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When it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers, we keep hearing a lot about how JuJu Smith-Schuster is going to bounce back and Diontae Johnson is going to break out. Then there is rookie Chase Claypool and the unknown about what sorts of things he can bring to the offense.
But let’s be realistic. Let’s take a look at what the Steelers have at wide receiver, how the changes this offseason have impacted the positional unit and where we think this group will go in 2020.
First and foremost, the player who stands to benefit the most from the return of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is Smith-Schuster. As the senior member of this group, Smith-Schuster is the guy with the best chemistry with Big Ben and frankly the skill set that fits what Roethlisberger likes to do.
But we need to back up a little bit and talk about which iteration of Roethlisberger will be on the field. Do not look for Roethlisberger to just air it out like he did in 2018. The season we are going to base this on is 2017. Roethlisberger threw for 4,251 yards, most of which went to wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell. In fact, of his 360 completions in that season, 196 of them went to those two players.
How would 360 completions be distributed this season? Let’s throw out some numbers looking at the guys who we expect to be the top three targets this season.
Smith-Schuster-88 receptions
Diontae Johnson-71 receptions
RB James Conner-37 receptions
This accounts for the 196 completions that went to Bell and Brown. And it leaves 164 receptions to divide up between everyone else on the roster. That’s a whole lot of players and not a whole lot of catches.
So when we talk about players like wide receivers Chase Claypool and James Washington as well as the entire tight end group as well as the remainder of the running backs on the roster, we all need to temper our enthusiasm. Just taking Claypool, James Washington, Vance McDonald, Eric Ebron and Benny Snell Jr., an even distribution of 90 percent of the remaining completions works out to right around 30 catches per player.
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