Would you rather have Ben Roethlisberger miss 6 games in 2019 or have JuJu Smith-Schuster go down for the year?
Everybody knows that in ‘would you rather,’ you must pick one or the other. There is no ‘option number 3.’ To see either one of these scenarios play out this year would be horrifying.
If Ben Roethlisberger were to go down for an extended amount of time with an injury, the Steelers could fall apart. That isn’t to say that Josh Dobbs or Mason Rudolph couldn’t do well enough to hold down the fort, but that is certainly something I wouldn’t want to leave up to chance.
Six games is a large portion of the NFL season, and it’s a big enough span that Pittsburgh could be out of the playoff hunt before Ben even returns from injury.
At the same time, losing JuJu Smith-Schuster for the season could be as bad as it sounds. The Steelers once had one of the best trio of wide receivers in the league with Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, and JuJu. However, Bryant is long gone and Brown forced his way out of Pittsburgh.
This leaves JuJu as the only proven commodity in the Steelers wide receivers group. With James Washington struggling as a rookie, Diontae Johnson not yet battle-tested, and Donte Moncrief never proving to be more than a complimentary journeyman receiver, the Steelers would have very few reliable options in the passing game.
In this scenario, Eli Rogers would be the most tenured Steelers receiver. Rogers stands to be one of the lowest receivers on the Steelers final roster.
So what would you choose? Ben to go down for 6 games, or JuJu to go down for the season?