Of all the takes concerning the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2019 season, Brandon Boykin might've dropped the worst.
Speaking during an episode of NFL Network's NFL Total Access, Boykin, who played for the Steelers in 2015, expressed doubts over JuJu Smith-Schuster's production with Antonio Brown now in Oakland.
"Number one, you don’t lose a guy like Antonio Brown and not replace the productivity that he gave you, and get better the next season," Boykin began. "You talk about a guy that had 1,300 yards, 15 touchdowns. And I know a lot of people like JuJu Smith-Schuster — I like JuJu Smith-Schuster, as well. I think he’s a great receiver."
But "liking" Smith-Schuster wasn't enough in his eyes.
"But let’s be honest, without Antonio Brown and the attention that he commanded all year, I don’t think JuJu Smith-Schuster’s numbers would have been the same. So now that he’s No. 1, we’ll see what he does."
David Carr, ever-friendly when discussing the Steelers, backed up Boykin:
“Brandon hit it right on the head," he said. "From a defensive guy to say that, I don’t know who you’re afraid of other than JuJu. I mean, that just tells you how they’re going to play him. They’re going to put JuJu on the best corner and then the other guys just got to find a way to win, and it’s going to be difficult. We saw JuJu one game without Antonio last year and it wasn’t the greatest, so we’ll see what they can do.”
While our analyst Chris Carter disagreed with that take in his 'Classroom' series — twice — it's easy to see how someone could buy into this line of thinking. Brown is undoubtedly one of the best receivers in the league, putting up an historic stretch of seasons before being traded to the Raiders.
In 2017, without Brown in weeks 16 and 17, Smith-Schuster put up a combined 15 receptions for 218 yards and two touchdowns. He did take a dip in the Steelers' 2018 regular-season finale vs. the Bengals without Brown, pulling in five receptions for 37 yards and a score. The Steelers as a whole were anemic in that one, putting up just 16 points to win, 16-13.
Still, I can at least understand why Boykin and Carr would go there. They're wrong, but I get it. But then, there's this...
"The second thing that I feel like is that they don’t have a backup quarterback," Boykin said. "Nobody has experience other than Ben Roethlisberger. If he gets hurt, what’s the situation going to be?”
#Steelers offensive expectations this season?🤔 pic.twitter.com/SSbaOLaRo5
— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) July 17, 2019
Uhh ... what?
If a team's biggest concern is its backup quarterback, that's an excellent problem to have. Who's backup to Tom Brady? Drew Brees? Patrick Mahomes? It doesn't matter.
While the Steelers' backup quarterback situation is interesting, with the competition between Mason Rudolph and Josh Dobbs, it's not a vital component in addressing the Steelers' 2019 outlook, except for the obvious: In today's pass-happy NFL, any team losing their No.1 quarterback, let alone one as accomplished as Roethlisberger, is going to struggle to win games.
HUNTER'S VIEW
There are certainly reasons to doubt the Steelers in 2019, starting with the No. 2 receiver, tight-end depth, and overall progression of the defense. But pinpointing Smith-Schuster and the backup quarterback?
That's just bizarre.
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