One year after surprisingly returning to the Pittsburgh Steelers in free agency, JuJu Smith-Schuster now finds himself back on the free agent market without much buzz after an injury-plagued 2021 season.
With guys like Christian Kirk, D.J. Chark, and Zay Jones already off the board at the position, Smith-Schuster finds himself competing for teams’ attention with names like Allen Robinson and Odell Beckham Jr., leading to a rough go of things early on for the 25-year-old wide receiver.
Though returning to the Steelers remains a possibility, a rough season with diminished stats and the post-Ben Roethlisberger era could be reason for Smith-Schuster to leave this year in free agency. Should he decide to walk away from the Steelers, former NFL wide receiver and current NFL Network analyst James Jones believes Smith-Schuster’s best landing spot lies out west.
Specifically, Jones believes Smith-Schuster’s best landing spot is in Kansas City with All-Pros Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce, landing with a team that he turned down last offseason.
“I think the best fit for him is the Kansas City Chiefs,” Jones said on NFL Network. “You turned down Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes last year to go back to Pittsburgh. Listen, go back to Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, get on the other side of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, all the attention is on them.
“You would be the number two wide receiver, you’d be getting paired up against the number three corners and number two corners, and you have a special quarterback throwing you the ball,” Jones added. “You are never covered when you play with Patrick Mahomes. I love the idea of my man JuJu Smith-Schuster in Kansas City.”
It certainly makes a ton of sense on paper as Smith-Schuster would be able to move back out to the boundary in a much larger role with the Chiefs than he had in Pittsburgh the last two years. Add in the fact that he’d be able to transition from one Hall of Fame quarterback to another, he should be able to see his production skyrocket once again, back to the levels he reached in his first two seasons in the NFL.
Currently, Pro Football Focus projects Smith-Schuster to land a one-year, $8 million deal with $6.5 million guaranteed, which is nearly identical to the deal he received from the Steelers last offseason before then missing all but five games and the Steelers’ Wild Card loss to those Chiefs due to a serious shoulder injury that required surgery.
Though it appears to be a bit of a depleted market for the talented wide receiver, whichever team lands his services is getting a tough, reliable playmaker, one that should be able to elevate his game by being used properly once again.
