During his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Antonio Brown made it a habit of catching 300 passes from a JUGS machine to work on his hands.
That routine helped make him one of the best wide receivers in NFL history, and very easily the best in the game during a five-year stretch in the mid-2010s.
Now, Steelers wide receiver Van Jefferson is copying that routine.
Speaking with reporters Saturday from Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Jefferson said that he is catching 300 passes from the machine daily to replicate what Brown did in an effort to take his game to another level and grab hold of the Steelers’ WR2 role.
“I think (AB is) one of the best to ever play in the NFL,” Jefferson said to reporters, according to a tweet from The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo. “So shoot why not follow him and what he did?”
Brown’s work ethic was truly elite, almost Jerry Rice-like. Brown’s work on the JUGS machine was tracked by Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora back during 2018 training camp in Latrobe. Over a four-day span, Kozora charted Brown catching a total of 513 passes from the machine.
Every pass he caught was from different angles, too. High, low, away from his body, straining to make the play. That’s who Brown was at his best.
At one point in that four-day span, Brown had former Steelers cornerback Brian Allen trap one of his arms to his body, forcing Brown to make one-handed catches. Adding that work ethic to his already impressive talent took Brown’s game to a level no receiver has touched since.
Entering his first season with the Steelers, Jefferson is trying to be just like Brown. Good player on the field to model his game and work ethic after, to be clear.
After a great 2021 season in Los Angeles with the Rams, hauling in 52 passes for 802 yards and five touchdowns, Jefferson fell off, struggling with injuries. Last season he was traded to Atlanta under now-Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Though he struggled to put up numbers there, he showed enough for Smith to want to give him a shot in Pittsburgh.
With question marks behind George Pickens at the receiver position, a huge opportunity is in front of Jefferson to try and claim the WR2 role and get back to producing like he once did in Los Angeles. Putting in work on the JUGS machine and trying to emulate the work that someone like Brown once did is a great starting point.
