Steelers That Found Out That The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
The Steelers are one of the most storied franchises in NFL history. They’ve had many great players put on the black and gold jerseys. In recent years, high-production players have left for what seemed like greener pastures, just to be proven painfully wrong.
What gives? Why is that the case? Is Mike Tomlin just that good at getting the best out of his guys? Steelers Facebook won’t be happy to hear that one. It must be something else.
These guys all started their careers in Pittsburgh in a rather remarkable fashion, just to skid out down the road with other teams. Not always at complete fault themselves, but due to a cocktail of things gone wrong.
5. Juju Smith-Schuster
Spending five seasons with the Steelers from 2017-2021, Juju Smith Schuster saw massive amounts of personal success in Pittsburgh, especially in his first three seasons. In total, as a Steeler he played 63 games, catching 323 passes for 3,855 yards and 26 touchdowns. In 2018, Smith-Schuster was sixth in the NFL in receptions and fifth in receiving yards on his way to his lone Pro Bowl appearance.
Smith Schuster left the Steelers in free agency to join Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, although offering a warm goodbye to the city of Pittsburgh where he met fans, signed autographs, and took pictures. He gets a bad rap with some Steelers fans, but at the end of the day, he was a good dude and not the villain that many make him out to be.
He won the Super Bowl with the Chiefs in 2022, his only season with the team. That year he caught 78 passes for 933 yards and three touchdowns. In the Super Bowl, he drew the game-deciding hold on James Bradberry that ended up being crucial.
A great year with the Chiefs earned him a pay raise to join the New England Patriots. He hauled in 29 receptions for 260 yards and a touchdown in just 11 games, before getting released just a few days ago. Reports say that his knee is shot, but hopefully, he can land on his feet somewhere.
4. Chase Claypool
Compared to his former teammate above, Chase Claypool has found almost no success since Pittsburgh traded him to the Chicago Bears. A trade that landed the Steelers the draft selection that they used to take Joey Porter Jr, the team's current CB1. In his two-and-a-half seasons in Pittsburgh, Claypool caught 153 passes for 2,044 yards, 12 touchdowns, and had a sweet nickname, Mapletron.
Claypool didn’t pan out in Chicago though, playing just 10 games for the Bears. He had just 18 receptions for 291 yards and one touchdown in that short time. After that, Claypool played nine games for the Dolphins and did very little. This offseason he signed with the Buffalo Bills, but has now been put on the Season Ending IR. It’s been a tough shake for Claypool. He just hasn’t been able to put it all together yet.
3. Alejandro Villanueva
A mountain of a man, standing at six foot nine, Alejandro Villanueva played six great seasons from 2015 to 2020 at left tackle for the Steelers. He missed six games in his rookie season, then didn’t miss another one for five seasons. He was a Pro Bowler in 2017 and 2018, playing a big part in the success of the Killer B offense in Pittsburgh.
In 2021, Villanueva made the move in free agency to join the rival Baltimore Ravens. It wasn’t a messy breakup, but it sure was weird to see him in a purple jersey. He just wasn’t as dominant as he used to be. That only lasted one season though, with the big left tackle calling it quits after the 2021 season.
2. Le’Veon Bell
These next ones hit hard. These hurt. Le’Veon Bell was maybe the best running back in Steelers history in the short football lifespan he had. Insert the Vince McMahon meme, “He was special”. His run from 2013 to 2017 was pure electricity. As a Steeler, Bell posted 5,336 rushing yards on 1,229 attempts for 35 rushing touchdowns. He was a big part of the passing game too, catching 312 passes for 2,660 yards and seven touchdowns in 63 games for Pittsburgh.
The three big seasons that stand out for Bell as a Steeler were 2014, 2016, and 2017. He made the Pro Bowl all three seasons and was named an All-Pro in 2014 and 2017. 2014 was Bell’s second season in the NFL, and he wasted no time getting to work. That season he won Most Improved Player, finished second in the NFL in rushing yards, and third in yards per game. Bell had a good enough season to finish fourth in the Offensive Player of the Year vote.
2016 saw Bell finish sixth in the Offensive Player of the Year voting in a season where he finished second in the NFL in yards per game and third in all-purpose yards. Then in 2017, Bell led the league in rushing attempts which helped him finish third in rushing yards and rushing yards per game, second in all-purpose yards, and 10th in receptions.
Then the contract dispute happened, and he ended up on the train out of Pittsburgh. He was never able to rekindle that success that he had in Pittsburgh unfortunately. He got his big payday from the Jets but played just 17 games for them before getting cut. Then he spent some very insubstantial time with the Chiefs, Ravens, and Buccaneers. Now you can find him in the boxing ring. Jake Paul’s next opponent?
1. Antonio Brown
Another one that hurts badly. The McMahon meme works here too. Antonio Brown was a Steeler from 2010 to 2018, a big part of the Killer B’s Offense with Bell and Ben Roethlisberger. Besides Tom Brady, Antonio Brown has to be one of the best sixth-round draft picks of all time, right? There were a ton of wide receivers that got drafted before him, but Jordan Shipley? Really? Arrelious Benn? Who?
The Steeler’s 195th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft went on to play 130 games in black and gold. In those games, he hauled in 837 receptions for 11,207 receiving yards and 74 touchdowns. He averaged 15.4 receiving yards per reception and 86.2 receiving yards per game. Brown had one of the best primes of any wide receiver in NFL history.
Brown led the league in receiving yards in 2014 and 2017. He led the league in receptions in 2014 and 2015. In 2017, he led the league in yards per game with 109.5. Then in his last season as a Steeler in 2018, he led the NFL in receiving touchdowns with 15. Seven Pro Bowls and four First-Team All-Pro selections later, he’s not received very well in Pittsburgh due to the horribly ugly exit.
Despite their differences at the end, Big Ben and AB were one of the best duos in NFL history. Although Brown never found the same personal success that he had in Pittsburgh, he did end up winning a Super Bowl with his new love affair, Tom Brady in 2020 with the Buccaneers. Guess how that relationship ended?
Then AB gave us one of the greatest farewells in NFL history when he ran off the field, shirtless at MetLife Stadium. What is he doing now? Just check his X account. Shoutout to CTESPN.
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