Numbers no indictment of receiver Smith-Shuster
There are 45 players at the midpoint of the NFL season with more receptions than JuJu Smith-Schuster, some of whom have played one more game. Of those, 29 are wide receivers.
There are 21 teams who have at least one wide receiver with more catches than Smith-Schuster, who leads the Steelers with 33 — nearly 66 percent of the league. Five of those teams have two receivers with more than 33 catches, including the incoming Los Angeles Rams.
Is it accurate to call Smith-Schuster a No. 1 receiver on the order of Michael Thomas (73), DeAndre Hopkins (68) or Julian Edelman (63), who lead all wide receivers in catches? That was what everyone was wondering when the Steelers traded Antonio Brown before the season.
Or was his monster 2018 season — 111 catches, 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns — merely a byproduct of sharing the same field as the league’s most productive receiver the past six seasons and not getting the kind of attention he is seeing this season?
Coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday he has no problem with how Smith-Schuster has performed so far, despite his statistics that are lagging far behind what he did in 2018.
“How he’s done relative to statistics are probably two different things because it doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Tomlin said at his weekly news conference. “I’ve got no issues with how he’s handled himself relative to some of those matchups, but statistics might not tell the story because a lot of things going on around him. I like his work. I like his professionalism. I like how he wins his one-on-ones. Hopefully it’s a catalyst for us, in terms of getting more traction and consistently moving the ball offensively.
Smith-Schuster will get more of that attention Sunday against the defending NFC champion Rams (5-3), who recently traded for cornerback Jalen Ramsey and will likely use him to cover Smith-Schuster. Tomlin called Ramsey the “top corner in the game” and said he has the capability to “absolutely shut down a portion of the field and shut down a receiver.”
It is largely unfair to say Smith-Schuster isn’t a No. 1 receiver for two reasons, the most significant of which, he is playing without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. What’s more, the game plan has been tailored to fit two quarterbacks — Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges — who had never played in an NFL game before this season. Unlike Roethlisberger, the Steelers don’t ask their young quarterbacks to win the game. They ask them merely not to lose it.
Nonetheless, SmithSchuster’s numbers are symptomatic of what has happened to what was once considered among the most dangerous passing games in the league.
He had just three catches for 16 yards in Sunday’s victory against the Indianapolis Colts, the fourth time in eight games he has had just three receptions or fewer in a game. Last season he had just one game in which he had three or fewer catches.
Smith-Schuster had eight 100-yard receiving games in 2018. He has one this season (against Miami). He had eight games in which he had seven or more catches last season. He has one this season (against Baltimore).
And it’s not just him. Rookie Diontae Johnson was targeted just twice and had one catch for 3 yards against the Colts, one game after he had a season-high 84 yards against the Dolphins. The most productive wide receiver was James Washington, who had four catches that included a 40-yarder to ignite the go-ahead field-goal drive. He also had a couple combat catches, including a one-handed grab of a pass thrown behind him.
Tomlin was asked if getting the ball to the wide receivers is a week-to-week issue that is contingent on the game plan for a specific opponent?
“Really it just depends on, in the short term, who’s available to us,” he said. “We’ve dealt with some unique circumstances, in terms of player availability, and it dictates that our personality is adjusted accordingly.
“When we gain some traction, in terms of player availability, maybe we can start talking about some of the things that you mentioned. In the meanwhile, we better do what it is that we can do with what we have available to us in an effort to win the game.”