The Cleveland Browns are in the midst of an historic season, and are now on the brink of making their first postseason appearance in what feels like an eternity. The Browns will face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night in a game that will have playoff implications for Cleveland, and for his part, Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster wants to play the role of the spoiler for Baker Mayfield and the Browns.

In the buildup to the highly-anticipated Week 17 matchup, Smith-Schuster admitted that the Steelers are coming in with a bit more motivation as they try to knock off Cleveland from the playoffs:

“It’s a lot of motivation. I think for a lot of us, it’s more so being an AFC North division team, and knocking them out of the playoffs,” Smith-Schuster said, via Matthew Marzi of Steelers Depot.

“Obviously, we want to go out and win every game, but our mindset’s to go in here, win the game, and go home. But they’re a good team, so I can’t wait to see what they can do, and what we can do to Cleveland”.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Justin Fields surrounded by piles of cash.

Nihad Zunic ·

The Browns are coming off a catastrophic loss to the New York Jets in Week 16, with Cleveland missing a number of key players due to COVID-19 health protocols. Another loss for them on Sunday could mark the end of what has been a tremendous campaign for them.

As he implied above, this is exactly what Smith-Schuster and the rest of the Steelers have in mind as they hope to prevent their division rivals from even stepping foot in the postseason. More importantly, however, Pittsburgh will also want to secure a victory to enter the postseason with a win.