Forward thinking
JuJu will not dwell on past, is thrilled Big Ben is back and will play through contract talks
If there’s any lingering frustration from JuJu Smith-Schuster’s miserable 2019 season, it wasn’t evident on the morning of the Steelers’ first full-contact practice of training camp.
The youngest fourth-year wide receiver in the NFL stiffarmed concerns about his contract and outran questions about what went wrong for him a year ago, all while not fumbling over one of his favorite phrases: “We’re always lit.”
That might have been the clearest indication yet that Smith-Schuster is back to his usual self as the Steelers get ready to pull on all the pads and fasten their helmets to begin what the NFL is calling the “contact integration period” of a most unique preseason. Entering the last year of his rookie deal, Smith-Schuster acknowledged that his third season as a pro held a lot of “unexpected” challenges, from the loss of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to his own nagging injuries that forced him to miss four full games and parts of others.
“Contract-wise, that’s between my agent and the Steelers,” Smith-Schuster said Monday morning, adding that he’d “love to be a Steeler” in his first interview with Pittsburgh media since last season ended. “At the end of the day, I’m just here to play ball. I’m not going to be the type of guy who sits out and waits. I’m going to play, regardless of the contract or not.”
The big question is whether Smith-Schuster will play better than he did in 12 games last season, catching 42 passes for just 552 yards. When you come into the NFL like a screaming comet, going from 917 receiving yards as a rookie to 1,426 the next year — with seven touchdowns apiece — life is good. But when you’re suddenly your team’s No. 1 wideout, with no Antonio Brown to draw the attention of opposing secondaries, the calculus changes. Expectations were high, and results were disappointing with Mason Rudolph or Devlin Hodges under center rather than Roethlisberger.
“I think with Mason, we go into the season having a better game plan, having a better playbook going into each game
moving forward. The thing with Ben, he’s so spontaneous,” Smith-Schuster said. “He’s been doing this for so long, the experience he has, he’s able to go into the game and just do no-huddle, and just call plays like the back of his hand.”
For that Ben-JuJu rapport to flourish, SmithSchuster knows he needs to get back on track, as well. The crux of his offseason was a daily one-on-one workout circuit with Corey Calliet, whom Smith-Schuster refers to as a “high-performance” personal trainer. In an effort to tone his body and become leaner and more explosive, Smith-Schuster passed on his football-centric regimen for a more fitness-oriented routine.
“I wanted him to gain muscle, but I wanted him to be able to learn how to use that. Because you can gain muscle and get slower,” Calliet told the Pittsburgh PostGazette in May. “We gained the muscle and got faster, so we knew he was using the body right.”
Smith-Schuster said he is as light as he has ever been in the NFL, and that he feels quicker. In the meantime, he’s also becoming a TikTok master, popping up all over Pittsburgh wearing some sort of zany outfit and showing off that improved agility in his dance moves. The subplot of Smith-Schuster’s offfield eccentrism has followed him throughout his Steelers career, during the ups and the downs. Asked if his new offseason training was also a sign of a new level of commitment, he juked the other way.
“Not so much,” SmithSchuster said. “I think every year, you always find something new. … I pretty much trained with my trainer for a couple months, then I came to the Steelers about a month early just to get some work in, show face, and I don’t think I did it for a contract.”
But if the 2020 draft was any indication, the Steelers might be preparing for a JuJu-less future. They used their top pick, albeit a second-round choice, on Notre Dame’s Chase Claypool, a tall, fast target to join a group that already features Smith-Schuster, James Washington and Diontae Johnson, all drafted in the third round or higher.
Unlike Martavis Bryant in 2017, when the Steelers took a fun-loving receiver with a striking name from USC in the second round, Smith-Schuster isn’t letting any animosity show. He’ll get a second chance at trying to be his team’s first option, but he’s also a clear No. 1 when it comes to experience with this playbook and Roethlisberger.
“At the end of the day, I want success for everybody,” Smith-Schuster said. “We drafted a young guy in Chase Claypool and I’m super excited to work with him. His athleticism is amazing.”