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Juju Smith-Schuster had a tough stretch with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the direction of the top of the season. Not solely did the Steelers begin 11-0 however end 12-4 and lose within the first spherical of the playoffs to the Cleveland Browns, Smith-Schuster had to shoot down a report that he prefers to play for a big market, not named Pittsburgh.
Smith-Schuster also gave bulletin board material to the Browns prior to their playoff game. In spite of everything of that, Corridor of Fame extensive receiver Terrell Owens, himself a polarizing determine, had some recommendation for the younger Steelers extensive receiver.
Owens joined the Pat McAfee Present on Tuesday afternoon to debate.
“Belief me, I’d be like a few of these guys with hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of followers,” Owens said. “Clearly that helps with their branding….I feel, once more, if you are going to do one thing like, it’s important to do one thing to assist it. They went on a dropping skid. It solely compounds while you’re not being productive and for him, that is what occurred. In the event that they have been successful, nobody can be saying something, they would not be criticizing. The love would’ve quadrupled. If you consider the followers that basically cherished him after they have been dropping, simply take into consideration in the event that they have been successful.”
Final week, McAfee mentioned the notion of Smith-Schuster basically wanting out of Pittsburgh for an even bigger market. Smith-Schuster quoted the McAfee tweet, taking pictures down these rumors.
“Sources inform me that is utterly 100% false lol,” Smith-Schuster wrote on Twitter.
The rumors stemmed again to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who wrote that the Steelers wanted to work round the remainder of the massive contract owed to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. In that column, Dulac cited sources saying that Smith-Schuster was trying to make that transfer in an effort to increase his off-field model and social media presence.
Within the final 5 video games of the season previous to the playoff recreation, Smith-Schuster had 31 catches, 259 yards, three touchdowns, 8.35 yards per catch and fumbled twice. On the season, Smith-Schuster completed with 97 catches, 831 yards, 9 touchdowns and eight.6 yards per catch. His catches, yards and averages haven’t reached his profession numbers of the 2018 season.
As of now, although, Smith-Schuster, the Steelers’ second spherical pick of USC in 2017, isn’t below contract for 2021. According to Spotrac, Smith-Schuster will likely be an unrestricted free agent in 2021, however will possible get a brand new contract from the workforce after his feedback made about not wanting to depart the workforce.
Whereas it seems that Smith-Schuster isn’t going wherever, that doesn’t imply the way forward for the franchise’s offense is ready in stone. Roethlisberger is 38 years outdated and can flip 39 this March. He’s nearing the top of his contract with the workforce, too, with the 2021 season being the final one which Roethlisberger has left on this contract with Pittsburgh. Many have speculated that Roethlisberger might nonetheless retire earlier than the 2021 season, regardless of being owed $41,250,000 subsequent yr, according to Spotrac.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was requested about his quarterback’s future with the workforce and the probabilities he might return subsequent yr. Tomlin appeared to even be unsure about what the longer term held.
“I don’t have a transparent evaluation of the general depth of the cap ramifications,” Tomlin mentioned, according to NFL.com. “However I feel it’s cheap to imagine there’s an opportunity he’ll be again, definitely.”
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