The New Orleans Saints returned to the win column for only the second time this season, defeating the Carolina Panthers 17-7 in Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season at Bank of America Stadium. Here’s the biggest
overreaction from this weekend’s matchup:
Is Juwan Johnson having a career year?
This week, I’m revisiting something I was adamant about after the Saints’ Week 7 loss to the Chicago Bears—and thankfully, it never happened. After weeks of poor blocking and a number of crucial drops, I felt strongly that New Orleans should have benched sixth-year TE Juwan Johnson, who signed a three-year, $30.75 million extension this offseason. Since then, the 29-year-old has become rookie QB Tyler Shough’s—his college roommate at Oregon—safety blanket, proving that benching him would have been an overreaction.
On Sunday against Carolina, Johnson hauled in four receptions for 92 yards, including a 52-yard explosive play and a 30-yard touchdown catch on third-and-long—his 21st career TD reception, tying him with TE Hoby Brenner for third in franchise history.
Through 10 games, Johnson has 43 catches (6th among TEs) for 491 yards (4th among TEs) and three touchdowns, averaging 11.4 yards per catch—just seven receptions and 57 yards shy of matching the career highs he set last season. He’s also only four targets away from matching his single-season high of 64, while his 288 yards after the catch rank 6th among TEs and his 24 first downs rank 5th.
HC Kellen Moore said this offseason that he and Johnson had a long talk during free agency to convince him to re-sign with New Orleans, promising him a significant role in the offense—and that promise has clearly been fulfilled.
Johnson shared his thoughts following the victory in Charlotte:
