Smith-Schuster in leadership role
Third-year receiver has been at every voluntary practice
Back from the prom, JuJu Smith-Schuster has traded his green velvet tuxedo with bell-bottom pants for the practice jersey he has worn every day of the Steelers’ offseason training activities.
Three weeks into OTAs and Smith-Schuster hasn’t missed a day of the workouts at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, sending a message to everyone that he is all about commitment and winning. In that time, the Pro Bowl receiver can also be found all over social media, whether dancing on stage at a Juice Wrld concert at Stage AE, distributing Heinz ketchup at Kennywood or attending the Chartiers Valley High School prom with a male student who asked him to go.
He even bought the matching tuxedo for him and student Anthony Molinaro.
“I picked [them] out,” Smith-Schuster said. “Green velvet, suede, with bells. But it was hot in that suit.”
Smith-Schuster was hot in his regular Sunday suit in 2018, eclipsing the production of Antonio Brown and leading the Steelers with 111 receptions and 1,426 receiving yards. Three of his seven touchdown catches were for 67 yards or longer. He also caught a 97-yard touchdown for the second year in a row, giving him three scores of 96 yards or longer in two seasons.
He enters his third NFL
season as the team’s undisputed No. 1 receiver, now that Brown has been traded to the Oakland Raiders. And he has made a point to show up every day for the voluntary OTAs on the South Side to mesh with the two new receivers on the team — veteran Donte Moncrief and rookie Diontae Johnson — and serve as something of a role model.
“It’s very important,” Smith-Schuster said Wednesday after practice. “There are some new guys on the team, and building that chemistry and that connection means a lot. Me just being here, being around other guys, shows I’m ready to play, I’m all about the team, I’m all about us. We’re here for one reason.”
Replacing Brown’s incredible numbers — he was the most productive receiver in any four-, five- and six-year period in NFL history — will not be easy. But Smith-Schuster said he loves the new players in the receiving room and is excited about the development of James Washington, last year’s second-round draft choice.
Moncrief was acquired in free agency after catching 74 passes for 1,059 yards the past two seasons from Jacoby Brissett in Indianapolis and Blake Bortles in Jacksonville. Now he gets to run routes for Ben Roethlisberger.
Johnson, a third-round pick who was the second player selected by the Steelers, has athletic measurables similar to Brown but is considered a better route runner. He even played in the Mid-American Conference (Toledo).
“Everyone is there for each other,” Smith-Schuster said. “There’s no individual. Everyone’s into playing, winning games, the Super Bowl. Everybody’s on the same page. Yesterday we dominated, today we dominated. You can see that connection with Ben, with [Josh] Dobbs, with Mason [Rudolph].”
Johnson did not participate in team drills the first two weeks of OTAs because of a hamstring injury, but he has been out there the past two days. Smith-Schuster said he takes Johnson out to eat and shows him the city to help him get acclimated to his surroundings, both on and off the field.
On the field, he noticed one overriding element:
“Speed, man,” SmithSchuster said. “He’s a speedster, but he has great hands.”
About Moncrief, he said: “His routes are so crispy, so nice. He’s a nice route-runner, a big solid dude, too. You can put him outside, put him inside, he knows how to run his routes, how to run against a linebacker versus a corner. He’s a very smart guy, one of those you can look up to.”
That’s what SmithSchuster is trying to do every day at OTAs.
Preseason game times
Start times for the 2019 preseason games have been finalized. The two home games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Aug. 9) and Kansas City Chiefs (Aug. 17) will kick off at 7:30 p.m. The Aug. 25 game at the Tennessee Titans will begin at 8 p.m., while the preseason finale Aug. 29 at the Carolina Panthers will start at 7 p.m.