What do you call the third year of a four-year contract? For the Pittsburgh Steelers, that might as well be the contract year, because those who typically possess staying power, barring first-round picks who have a fifth-year option, are signed to extensions prior to the start of the final year of their contract.
That was the ‘contract year’ for players like James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2019, and it was a year marred significantly by injury for both parties. Each of them missed at least four entire games, plus parts of others, in addition to playing through injuries, suffering multiple throughout the year.