Throwback performance shows Steelers should have welcomed controversial WR reunion

Raise your hand if you would have liked to have seen JuJu Smith-Schuster block for a third-string tight end on a poorly designed Arthur Smith end-around to get three yards when you needed six with the game on the line? Honestly, with how things have quickly unraveled for the Pittsburgh Steelers of late, there may be more people in favor of this than you would think. Pittsburgh could have had him!

With how important of a role he played in the Kansas City Chiefs' home victory over the free-falling New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football, yes, I think the Steelers could have used Smith-Schuster this season. So they didn't win the Brandon Aiyuk sweepstakes. I do not think anyone did, especially the San Francisco 49ers. George Pickens may be my Dawg, but he is such a loose cannon.

All the while, Yinzers want to throw Smith into all three rivers at once, without thinking for a second that Mike Tomlin is somehow at fault. Regardless, I think we need to the realizing that Omar Khan is building this team, and not Kevin Colbert. While Zach Frazier has been a revelation in the trenches, the Steelers just lost to two teams I do not anyone thinks are any good in Indianapolis and Dallas.

Meanwhile, Smith-Schuster had seven catches for 130 yards in the Chiefs' 26-13 victory in Week 5.

JuJu Smith-Schuster is thriving while the Pittsburgh Steelers are reeling

Oh, how I long for the days of JuJu Smith-Schuster dancing with Antonio Brown for some Pizza Hut. It was a simpler time for all of humanity. Now we have to deal with George Kittle pretending to be a dog to push Little Caesars. If you brain hasn't devolved into goo at this point over the last five years, I salute you. What I don't salute is the self-inflicted adversity Tomlin throws into his team's locker room.

At times, I feel like his job is 50 percent babysitter and 50 percent football coach. That may be true, but at some point, you have to come to grips that maybe the company you keep is partially on you? Nine wins shouldn't be the goal, but it always is one for the Steelers. Had they not let Smith-Schuster go to a championship-caliber team in-conference, maybe they get to a very Spinal Tap 11 wins or so?

If you argue that Smith-Schuster last played for the Steelers some three years ago, well, he did go back to the Chiefs after spending a year with the dumpster fire New England Patriots. Like Jon Bon Jovi once sang, who says you can't go home? One of the Steelers' biggest problems is staring them right in the face. Not to say Smith-Schuster would have been panacea, but he's been great duct tape!

In the land of burnt ends, Kansas City is burning victory candles, while Pittsburgh is burning ... coffee.