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Steelers fully healthy heading into crucial game vs Jets

After weeks of standing on the sidelines for games, one member of the Pittsburgh Steelers is itching to get back onto the field of play.

“I’m super excited,” Steelers wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster said, “just because I haven’t been playing for a while. And now that I’m back, to be around my boys, the coaches, players, and just to be myself.”

Smith-Schuster, as well as tight end Vance McDonald and cornerback Joe Haden all practiced fully Friday and none were listed on the Friday Injury Report.

Devlin ‘Duck’ Hodges is hoping a full complement of weapons will aide an offense that is sorely lacking scoring punch. The Steelers have scored just one offensive touchdown in six of the last seven games.

It won’t be easy this week against a pretty good New York Jets defense.

“Facing a Gregg Williams defense is going to be challenging, especially when you have a young quarterback,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “Their ability to get after young quarterbacks has been a catalyst.”

This is the same team that sacked Giants rookie Daniel Jones and Redskins rookie Dwayne Haskins six times each in Weeks 10 and 11.

Speaking of sacks, the Steelers defense will be hungry to introduce themselves to jet’s QB Sam Darnold.

“He has all the talent that makes him a top draft pick,” Tomlin said of Darnold. “He has great mobility and arm strength and touch. He doesn’t panic under pressure. He has been a big challenge, watching the tape, in terms of the things that they do with him. They run him in the red zone. He has a couple rushing touchdowns. There are a lot of top-notch young quarterbacks in the league.”

Both T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree plan to be in Darnold’s face all day, but defensive coordinator Keith Butler would prefer they force Darnold to his left.

“He rarely gets fooled, in terms of holding the ball and stuff where he panics,” Butler said of Darnold. “You don’t see that a lot out of him. What we’ve got to try to do is get him in those situations best we can.

“When he scrambles and goes to his right, he’s pretty accurate. Or inside the pocket, he’s pretty accurate. I think he would tell you he’d rather scramble to the right than the left or stay in the pocket and throw the ball. That’s probably where he’s more successful. It’s important that we make him scramble to his left and flush him out.”

Pittsburgh will also be on the lookout for former teammate Le’Veon Bell.

“It’s just the competitive spirit in us,” Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds said, “just to go out there and play hard and knowing a lot of these guys played on the same team as him, just put it out there and talk junk to him a little bit because that was your teammate at one time. You still may be friends with him, but you just want to go out and beat him.”

Last year, a few Steelers voiced their displeasure of how the whole Bell holdout ended last year with Bell sitting out the whole season despite telling several teammates that he’d only miss a few games.

“I think, honestly, you move on from it,” Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward said. “You understand that we’ve got bigger fish to fry. It’s the next game in our way, we’ve got to take care of business. If we focus in on one person, the other team will beat you, so we are going up there to beat the New York Jets, not Le’Veon Bell.”

Smith-Schuster said it best about his former teammate…

“It’s going to be fun,” said Smith-Schuster. “I’m going to be rooting for him. He’s a guy who when I was rookie, I got here and he was a great mentor for me, a good dude. I’m happy for him, what he’s doing – but at the same time, we’re going to have to put Le’Veon down.”