Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster has been on a media tour this week to promote Charmin’s BRB Bot. On Thursday he did an interview with The Ringer’s Kevin Clark. During that interview, Smith-Schuster brought up new Steelers running back Najee Harris, the team’s first round draft pick this year out of Alabama, when Clark asked him who won the week.
“I’ll say the Steelers, Najee Harris,” Smith-Schuster replied to Clark.
Clark then proceeded to ask Smith-Schuster if he has reached out to Harris since he was drafted by the Steelers last Thursday night.
“I did, it was great,” Smith-Schuster said. “I was like, ‘Yo, I can’t wait to ball with you.’ It’s funny, I knew Najee when he was getting recruited to go to college and I tried to recruit him to go to USC, and he didn’t. He went to Alabama, but, hey, we’re back together now, so let’s get it!”
Ahead of him going to Alabama, Harris was ranked as the top player in the country when he was coming out of Antioch High School in Antioch, CA. It’s no wonder that Smith-Schuster knew about him being as he is from Southern California.
Clark then asked Smith-Schuster his opinion on teams drafting running backs in the first round.
“I think they still matter,” Smith-Schuster said. “I mean, it’s huge. You’ve got to think about it for the Steelers as they don’t really draft offensive players. The last offensive player to be drafted in the first round was Dave DeCastro and besides that, it’s been defensive players every time. And I was surprised we did that. So, yeah, I think running backs of his caliber, like Derrick Henry, those caliber guys, those guys are rare.”
Smith-Schuster made it known well before the draft that he hoped the Steelers would pick Harris in the first round. Obviously, his wish came true. It will now be interesting to see the two California products play together in Pittsburgh in 2021.
