The Steelers played their first game in the post-JuJu Smith-Schuster era -- at least this season -- in Sunday's 23-20 overtime win over the Seahawks.
And the immediate beneficiaries were Ray-Ray McCloud and Pat Freiermuth.
McCloud and Freiermuth both saw career highs in snap counts in the game, with McCloud playing 52 out of 75 offensive snaps and Freiermuth seeing 45.
Thing is, that doesn't mean that will be the mix moving forward -- at least not for McCloud -- though the Steelers might have figured out how to best use Freiermuth, their second-round pick this year.
Wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard said last week's plan had more to do with injury issues to wide receivers Chase Claypool and James Washington than it did with a long-term plan to replace Smith-Schuster, the Steelers' primary slot receiver.
Claypool and Washington both were limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday of last week with a hamstring and groin injuries, respectively, with neither getting a full practice in until Friday. That affected the Steelers' plan going into the game against the Seahawks.
That explains why Washington, who had missed the team's Week 5 win over the Broncos, only got eight snaps against the Seahawks.
"It’s one game," Hilliard told me Tuesday. "What happened was, going into the game, Chase and James were both nursing injuries going into the game. They had missed time. Ray-Ray was the slot. He was the guy backing JuJu.
"The idea was that Diontae (Johnson) was playing the X. Cody (White) was kind of backing everybody and we had two guys coming off of injury. My idea was to go into the game and have them split snaps or split a series or two. It just so happened that Chase’s hamstring held up better than I expected. I kept him in the game and Ray-Ray wasn’t an eyesore."
The Steelers still certainly have Washington in their plans moving forward to help replace the production of Smith-Schuster, who was lost for the season in the win over the Broncos to a shoulder injury. But they also have a distinct plan for Freiermuth, who had a career-high seven catches for 58 yards against the Seahawks.
"I thought Pat got involved and continued to make the improvements we believe he can make," offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. "He and Ben (Roethlisberger) continue to develop a rapport, which we know is important, and trust, and all those different things. He had a real big third-down conversion there early and that led to a touchdown."
McCloud finished with two receptions for 18 yards, while Washington had one catch for nine.
In terms of toughness as a blocker, Washington might be the closest thing the Steelers have to Smith-Schuster. But with him compromised last week by the groin injury, he didn't get the snaps he figures to see moving forward.
"James has been an outside receiver. He is more than capable of doing (slot)," Hilliard said. "You’ll see him in there more the rest of the season."
That's replacing Smith-Schuster on the field. Off it, the Steelers have to figure out how to make up for the loss of their most experienced receiver. Without the fifth-year receiver, the Steelers are extremely young at the position, with Washington in his fourth season, Johnson and McCloud in their third seasons, Claypool in his second year and White, a former practice squad player, seeing his first NFL action.
Hilliard, himself a former NFL wide receiver, can help the young receivers get better. But the on-field leadership comes from outside the position.
"I look at naturally guys like Ben and Cam (Heyward) and T.J (Watt)," Hilliard said. "Regardless of how rah-rah they are with their talk, their play, they’ll lead the way that way and everybody will follow. I don’t think there really needs to be a label of who leads and who doesn’t. Collectively, we understand that those dudes are going to perform. We have a great quarterback who communicates well, overcommunicates, to make sure those young men know what to expect daily and weekly. I’d honestly have to lean more there."
Roethlisberger has been very outspoken with his young receiver group, coaching them up to run patterns the way he wants them run and letting them know what he sees from a defense and how he wants them to react. But there have been a number of cases this season where he and the receivers haven't been on the same page.
He'll make a back-shoulder throw and the receiver will keep running. Or, he'll throw a slant and the receiver will stop short.
It's all part of the learning process, not only with a new offense this season under Canada, but also with young receivers.
"It’s part of the growth and maturity that’s needed a little bit faster," Hilliard said. "We’re pretty young, but we’re going to do our best to minimize those. We hit some of those last year that were big. We haven’t connected on as many of those this year. But we’re working to get that done. We’ll get that done.
"I wish it was that simple that we were just running routes. ... We’re always going to have something that we’re going to try to learn and get better at. There’s a floor, there’s not a ceiling. So the expectation is for those men to be prepared. We’re going to work to get better. We’re going to try to eliminate problems before they happen. But there is a human element to the game. I’ll keep coaching my butt off and try to help those boys minimize those mishaps. We’ll keep working and we’ll be great."
While Smith-Schuster was the team's leading receiver last season with 97, Johnson led the team with 923 receiving yards. Claypool led the way with nine touchdown catches. Washington led the team in receiving yards in 2019 before taking a lesser role last season with the addition of Claypool.
This season, Johnson is tied with rookie running back Najee Harris for the team lead with 34 receptions, despite missing a game because of injury. And he also leads in receiving yards with 376 yards, 18 more yards more than Claypool, who also has missed a game.
That's been part of the challenge for the coaching staff this season. The Steelers have been missing at least one receiver for all but two of their games this season. Each of the past four games, someone's been out of the lineup.
"That’s the beauty of it. You play the chess match every game, really," Hilliard said. "The more you know, the more you can do. It makes it a lot more fun for me in terms of the teaching aspect of it. But they welcome the challenges and rigors of the game, the details of the game, the challenges they face on a weekly basis, regardless who is out there. They embrace that, but they also all individually and collectively believe that they’re, you know,THE guy.
"I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter who we play with. We’ll play the hand we’re dealt. We’re going to miss JuJu. We love JuJu. He’s going to be there as much as he can. We’ll play for him. He’ll play through us. But we have work to do."
