JuJu Smith-Schuster Returns To Pittsburgh
Credit for the idea goes to reader Jason, who sent me a funny photoshop he made of Andy Reid’s gross text messages to JuJu. He gave me permission to adapt it. It was very good.
I was surprised to see Juju returned to Pittsburgh on a one year deal. According to him, he was torn between the Chiefs, Ravens, and Steelers. Out of those 3, the Steelers seem like the worst choice. The Steelers are a team in flux, with an excellent defense but flawed and aging offense led by a guy who wont be there much longer. The Chiefs are a defined powerhouse already and championship contenders with a QB already screaming towards the hall of fame. The Ravens are less pass-happy but are also a young team on the rise led by a hot new QB on a good track.
The fact that he came back, but on a single year deal, tells me it’s about one last ride with Ben and he doesn’t plan on sticking around long term. If the Chiefs and Ravens wanted him, they likely will next year too. The salary cap was low and restrictive this year and it’s likely he’ll get a better deal next season. So why not give it one last go with a team legend and then skip out for a better chance and a bigger bag afterwards? Maybe Juju made the perfect choice. Just hope he doesn’t get hurt or the Steelers don’t completely implode.
By the end of the season last year Ben looked pretty bad. The Steelers ended up being a paper tiger and crumbled pretty badly in the final weeks. The Playoff game against the Browns was embarrassing. Will that get fixed this year? Ben is a year older and the last remaining member of the 04 crew. His arm looked rough. I don’t have high expectations even with the stellar defense on the other side.
Pittsburgh went from a hardworking steel town to privileged-NFL-team-town-who-always-do-well-but-barely-win-Lombardi-anymore-town. They re-signed TikTok boy and brought in bad-Ohio st QB-strip club man to keep the trend.
1 year deal could also mean he’s hoping for a big spike in the salary cap next year to cash in on after league revenue goes somewhat back to normal
OMG that hover over message. Absolute fire.
Who indeed can say no to Ben? No means yes right?
I’m just here for that comment. You can say no to Ben, but it doesn’t stop anything.
to ben? the rapist? yeah basically
The Steelers were okay last year until injuries completely ravaged their defense and they could no longer carry their weak offensive unit. Now that offense gets weaker and the defense, while still good, will likely regress somewhat with guys like Bud Dupree going elsewhere. These are the Tomlin Steelers, though, so they’ll likely do just enough to finish above .500 and either narrowly miss the playoffs or make it as a wild card and get smoked round one.
Ben Roethlisberger is screwing them over by coming back for another year. He’s obviously done, and Pittsburgh doesn’t have enough to go all in on building a contender around him. They need to blow it up, but they’re the *Pittsburgh Steelers*, so that isn’t an option.
Juju essentially waiting out a low money year makes sense for him. But it appears so obvious though that I’m not sure what the Steelers get out of having him just for next year only to guarantee they stay in an 8-10 win limbo season.
Unless they’re banking on this year starting off like last year ended so they could justify a backdoor blow-up and trade him for a good package of picks in 2022 and beyond. That seems too convoluted a plan to be likely (and isn’t the trade deadline in mid-October, which isn’t deep enough into the season) and doesn’t seem like the kind of move the Steelers would do.
Their floor is mediocrity limbo regardless of Ben and Juju so may as well try to aim for 10 wins and maybe get a playoff run if things break right for them
I get this, but as it stands right now, Pittsburgh is barely a contender for their own division, let alone good enough to contend with the top of the AFC. Roethlisberger isn’t going to raise them to contender status at this stage of his career, so they should start looking towards the future. But old man Ben would throw a fit if they did that. Ben is keeping them in limbo with each season he continues to play.
I think staying with the Steelers was the best choice for Juju. He’s waiting out the year hoping the salary cap will get fixed next year, so his choices are which team will give him a chance to put up the best stats for a big payday next year. The Ravens were by far the worst. This is not an offence that gives wide receivers a lot of chances to pad their stats. I expect their defence will be better, which bodes well for them as a team but makes them an even more unappealing destination. The Chiefs are everything the Ravens are not and you’d expect them to be the best place, but he’d be at least the third receiving option behind Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce and he’d be gambling on getting chemistry going early with Mahomes. He’s already got that chemistry with Big Ben and he’s at worst the second receiving option with the Steelers, so I think that just about tipped the scale in their favour
That was my thought too. Ben likes to spread it around, but not as much as Mahomes, and he and Juju also know each other well. The Ravens’ offense doesn’t lend itself to flashy wide receiver numbers, and really never has even before Jackson was the QB.
I’m just happy he didn’t end up in Miami like Mike Wallace
/frantically swiping left
I have hopes for Ben being able to throw it deep in 2021. In 2020 we weren’t even sure if he would be recover from elbow surgery to his throwing arm in time to start the season. In the first half of 2020, CBs were scared enough of Claypool to regularly draw DPI, so the strength was still there in the arm.
I’m always a huge Juju fan, but if you want to rile up the masses, be sure to include the super saiyan blue hair he’s been sporting this offseason as proof that he’s surely a diva. A short dance sequence is clearly proof he doesn’t put in the practice time or bond with his teammates.
Also, the Ravens were going to be a terrible fit. You don’t go there with Lamar Jackson in town to build up a pass-catching resume. You go there because they want you to block, which Juju can of course.
Juju’s Bizarre Adventure.