It is starting to look like the Pittsburgh Steelers could let JuJu Smith-Schuster test free agency coming March 17th. The Steelers cap issues are coming at the wrong time. They will go into the 2021 offseason with 15+ free agents. Most are unrestricted free agents too. Alejandro Villanueva, Matt Feiler, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mike Hilton, Cam Sutton, and Bud Dupree are just some of the players expected to hit free agency if the Steelers cannot get deals done with them before the deadline of March 17.
Bob Labriola recently wrote an article on Steelers.com called Steelers-By-Position: WRs. In that article, he broke down the current Steelers wide receivers position by position, and then he looked ahead to the 2021 season. He said, "Smith-Schuster is set to become an unrestricted free agent on March 17, and despite his pronouncements on social media that he wants to continue his career with the Steelers, he's unlikely to want to accept what the cap-strapped Steelers would be able to pay him on a new contract."
Although Labriola does not make the decisions with the Steelers he is very close to the Pittsburgh Steelers. NBC's PFT says Art Rooney II rarely talks to any media members other than Labriola or other Steelers.com employees. So when Labriola says something so direct it should be taken seriously because he is very close to the Pittsburgh Steelers. After all, he works for them!
Many Steeler fans do not want to accept the possibility of the Steelers not bringing JuJu back, but they better start realizing it because it is a real possibility. It seems like the Steelers have not been in constant communication with JuJu like they have been with Bud Dupree. So it looks like they could allow him to test free agency.