage, until there was no one for me. Escaped the pocket. Saw no one out in front of me. Just slid and ended up getting the first down.”
When cornerback Jaylen Watson and safety Chamarri Conner bracketed Johnston, and Watson fell down after matching Johnston on the in-and-up, that gave Herbert the free lane he needed. You can blame Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones all you want for trying to contain Herbert inside when Herbert was going outside (and Jones blamed himself postgame), but if the Chiefs hadn’t been bent on covering Johnston like a true X-iso receiver, who knows what might have happened?
There are always things to build upon, and the next step for Johnston to realize his ultimate potential is to get on the right side of contested-catch situations. He certainly has all the physical tools to do so, and this would make him even more dangerous.
Still, this was a highly encouraging start for a guy who needs to be a critical part of the Chargers’ passing game.
“As you know, past few years I’ve been having a lot of ups and downs,” Johnston said after his performance. “At the same time, I use that to kind of fuel me, to kind of get me going into this year. I feel like just trying to get a lot of extra work with Justin, extra work in the training room, boosting my confidence going into the season.
“Had a pretty good game today. Hopefully I can keep that going for the rest of the season.”
Quentin Johnston isn’t a secret by any means, but the superstar tendencies would be new, and that’s why he’s our first Secret Superstar of the 2025 NFL season.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).
