JuJu Smith-Schuster turns down Ravens and Chiefs to stay with Steelers on 1-year deal
The Pittsburgh Steelers keep an offensive weapon in JuJu Smith-Schuster for the 2021 season.
By Jeff.Hartman@BnGBlitz Updated Mar 19, 2021, 1:30pm EDT
NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Steelers have seen many of their free agents leave to find new homes in the NFL. Players like Bud Dupree, Tyson Alualu and Mike Hilton are all calling a new team home. But one big name had yet to sign with another team.
That name was JuJu Smith-Schuster.
The longer Smith-Schuster remained a free agent, it seemed as if the chances were greater he would potentially return to the Steelers. Low and behold, Friday afternoon Smith-Schuster decided to stay in Pittsburgh, turning down offers from the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs to do so.
This from Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network:
JuJu to the #Steelers on a 1-year worth $8M, source said. He had better offers from the #Ravens and the #Chiefs. But stays in PIT. https://t.co/Kz9aaR1srN
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 19, 2021
See what Smith-Schuster said himself on his verified Twitter account about returning:
This is my home, they’re gonna need a wrecking ball to take me outta here! PITTSBURGH I LOVE YOU, LET’S GO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/SPFvCLUmFl
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) March 19, 2021
So what did Smith-Schuster turn down to come back to Pittsburgh? According to NFL Network’s Taylor Bisciotti, the deals were as follows:
— Taylor Bisciotti (@TaylorBisciotti) March 19, 2021
Additionally, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Eagles were also in the mix with a larger contract.
JuJu Smith-Schuster also turned down more money on a multi-year deal from the Eagles than he took to return to the Steelers, per source. The Eagles’ were a secret suitor. But Smith-Schuster loved Pittsburgh and its fans too much to leave. https://t.co/X8gitZYxwd
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 19, 2021
The return of Smith-Schuster might be viewed as him signing a one-year “prove it” type deal. With the salary cap dipping to $182.5 this year, it is safe to say Smith-Schuster is betting on himself to play well, and earn more money in 2022 when the salary cap is expected to balloon up over $200 million dollars.
In his four years in Pittsburgh, Smith-Schuster has seen his role tweaked as the wide receiver room has changed. Taking a league by storm his first two seasons, Smith-Schuster earned a Pro Bowl bid in 2018 when he had 1,426 receiving yards on 111 receptions. After an injury riddled 2019, as well as missing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Smith-Schuster led the Steelers in receptions in 2020 with 97. His 831 receiving yards last season was third on the Steelers behind Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool, and his nine receiving touchdowns was tied with Claypool.
Be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes on the Steelers as [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Dealers choice here, we can take or leave his services right now... plenty of other big names will come calling no doubt
Just how bad do you wanna be Mahomes #2 target
#3 actually behind Kelce and Hill. Hardman has been improving a lot actually. I wanna see what he does with another season under his belt. We need to re sign our own FA. Tyreek is gonna cost 25 mil a year just an FYI [Reply]
Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!:
#3 actually behind Kelce and Hill. Hardman has been improving a lot actually. I wanna see what he does with another season under his belt. We need to re sign our own FA. Tyreek is gonna cost 25 mil a year just an FYI
Hardman has almost certainly earned a spot next year, used correctly he is a legit weapon
But we're still in limbo on the 2 spot, is Pringle the man or not... it cannot be left to chance imo, we either draft high or sign a vet or BOTH
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Hardman has almost certainly earned a spot next year, used correctly he is a legit weapon
But we're still in limbo on the 2 spot, is Pringle the man or not... it cannot be left to chance imo, we either draft high or sign a vet or BOTH
We just don’t have the cap space to sign any decent FA. We have to re sign Brown (18-20 mil), Tyreek (25 mil), Ward (12 mil), Ingram (8 mil), Mathieu (?) maybe. [Reply]
I think I’d rather roll with Hill (on a contract extension), Mecole, Pringle (on a reasonable extension if he hasn’t played his way out of KCs price range for him) and 2 talented rookies than giving Juju a deal, even if it’s what we offered him last year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!:
We just don’t have the cap space to sign any decent FA. We have to re sign Brown (18-20 mil), Tyreek (25 mil), Ward (12 mil), Ingram (8 mil), Mathieu (?) maybe.
Wards not coming back...
Brown and Hill will be back..
The rest of the guys all bets are off. I think they'll try to do something with Ingram and Mathieu but they aren't gonna pay TY 20 a year I don't see that.
We're gonna lose a lot of guys and the defense specially will look very different next year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!:
We just don’t have the cap space to sign any decent FA. We have to re sign Brown (18-20 mil), Tyreek (25 mil), Ward (12 mil), Ingram (8 mil), Mathieu (?) maybe.
The cap will not stop us from adding to the roster.
