Patriots have no room for JuJu Smith-Schuster after antics all season

The Patriots should not break the bank to sign WR JuJu Smith-Schuster after his antics this season.

Given their salary cap situation — they’re currently projected to have some $58 million to spend — the New England Patriots have no excuse not to aggressively pursue one of the top wide receivers on the free agent market. Luckily for them, there will be no shortage of intriguing options.

With that being said, however, we’ve officially crossed off a box-office name that many Patriots fans had at the top of their respective wishlists: JuJu Smith-Schuster. Under no circumstances should the front office offer the Steelers star, who far too often seems more concerned about his TikTok following than actually winning games, a lucrative contract.

Whether it’s a lack of self awareness or a matter of slow-moving maturity, Smith-Schuster continues to put his social status before football, further underscored by the fact that he shockingly decided to break out in dance before a play while the undermanned Browns were mopping the floor with Pittsburgh in the first-round of the playoffs on Sunday night.

Somebody seriously needs to forward this clip to Bill Belichick, because the Patriots simply cannot afford to babysit a supposed franchise cornerstone while they attempt to avenge their worst season in two decades.

As if recording a TikTok down 19 points at home in a playoff game wasn’t enough, Smith-Schuster provided Cleveland, which was without its head coach and a handful of key players, with bulletin board material leading up to the game, saying that they were the same “nameless gray faces” he sees year in and year out.

The former Pro Bowler capped his ill-advised answer with a now-infamous one-liner, “The Browns is the Browns,” that has since blown up on social media for all of the wrong reasons. With just over a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, players on Cleveland were spotted trolling him on the sidelines and they did the same in their locker room after the win.

We love what Smith-Schuster offers from a receiving perspective, but his production is far too inconsistent to tolerate his off-field antics. For context, he’s registered just two 100-yard games over the last two seasons (29 games) and has just six games with more than 80 receiving yards during that span.

Entering their most important offseason in recent memory, the Patriots really shouldn’t even consider signing the 24-year-old. Talent is normally the ultimate equalizer, but in this case, his antics vastly outweigh the potential rewards that could come from breaking the bank to sign him.

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