JuJu Smith-Schuster finally answers Steelers' long quest for complement to Antonio Brown

It's been six primary running mates in six seasons since Antonio Brown ascended to the top of the ticket in the Steleers wide receivers corps.

Is JuJu Smith-Schuster finally the longterm answer?

Not unlike the Penguins' seemingly never-ending quest to acquire regular wings for Sidney Crosby, the Steelers have run through no shortage of candidates to work the opposite side of the field from their future Hall of Famer, Antonio Brown.

Brown has led the Steelers in receptions every season since 2012. Here is who was No. 2 in catches among wide receivers each year:

2012 — Mike Wallace

2013 – Emmanuel Sanders

2014 – Markus Wheaton

2015 – Martavis Bryant

2016 – Eli Rogers

2017 – Juju Smith-Schuster

Notice a pattern?

If you add in Jerricho Cotchery finishing second to Brown in receiving yardage in 2013, that makes for seven different players in a six-year span who played the WR2 role to Brown's WR1 for the Steelers.

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The Steelers have drafted nine wide receivers since Brown took over from Wallace as the Steelers' top wide receiver option in 2012. They've signed veteran unrestricted free agents (Lance Moore, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Justin Hunter) and claimed others off waivers (Cobi Hamilton).

None have seized the top complementary role to Brown. But does it matter?

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The Steelers over the past four years have had a running back (Le'Veon Bell, three times) and a tight end (Heath Miller in 2015) be No. 2 on the team in catches. Also, when Brown is gobbling up an average of 161 targets per season like he has over the past six years (10.7 per game) — and he's productive (the analytics of both Pro Football Focus and footballoutsiders.com rated him as the NFL's best wide receiver in 2017) — how much of a need is there for a WR2? How many targets are available for one?

Regardless, the emergence of Smith-Schuster seems to have rendered the search for Brown's running mate moot. At 21 and with three more years of a bargain rookie contract, Smith-Schuster already was rated as the NFL's sixth-best wide receiver last season by footballoutsiders.com (their metric is Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement.)

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.