[ad_1]
PITTSBURGH — Don’t get it twisted. Life remains to be very a lot “lit” for JuJu Smith-Schuster. A fast scan of the Pittsburgh Steelers broad receiver’s hyperactive social media accounts affords all of the proof required.
There’s the soon-to-be 24-year-old hawking pizza. There he’s TikToking on the midfield star on the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. There he’s rocking his personal line of merchandise, together with sweatshirts that includes Boujee, his Instagram-famous French bulldog.
The off-the-field model is stronger than ever for Smith-Schuster. Simply don’t suppose it interferes along with his day job.
For all of the good-natured “look-at-me-ness” Smith-Schuster embodies, beneath is a participant who has deftly prevented being labeled a diva and all the bags that comes together with it (see Brown, Antonio).
Creating a repute as one of many NFL’s hardest gamers at his place helps. Certain, rookie Chase Claypool has develop into the field-flipper for the league’s solely unbeaten crew and Diontae Johnson’s pedigree and fast ft are paying homage to early-2010s Brown.
Smith-Schuster stays first amongst equals for the Steelers (9-0).
Whereas his numbers — 54 receptions for 516 yards and 5 touchdowns — are modest in comparison with his breakout 2018 when he had 111 receptions, Smith-Schuster has develop into Ben Roethlisberger’s safety blanket. If it’s third down, the ball might be going to the 6-foot-1, 215-pound participant who doesn’t keep away from contact however welcomes it.
Twice within the second half of final week’s victory over Cincinnati, Smith-Schuster caught a third-down go wanting the sticks and bulled his means for a primary down. Each drives led to touchdowns. Roethlisberger doesn’t suppose it’s a coincidence.
“I’ve 100% confidence that he’s going to discover a strategy to get the primary down,” Roethlisberger mentioned. “He’s only a competitor. He’s so enjoyable to play with. I’m so pleased with him. He’s not placing up gaudy numbers like he has in years previous, however the issues that he’s doing (are) simply as necessary for his offense and this crew as in any yr that he has completed.”
Smith-Schuster arrived in Pittsburgh in 2017 because the league’s youngest participant and shortly grew to become a fan favourite for each his precocious play and the child-like pleasure he delivered to all the pieces he did, whether or not it was being taught find out how to drive by left sort out Alejandro Villanueva or pleading for somebody to return his stolen bicycle.
A yr later he was within the Professional Bowl, benefiting from the eye opposing defenses paid to Brown to rack up 1,426 yards receiving. The honeymoon didn’t final. Brown pouted his means out of city and Roethlisberger spent nearly all of final season on injured reserve after tearing three flexor tendons in his proper elbow.
Smith-Schuster had bother staying wholesome himself, and his modest manufacturing (42 receptions) whereas catching passes from backups Mason Rudolph and Devlin “Duck” Hodges led to an offseason wherein the Steelers didn’t supply him a contract extension.
But Smith-Schuster brushed apart the notion of sitting out 2020 even after Pittsburgh took Claypool within the second spherical, hinting they could be shifting on from their younger star.
As an alternative, Smith-Schuster welcomed the notion of turning into the elder statesman in a gaggle of 20-somethings that features Claypool, Johnson and James Washington.
When defenses positioned a lot of their deal with him early within the season, Smith-Schuster willingly grew to become a decoy and helped Claypool and Johnson work on their finish zone celebrations.
Although he has the velocity to get down the sector, he has gleefully accepted understanding of the slot and thriving amid a sea of linebackers and safeties, significantly in these moments when the Steelers completely want one thing to occur.
“I embrace these moments. I’m hoping the ball can come my means,” Smith-Schuster mentioned. “I pray the ball can come my means. I simply wish to make performs. … All people on the crew, they wish to make a play for the offense. For me, how I view it’s, you make performs on third down, you receives a commission.”
And Smith-Schuster is within the technique of incomes himself a major elevate subsequent spring. Whether or not these checks are cashed in Pittsburgh or not stays to be seen. The Steelers produce other priorities — particularly, engaged on an extension for out of doors linebacker T.J. Watt — and Smith-Schuster’s play may value him out of town that in some methods has helped elevate him.
Smith-Schuster is taking nothing as a right. Three years into his profession, he nonetheless hasn’t been on a crew that’s gained a playoff sport.
For all his ubiquity on social media, he has discovered a means to ensure he doesn’t take away the shine of the receivers he’s taken beneath his nonetheless very younger wing. The Steelers are planning to depend on Smith-Schuster’s maturity because the stakes get increased.
“He’s like an enormous brother to them, if not perhaps father,” offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner mentioned. “That’s rather a lot on a man who such as you mentioned is 23, however he has been right here. He’s seen rather a lot. He can provide again rather a lot. I keep in mind (former Steelers broad receiver) Hines (Ward) and the way a lot he wished to all the time give again to the youthful gamers. That’s simply that necessary to do, and JuJu is doing it similar to lots of nice veterans, in Pittsburgh not less than, do it.”
NOTES: DB Mike Hilton (shoulder) practiced for a second consecutive day on Thursday, clearing the best way for him to return following a four-game absence. … Backup DT Isaiah Buggs (ankle) additionally practiced.
[ad_2]
Source link