Did Steelers draft Chase Claypool to be JuJu Smith-Schuster’s replacement?

The Steelers spent their second-round pick on a wide receiver in 2020. Was Chase Claypool drafted to be JuJu Smith-Schuster’s replacement?

I know nobody wants to hear it, but the Steelers decision to draft Chase Claypool may stretch beyond what he brings to the table in a closing Super Bowl window. It’s entirely possible that the plan could be for him to be JuJu Smith-Schuster’s eventual replacement.

Ed Bouchette, who covers the Pittsburgh Steelers for The Athletic, recently expressed that he thinks Pittsburgh will allow JuJu to walk after the 2020 season. In addition, Pittsburgh radio personality, Mark Madden, stated recently that JuJu won’t be on the team after this year:

There are several reasons to believe this could be accurate. For starters, the Steelers are in a bad way financially, and Ben Roethlisberger’s cap hit goes up from $23.75 million to a whopping $41.25 million, according to Over the Cap. If the Steelers have plans to keep him in 2021, it will cost them a lot more than it does right now.

Pittsburgh already had to let Javon Hargrave walk this season, and Bud Dupree could be next. T.J. Watt’s extension is clearly a higher priority, and with spending two second-round picks and a third-round pick on wide receivers over the past three drafts, Smith-Schuster could be on his way out.

In addition to these factors, Chase Claypool makes a lot of sense for a JuJu replacement. If you really examine the film, you see a player who – much like JuJu – can play on the outside, but does a lot of his damage from the slot. You can put Chaypool on a drag route underneath and get him some space to move after the catch.

Neither receivers are superb route runners or operators, but they excel at catching the ball in traffic from the ‘Z’ receiver spot. Though JuJu, a former second-round pick himself, is a much more proven player than Claypool, he is coming off the worst season of his three-year NFL career. Though Claypool isn’t as polished, he could potentially be a bigger, more athletic version of JuJu if used in the same role.

The Steelers went out and got three offensive weapons this offseason in Claypool, Eric Ebron, and Anthony McFarland, and Pittsburgh could be thinking that with a combination of them in addition to James Washington, Diontae Johnson, and Vance McDonald could prove to be enough.

We all know that JuJu is going to get paid well after the 2020 season based on his reputation alone. It’s just a matter if the Steelers will be the team to do that. As of now, however, there is some reason to believe that Claypool may have been drafted to be JuJu’s replacement in Pittsburgh.