JuJu Smith-Schuster let everyone in on a not-so-secret secret Thursday.
Antonio Brown is the reason why Smith-Schuster leads the Steelers with 77 receptions and 1,055 yards.
“Obviously, he’s been here for (nine) years,” Smith-Schuster said. “He’s getting double-teamed, triple-teamed; it’s hard, you know? But he still makes his plays and he still has the explosive plays that he’s making. And for me to be a young guy, me and (James Conner) and some of the other guys are being able to eat off his plate because of what he’s done in the past.”
Brown has 71 receptions for 874 yards and 11 touchdowns this season and has just 12 more targets than Smith-Schuster. That puts him on pace for a season with 103 receptions for 1,271 yards and 16 touchdowns, a fine year by anyone’s standards, save Brown. He’s averaged 116 receptions for 1,596 yards and 11 touchdowns over the past five seasons.
No Steelers receiver has been within 54 targets of Brown since the 2013 season.
That has caused some to think Brown might be a ticking time-bomb because his numbers aren't where they typically stand at this time of the year as the Steelers head into their game Sunday night at Heinz Field against the Chargers.
Brown's teammates, however, look at it another way.
“When it comes to game day," Smith-Schuster said, "it’s just we all talk about, ‘It’s G.O.A.T. time.’ It’s time, The G.O.A.T. comes alive. You make your plays, on both sides. And we’ve seen it work.”
G.O.A.T., of course, is an acronym for "Greatest of All Time." Brown's teammates call him that in passing on a daily basis. They know what he means to the team -- both in terms of his play and what kind of pressure he takes off everyone else.
It's helped allow Smith-Schuster to become a deep threat, despite the 4.52-second 40-yard dash he ran at the NFL Scouting Combine two years ago. It caused him to fall to the second round of the draft, where the Steelers, despite a lack of an obvious need for a receiver, scooped him up.
"The combine, it is what it is, I ran a 4.52, probably one of the slowest, not the slowest receiver, but I was one of the not-fastest guys," Smith-Schuster said. "But, at the end of the day, I’m happy because I’m here with the Steelers, and I’m happy what I’m doing here."
That's because, despite that less-than-blazing-time, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Smith-Schuster has proven to be a player who opponents have a tough time catching from behind.
He showed that again last week in a 24-17 loss at Denver when he caught this pass at the Steelers' 30 and took it 97 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.
It was the second 97-yard touchdown catch of his career -- the other came in Detroit in his rookie season last year -- and he now has nine receptions of 40 or more yards in his career. Not bad for a guy without blazing speed.
“I don’t know why, man, for some reason people say, like, I’m slow, but that breakaway speed, that was the biggest thing for me coming out of college, like ‘He doesn’t have breakaway speed, he doesn’t have breakaway speed,’ but like come on,” Smith-Schuster said. "You’ve seen what I’ve been doing, 97 yards, 75 yards."
Sunday, he'll likely become the youngest player in league history to reach 2,000 career receiving yards. He enters the game 28 yards short of that mark in just his 25 career games. Smith-Schuster will be 22 and 10 days on Sunday, having celebrated his birthday just two weeks ago.
And he's got Brown to thank for a lot of that success.
“He’s helped me out a lot,” Smith-Schuster said. “We always talk about just making each other better. Every day I go out and practice, I try and be the best I can be on the field, competing against him."