Since Quentin Johnston entered the NFL in 2023 as the Los Angeles Chargers' first-round pick, he has struggled to meet the expectations of being a top pick.
Johnston's play has fluctuated between good and abysmal. His biggest flaw comes in drops, particularly in big moments. That first showed in his rookie season during the Week 11 matchup against the Green Bay Packers when he dropped a wide-open pass that would have put the Chargers in field goal range with 23 seconds left in the game. The Packers won, 23-20, and Los Angeles fell to 4-6.
It continued in his second season. In perhaps the Chargers' biggest game of the 2024 season, a Week 12 "Monday Night Football" matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, Johnston had one of the worst games of his career. He had five targets with no catches, but his most significant error came in the fourth quarter.
On third-and-6 with 10:56 minutes remaining and the Chargers down 23-16, Johnston ran wide open on a crossing route but dropped the ball. Los Angeles punted on fourth down and the Ravens scored on the next drive, effectively putting the game away.
Johnston's drops in big moments have led him to be one of the Chargers' most maligned players, whether from media pundits or fans on social media. It's all criticisms that Johnston sees, and he had struggled to deal with earlier in his career.
"I don't really talk about it to nobody. I feel like I just have to step up, deal with it on my own, get better each year," Johnston told ESPN. "So that's what I'm doing, that's what I'm continuing to do. I feel like my therapist is the field, so that's where I take everything."
The Chargers have continued to give Johnston opportunities. Coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz -- who didn't draft Johnston -- have praised his potential, and he entered this season as a starter. "Quentin, just every part of his game is elite," Harbaugh said this offseason.
In the 27-21 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night, Johnston proved Hortiz and Harbaugh right. He led the Chargers in yards (79) and touchdowns (2), showing the potential that made him the No. 21 pick two years ago. There's a long way to go for Johnston and the Chargers, but Friday's game was the kind of performance he needed.
"I'm just honestly at this point trying to prove myself right. I know a lot of people don't really look at me as ... " Johnston said, before pausing to collect his thoughts. He continued: "I still see myself as a good football player. Everybody's not going to hit their peak at the same time. ... I'm just staying down and working until my time comes."
The Chargers will travel to face the Las Vegas Raiders for Week 2 on Monday, a team Johnston has had success against. The last time the Chargers played the Raiders, Week 18 of this past season, Johnston had the best game of his career, catching 13 passes for 186 yards.
"I want to have many more of these," Johnston said then.
Johnston almost didn't make it to Week 1 against the Chiefs. In the Chargers' third preseason game against the Rams, he was concussed after a hit that left him unconscious for nearly a minute. But Johnston quickly returned to practice and was back on the field after clearing protocol in a matter of days.
Many players push through injuries at any given point in a season, but that's been a theme of Johnston's career so far. Last year in the Chargers' Week 14 game against the Chiefs, for instance, Kansas City's linebacker Nick Bolton leveled Johnston while he caught a 20-yard pass.
"Quentin Johnston, who has had drop problems, catches one of the toughest ones he's seen all year," broadcaster Mike Tirico said.
Johnston quickly bounced up and signaled a first down celebration but was in significant pain. He had sustained a left AC joint sprain on the play, which impacted how he slept and put him in a shoulder brace for the remainder of the season.
"My main thing is just to pop up and at least fake it and make it seem like I'm cool, and I deal with everything else after that," he said.
While the Chargers have preached faith in Johnston publicly, their offseason moves -- drafting wide receiver Tre' Harris in the second round and KeAndre Lambert-Smith in the fifth -- signal an organization hedging its bet if Johnston doesn't develop.
Johnston appeared on track in Week 1, and he hopes to stay that way.
"The past few years I have been having a lot of ups and downs, but I used that to kind of fuel me," Johnston said postgame. "I had a pretty good game today, so hopefully I can keep that going for the rest of the season."