Steelers positional grades are mostly disappointing for the 2021 season

Steelers wide receivers: C

I have to admit, I had pretty high hopes for this group in 2021. I expected the four young receivers on the Steelers to improve with another year of experience, but as we can see, that doesn’t always happen in the NFL.

Admittedly, some of this obviously has to do with the sub-par quarterback play and shakey target quality (which can even be contributed to a bad offensive line at times). But whatever the reason, these receivers fell short of expectations in 2021.

While Diontae Johnson had the best season of his NFL career, Chase Claypool seemed to have taken a big step back from the dynamic rookie year we saw from him in 2020. His hands were shaky and he was very inconsistent adjusting to and catching the ball down the field.

Likewise, former second-round pick James Washington was hardly a contributor for the Steelers in 2021 and it didn’t help the team that JuJu Smith-Schuster missed most of the season with a shoulder injury. Ray-Ray McCloud was an unspectacular slot option that was used much more than we would have liked. This group still has some upside with Johnson and Claypool, but it’s probably not going to be as good as we would have hoped for.