2021 was supposed to be JuJu Smith-Schuster’s big cash-in year, the year he hits unrestricted free agency and makes bank, life-changing, generation-changing fortunes for himself and his family. In part because of performance and usage issues, but largely because of an unpredictable downturn in the salary cap, he wound up staying home for one more year in the hopes of trying again in 2022.
He ultimately signed a one-year contract to come back to the Pittsburgh Steelers worth $8 million, but he is said to have turned down contracts with, among others, the Baltimore Ravens, which would have paid him a bit more, plus incentives to get still more, on one-year deals.