As we look over the 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers roster, what we find are a lot of positional units fairly locked in as far as their depth charts go. But one group which is wide open going into training camp are the wide receivers. The Antonio Brown trade left a huge void and there are several players who will duke it out in camp and the preseason to sort out who will be catching passes from Ben Roethlisberger.
Starters-The only guy who makes the category is JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster stepped up huge last season and led the team in receptions and receiving yards. He caught 111 passes for 1,426 yards and quickly became Roethlisberger’s favorite target in the clutch. With Brown gone, Smith-Schuster is going to see more coverage his way and it will incumbent upon his teammates to pick up the slack.
Backups (the other starter)-Realistically, there are three players who are going to duke it out for the starting spot opposite Smith-Schuster. And understand we are rooting for a single player to take the lion’s share of those reps. We saw it work last season and saw it didn’t work as well in previous seasons.
Donte Moncrief, James Washington and Diontae Johnson are all very different styles of players. How well one of them meshes with Roethlisberger could make all the difference in which guy earns the starting spot. Moncrief is the experienced veteran with tons of speed. Washington was 2017’s second-round pick and has all the potential to be an elite deep threat. But he struggled a great deal as a rookie. Speaking of rookies, Johnson is this year’s rookie option and a similar type of player to Brown.
Outlook-It may seem like the Steelers have a good problem with so many talented receivers. But my worry is that none of these guys will step up to a point where they can be counted on to consistently produce. The coaches will rotate players through but this isn’t going to help Smith-Schuster in a crucial transition year.
