Maybe JuJu Smith-Schuster didn’t have his bowl of Jumpin’ JuJu Crunch this morning.
In an early press conference on Thursday, the receiver was asked if he suggests changes to the offense, one that has been slipping in recent weeks.
“We’re 11-1. What we have in the kitchen that’s cooking is really good,” said Smith-Schuster.
Um… what?
Surely, he’s not blind. He has, after all, fewer dropped passes than Diontae Johnson and Eric Ebron.
Of course, his answer was just the quickest way to get onto the next question.
While JuJu wasn’t forthright, he’s also not entirely wrong.
You won’t find any one Pittsburgh receiver leading in splashy yards categories. Instead, you’ll find a trio who’ve topped the 600-yard mark: Chase Claypool, 649, Diontae Johnson, 654 and JuJu Smith-Schuster is right at 600.
Yes, Ben Roethlisberger is spreading the love around. And, thankfully, none of them are greedy as the Steelers have experienced in the past.
As a unit, receivers do lead the league in one category, however, and it’s not a good one: most drops (30). And Johnson has a league-leading 10 of them.
But drops aren’t a result of poor playcalling — it’s mostly mental. Johnson and Claypool are both young, so they must hone their technique. But they’re in the pros for a reason; they’ve shown they know how to do it.
What does the 24-year-old vet tell his teammates?
“I don’t really say much. I say, ‘keep your head up, there’s still a lot of game to play, and the outcome of it can still change.’ This is something that they’ve been doing every day their whole life.”
The guy passing the ball put the onus on himself. “I think that I need to give them more catchable balls, put them in position to catch balls where they are not going to get hit,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said in a recent press conference. “I’m not going to worry too much about pulling them aside and having a heart-to-heart like ‘You need to catch the ball.’ I need to give them balls that are more catchable, and I need to be my best so they can be at their best. When they are at their best, we are pretty good.”
Big Ben is just being nice. He’s had some off-target throws, but the dropped receptions in question have been catchable balls.
Roethlisberger can’t fix that, and there are no excuses. They just have to get better — and fast.
As far as changes to the offense, they need to happen, and JuJu knows this. In particular, throwing short passes instead of running the ball worked early on in most weeks, but it’s not anymore.
Those plays have been overused, and defenses aren’t stupid. When opponents crowd the line of scrimmage to defend short passes, it also makes it easier to stop the run.
What should JuJu have said in response? We can get better.
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