5 players who Pittsburgh Steelers need to be great in 2019

2. James Washington

A lot of Steelers observers belief that JuJu Smith-Schuster will be the receiver who feels the most pressure to fill in for the departure of Antonio Brown. In actuality, it’s James Washington who will need to step up his game the most.

The logic here is really simple. Smith-Schuster showed enough last season to make it easy to project him as the team’s new No.1 wide receiver. He’ll need to adjust to life as the marked man, but Steelers fans should be comfortable knowing he’s got the requisite talent to make that leap.

Washington’s ability to make the transition to become the team’s No. 2 wideout is a much bigger question. He only caught 16 passes for 217 yards as a rookie. He might need to quadruple that level of production this season if the Steelers are going to become legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

If Washington can’t successfully make that jump, the Steelers won’t be able to stay patient with their young receiver. Instead, they’ll try to hand the No. 2 receiver position to rookie Diontae Johnson. They didn’t spend a third-round selection on him to keep him on the bench all year long.

Even so, the best case scenario for Pittsburgh is that Washington fulfills his full potential and becomes a reliable weapon for Ben Roethlisberger. Anything else is going to make it difficult for the Steelers offense to really thrive.