Does the Pittsburgh Steelers’ young trio rival the Cleveland Browns’?
The Cleveland Browns have the best young core of talent in all of football, but does the Pittsburgh Steelers’ group rival theirs?
The Cleveland Browns have the best young group of talent in the NFL heading into the 2019 season. That’s the perk of going 1-31 over two seasons from 2016-2017.
But despite the fact that other teams in the league haven’t had two number one overall picks and countless other assets to work with, there are, in fact, other teams who have strong young groups of talent.
One of those teams being the Browns’ top competition in the AFC North (in my opinion), the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers may have lost Antonio Brown this offseason and they officially no longer have Le’Veon Bell, but they are one of the best teams in the NFL at developing skill talent. Brooks Austin and I discussed that on the latest NFL Mocks podcast, as well as a number of other AFC North superlatives.
You can listen to that full podcast wherever you listen, whether you use Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spreaker. You can also listen to it in this window (click below).
Although the Browns have the best young core of talent in the NFL, the Steelers have a young trio of players they should be very proud of as well.
Is it better than the trio of Baker Mayfield, Myles Garrett, and Odell Beckham Jr.? Probably not, but it has the potential to be right up there.
Let’s take a look.
Juju Smith-Schuster, WR
Smith-Schuster is probably the Steelers’ top young talent right now. He’s the latest in a long line of stellar wide receivers to play for Pittsburgh and he proved in 2018 that he’s capable of eating a ton of targets.
He caught 111 passes on 166 targets and racked up 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns. Despite more than twice as many targets in his sophomore season as he had his rookie year, Smith-Schuster was able to maintain nearly 13 yards per catch compared to his 15.8 as a rookie.
He’s a stud and he’s now Pittsburgh’s WR1.
TJ Watt, Edge
Somewhat quietly compared to other edge guys in the NFL today, Watt had a big breakout sophomore season with 68 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, 21 QB hits, and a whopping six forced fumbles.
Those numbers hold up against Myles Garrett’s last season, though Garrett had 29 QB hits and just three forced fumbles by comparison.
Watt is a highly impactful edge player and the Steelers were fortunate to land both him and Smith-Schuster in the same class.
Devin Bush, LB
The absence of Ryan Shazier left a gaping hole in the Steelers’ defense and they were just as aware of it as everyone else.
It’s why they were willing to pay a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick to move up 10 spots in the 2019 NFL Draft to take Devin Bush out of Michigan.
Though he’s only 5-foot-11, Bush flies around the field with reckless abandon and plays the position with a great combination of intensity and instinct.
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Although he’s not the quarterback of the offense, he’s going to be the new quarterback of Pittsburgh’s defense and he will play a major role in returning this Steelers defense to prominence.