Hills extension will save us close to 10-12m. We can open up a cookie jar of Pats deal to save another 22m. Cutting Clark as June 1st saves us 20m. That’s over 30m in cap space to add to the 22m we are projected to have before any moves.
We have good backs. Our OL is set outside of the obvious Brown extension. Our QBs are set. We really can only use an upgrade at one WR spot with a vet.
I can see us going after Michael Thomas after NO cuts him, as he won’t factor into the comp pick formula and should be fully healthy and an amazing fit for our offense opposite Hill. If we lose Pringle to FA and add MT on a price it deal, that would be an upgrade on the field as well as a comp pick.
Ward deserves a nice second contract and I’d love to get Ingram back while also replacing Clark with Ogbah. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
Wards not coming back...
Brown and Hill will be back..
The rest of the guys all bets are off. I think they'll try to do something with Ingram and Mathieu but they aren't gonna pay TY 20 a year I don't see that.
We're gonna lose a lot of guys and the defense specially will look very different next year.
It’s worth having a conversation about the value of guys like Pringle and Ward.
With the cap exploding, I can see both of them getting more than anyone thinks they will. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
The cap will not stop us from adding to the roster.
Hills extension will save us close to 10-12m. We can open up a cookie jar of Pats deal to save another 22m. Cutting Clark as June 1st saves us 20m. That’s over 30m in cap space to add to the 22m we are projected to have before any moves.
We have good backs. Our OL is set outside of the obvious Brown extension. Our QBs are set. We really can only use an upgrade at one WR spot with a vet.
I can see us going after Michael Thomas after NO cuts him, as he won’t factor into the comp pick formula and should be fully healthy and an amazing fit for our offense opposite Hill. If we lose Pringle to FA and add MT on a price it deal, that would be an upgrade on the field as well as a comp pick.
Ward deserves a nice second contract and I’d love to get Ingram back while also replacing Clark with Ogbah.
I’m excited to see what Kaindoh and Danna can do. Danna has always been a good DE. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
The cap will not stop us from adding to the roster.
Hills extension will save us close to 10-12m. We can open up a cookie jar of Pats deal to save another 22m. Cutting Clark as June 1st saves us 20m. That’s over 30m in cap space to add to the 22m we are projected to have before any moves.
We have good backs. Our OL is set outside of the obvious Brown extension. Our QBs are set. We really can only use an upgrade at one WR spot with a vet.
I can see us going after Michael Thomas after NO cuts him, as he won’t factor into the comp pick formula and should be fully healthy and an amazing fit for our offense opposite Hill. If we lose Pringle to FA and add MT on a price it deal, that would be an upgrade on the field as well as a comp pick.
Ward deserves a nice second contract and I’d love to get Ingram back while also replacing Clark with Ogbah.
Id love it and admittedly dont know enough about our cap situation but cant imagine we could swing a contract Michael Thomas will demand. We did go hard after Trent Williams this past offseason though so clearly Veach is willing to push all his chips in for a splash signing.
I get infatuated with building these dream team offenses and grabbing a super star #2 WR opposite of Hill. As long as Mahomes has #10 and #87 they seem to be able to score at will when they kick it into high gear during the playoffs.
Investing in pass rushers to get after Allen/Burrow/Herbert might just be the better investment. That is why Veach and Reid are the best in the business I'll trust them to make those decisions. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ForeverIowan:
Id love it and admittedly dont know enough about our cap situation but cant imagine we could swing a contract Michael Thomas will demand. We did go hard after Trent Williams this past offseason though so clearly Veach is willing to push all his chips in for a splash signing.
I get infatuated with building these dream team offenses and grabbing a super star #2 WR opposite of Hill. As long as Mahomes has #10 and #87 they seem to be able to score at will when they kick it into high gear during the playoffs.
Investing in pass rushers to get after Allen/Burrow/Herbert might just be the better investment. That is why Veach and Reid are the best in the business I'll trust them to make those decisions.
We will need a CB if Ward leaves. Fenton is good enough [Reply]
If you cut Clark and Hitchens which is a given at this point the Chiefs roughly have 43 million dollars of room.
The list of FAs though is very long and we will lose name guys...
Orlando Brown
Tyrann Mathieu
Jarran Reed
Melvin Ingram
Charvarious Ward
Mike Remmers
Daniel Sorensen
Byron Pringle
Chad Henne
Darrell Williams
Ben Niemann
Kyle Long
Demarcus Robinson
Blake Bell
Alex Okafor
Austin Blythe
Jerick McKinnon
Michael Burton
Derrick Nnadi
Andrew Wylie
Armani Watts
Dorian O'Daniel
Also
Lammons, Kemp, Gore and Forson are RFAs I believe.
Not all those guys are good but thats a ton of FAs and a ton of depth to have to replace in 1 year. [Reply]