PITTSBURGH -- The first thing coach Mike Tomlin mentioned when he gave a list of things the Steelers will lose with JuJu Smith-Schuster’s season-ending shoulder surgery wasn’t Smith-Schuster’s toughness in muscling yards after a catch or his reliability on third down.
It was his spirit, his effort, and then the quality of his play.
That’s not to say that Smith-Schuster’s quality of play will be easy to replace, but it’s the intangibles of the fifth-year receiver that will be the hardest void for the Steelers to fill.
“You can’t replace JuJu,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday morning.