Despite Manhertz eating up his snaps, Johnson still got 15 or so snaps on offense, and he really came up big when his number was called.
His 11-yard touchdown catch on a second-and-10 gave the team a third-quarter 27-24 lead that they held the rest of the way. Not known for catching balls against contact, Johnson showed strong hands in going up for the short seam throw despite tight coverage and bringing it in for the important score.
While Likely's box-score production was excellent, he was still regularly rotated out of the game. He played fewer than half of the single-tight-end snaps on early downs and also came off the field at times on third down. In two-tight-end sets, New York used a three-man rotation between Likely, Johnson and Manhertz. Likely’s route participation was only slightly higher than it was in Baltimore, rather than taking the significant jump many had hoped for. The difference was an exceptionally high targets-per-route rate, which is unlikely to be sustainable.
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