The Pittsburgh Steelers went just 8-8 and missed the playoffs in 2019, but the effort they put forth given their circumstances was admirable.
Ben Roethlisberger was sidelined for the season as soon as Week 3, leaving the Steelers to bounce back and forth between Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges for the remainder of the year. All of that, and Pittsburgh still nearly made the playoffs.
Things should be a bit better for the Steelers going into this coming season, as Roethlisberger is healthy and Pittsburgh has nice talent on both sides of the football.
Expectations are relatively high for the Steelers, so here are the three players under the most pressure for the club entering 2020.
3. Bud Dupree
The Steelers slapped a franchise tag on Bud Dupree at the onset of free agency this offseason, but the two sides were not able to reach a long-term agreement before the July 15 deadline.
That means Dupree will be playing out 2020 on a one-year deal and will have to prove that he is worth a lucrative long-term contract to Pittsburgh or some other team.
Dupree had a breakout campaign in 2019, racking up 68 tackles and 11.5 sacks. However, the 27-year-old was a fairly big disappointment over his first four seasons from 2015 through 2018, amassing a grand total of 20 sacks.
So, was Dupree's big year truly a breakthrough? Or was it just a matter of him angling for a new deal?
Whatever the case may be, the linebacker will need to have another strong season in 2020 if he wants his big payday.
2. Ben Roethlisberger
I waffled back and forth between including Roethlisberger on this list, because at the age of 38 with a pair of Super Bowl wins under his belt, Big Ben doesn't have a whole lot left to prove.
But here's the thing: Roethlisberger is coming off of a major elbow injury that required surgery. And with the quarterback nearing 40 years of age, you have to wonder if the cliff is near.
We saw what happened to Eli Manning at the same age in New York, and Philip Rivers showed signs of a massive decline during his final season with the Chargers last year. Will Roethlisberger suffer the same fate?
The good news is that Roethlisberger is playing behind a fantastic offensive line, and he has some nice weapons at his disposal. However, if his arm strength isn't there, it won't matter how good the rest of his supporting cast is.
1. JuJu Smith-Schuster
When the Steelers traded Antonio Brown last offseason, JuJu Smith-Schuster instantly stepped into the role of No. 1 receiver, and after his monster 2018 campaign in which he hauled in 111 receptions for 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns, it appeared that he was prepared to take on that responsibility.
Unfortunately, Smith-Schuster laid an egg in 2019, catching just 42 passes for 552 yards and three scores.
Now, there are a lot of qualifiers here. First of all, Smith-Schuster missed four games due to a concussion and a knee injury, so his season was abbreviated. Second, his quarterbacks were the aforementioned Rudolph and Hodges, so his lack of production was not entirely his fault.
But going into 2020 with a healthy Roethlisberger, Smith-Schuster will be expected to post big numbers as Pittsburgh's top wideout. If he doesn't, many will begin to wonder if his early success in 2017 and 2018 was merely because he was playing alongside of Brown.
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