Juwan Johnson obviously saw the possibilities in 2025, when he tried to persuade Noah Fant to join him in the New Orleans Saints tight ends room.
A year later — following Fant's detour to Cincinnati — the two have combined to form a red zone monster for the Saints, who are 1-2 entering Monday's nationally-televised game against the Falcons (1-2) in the Caesars Superdome.
New Orleans is 9 for 11 in the red zone this season and six of those touchdowns belong to Fant (three) and Johnson (three), a pair of big targets — 6-foot-4, 249 pounds for Fant and 6-4, 245 for Johnson — who are agile and versatile.
"I've honestly been super pleased just being able to work with him," Fant said of Johnson. "He's a great dude, great player, and I just try to be where the team needs me, help him where I can, him help me where he can. It's been good."
"I think those guys have done a really good job," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. "They're big catch-radius guys, big targets. They know how to box people out in some situations. I think they've both done a really good job down there of giving us opportunities in the pass game.
"We've probably thrown a few more touchdowns down there than runs — usually that will even out as the season kind of goes. We'll have a lot of opportunities to run it down there as we go."
But considering the problems Fant and Johnson have presented, there hasn't yet been a compelling reason to stop feeding them.
"You see it coming to fruition," said quarterback Tyler Shough, who has eight touchdown passes this season. "Juwan and Noah are both athletic mismatches in any situation down there — big bodies, large catch radius. They're shifty, they're quick — same with (receivers) Devaughn (Vele) and same with Chris (Olave). I feel like there's really unique matchups all over the field that we can kind of take advantage of. Those guys have done a really good job of just separating and then also finishing in the end zone."
The two have also been efficient. Johnson, who has 173 receiving yards, has scoring catches from 2, 1 and 9 yards among his 15 receptions (19 targets) and Fant, with 66 receiving yards, has touchdowns from 3, 16 and 8 yards among his eight catches (12 targets). Each caught two touchdowns in the Saints' 35-27 loss to the Raiders; last year, New Orleans' tight ends totaled four touchdowns in the season.
Fant is one short of tying his single-season high for touchdowns while Johnson, who has equaled last season's total, had a career-best seven in 2022.
"I think that's a testament to us just working hard and working together," Johnson said. "We pushed each other this whole offseason, the whole time we've been here. That's kind of the reason why I told him to come here last year, but we're glad he's here now, we're glad he's doing things we expected him to do.
"People say, 'Good game,' but I think that's our job. Our job is to make plays for our team to put ourselves in position to win games. That's what he did (against the Raiders) and we're going to keep pushing each other to do that. Us working off each other, us building and working together to try to make things happen, both in the run game and the pass game to put our team in position to win is going to help us in the long run."
Fant said he didn't sign with preconceived notions.
"I signed, just wanting to do what was asked of me, just feeling where the team needed me and it has gone well over the last few weeks and I just want to continue to do my job and do what's asked of me," he said. "Didn't really have an expectation of how much production, how soon or any of those things but happy to just be where the team needs me."
When the location has been the end zone, he has accommodated.
"I think it's important to get seven points out of those drives," Fant said. "It's been a point of emphasis and I think we've done a good job so far and hopefully we can keep building and keep that consistency throughout the year. If we do that, it'll put us in a good position for where we want to be."
