The Steelers are set to have a spirited competition for playing time at wide receiver once they get to training camp later this month and second-round pick JuJu Smith-Schuster is going to be right in the middle of it.
Smith-Schuster is the youngest receiver vying for playing time in Pittsburgh and his inexperience at the NFL level is one of the things he’ll be working to overcome once camp is underway. In particular, the rookie will need to get used to the fact that he’s part of an offense led by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
“When I’m thrown in there with Ben, I get too excited. I have to keep calm,” Smith-Schuster said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He goes to any [receiver], but I have to make my own play. I was watching [Antonio Brown] and Ben, and that’s eight years they’ve had together. That’s something I want with a quarterback.”
Building that kind of relationship with Roethlisberger isn’t something that is going to happen overnight, but everyone should be getting together just fine if Smith-Schuster can show the same knack for making catches in traffic that he showed at USC.