METAIRIE, La. -- The New Orleans Saints tight ends are a little wacky, and they like it that way.

There’s Foster Moreau, the free agent addition with the traditional background; 33-year-old Taysom Hill, a former quarterback who scored 11 all-around touchdowns last season; Lucas Krull, who chose football over baseball after being selected in the 2018 MLB draft, and 36-year-old Jimmy Graham, who had only one year of college football experience before the Saints selected the former basketball player in the third round of the 2010 draft.

There’s also Juwan Johnson, the Tik-Tok star who found himself leading the team with seven receiving touchdowns last season.

It’s no wonder Johnson came up with an odd analogy in the midst of training camp one day. He mused that his position group reminds him of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," a fictional group of crime-fighting, pizza-loving turtles who were famous before he was born.

“I’m not a Raphael at all, Raphael is a hothead,” Johnson said of his character choice. "I’m more like Donatello. I feel like I’m pretty smart, pretty chill."

The rest of the tight end group wasn't as sure about cartoon counterparts, with Moreau admitting he was more of a Pokémon enthusiast as a kid. Moreau was confident he probably wasn't as outgoing as Michelangelo.

However, they were all in agreement that Graham was like the turtles' leader in Master Splinter, prompting him to joke that the character was about 1,000 years old.

For Johnson, his laidback demeanor has worked in his favor, keeping him on the right track through a transfer from Penn State to Oregon in 2019. It kept him grounded when he wasn’t drafted in 2020 and when the Saints switched him to wide receiver in 2021.

“He’s just a guy that’s really focused on trying to be the best he can,” coach Dennis Allen said. “He works extremely hard, and when you have talent and work hard, you get better, and that’s what he’s done. I like his mindset and where he’s at.”

It took him five years for his first multi-touchdown season in college, but it's taken him no time at all to find success in his new position.

As Johnson enters Year 4, it’s become clear the team expects his star to rise. In the past few weeks he’s become one of quarterback Derek Carr’s most reliable targets. Carr is so high on Johnson's potential that he told his brother -- 2002 No. 1 overall pick David Carr -- to watch out for his fantasy potential in an NFL Network interview in July.

"He's not a guy that's had 100 catches or anything like that, but with all the weapons that we have here, he could easily be one of those guys," Derek told his brother on July 29.

The general public caught a glimpse of that connection when Johnson caught two passes for 29 yards on the Saints’ first and only touchdown drive with the starters in their first preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“It felt great,” Johnson said after that game. “Obviously there’s a lot going on right now in terms of the ball getting spread around and everybody having fun.”

Carr said after the game that he’s going into the season intending to spread the ball around, a possibility that excited Johnson, who raved about players like running back Alvin Kamara (who will need to serve a three-game suspension) and wide receivers Michael Thomas and Chris Olave.

“I don’t feel like a lot of teams can stop [us], but that’s just the mindset that we have,” Johnson said. “That’s not being arrogant … or anything. I’ve seen these guys work, I’ve seen them work for the past month, and I know what we can do.”

But Johnson has quietly worked his way into that list of names. If there’s a favored receiving list by Carr, it’s clear Johnson has put himself on it.

Two days after the Chiefs game on a Tuesday evening practice, Carr kept up that rhythm from Sunday, looking Johnson’s way throughout 11-on-11 drills. That continued in joint practices in California against the Los Angeles Chargers, as well. Carr went to Johnson again and again, hitting him for a big gain down the sideline on one play and finding him in stride for a touchdown on another.

Johnson caught each of his four targets, showing that his 6-foot-4, 231-pound frame has been something Carr looks for in his group of pass-catchers.

“I think he’s developed a nice little rapport with Derek,” Allen said. "He seems to be where Derek wants him, when he wants him there. When you do that, you kind of get rewarded and the ball comes your way."

It’s been an unconventional ascension for Johnson, but it’s also part of a long-term plan the Saints have had regarding their usage of tight ends.

The Saints, like many other teams, have been reluctant to use a high draft pick on a tight end, and instead have been taking a different approach.

“It’s become a more hybrid position, you know, that crazy athlete coming in that has to try to learn the game and how to play the game,” said Saints tight ends coach Clancy Barone. “I just think that people are cautious with how they spend their draft capital, which is smart. If it’s not a slam dunk, let’s hold off and get this guy in the third or fourth round and then let him develop.”

Graham may have started that process more than 10 years ago, recently joking that he never really needed to learn how to block until the Saints traded him to the Seattle Seahawks in 2015.

Hill doesn’t think he actually lined up as a typical in-line tight end once last season, which was his first year at tight end.

And Johnson is still practically a raw prospect, still improving his understanding of the offense and the position with each new season.

“It’s gotten better and better and better every single year,” Allen said of Johnson’s understanding of the offense. “His in-line blocking has gotten better. He’s working extremely hard.”

The Saints have thrown the idea of the traditional tight end out the window, and that means the 26-year-old Johnson could be the new face of that movement.

Johnson is a certainty for the final 53-man roster with cuts looming, but with a talented group, others aren't. Krull spent last season on the practice squad, and, despite having a nice camp, he could be buried on the depth chart. There's also the question of Graham, who the team believed had a seizure while in California last Friday night before getting arrested, leaving his status for the future in doubt.

But Graham, who spoke earlier Friday, said he believes in his teammates, whose different paths to the NFL have made them stronger as a unit.

“Our room, I think it’s a matchup nightmare,” Graham said. “I think we’ve got a lot of problems in our room for defenses on the field, and I think we’re one of the most diverse tight end rooms in the league. We’ve got a guy who’s had the ball in his hands, running power and throwing down the field. Then you’ve got Juwan who has this short area quickness. Myself, being old. And then [Moreau], he’s an incredible all-around guy and brings the juice, brings the energy.”