The Kansas City Chiefs are bolstering their wide receiving group with a familiar face after the club announced they had signed Juju Smith-Schuster Monday.
Smith-Schuster was the leading wide receiver for Kansas City on their 2022 Super Bowl winning team, catching 78 passes for 933 yards and 3 TDs. The former Pittsburgh Steeler would then go on to sign a 3 year, $25M contract with the New England Patriots in 2023. However the Pats passing attack sputtered to a halt last year for a variety of reasons, as the 27 year old finished the year with 29 receptions for 260 yards and a 1 TD across 11 games.
He would subsequently be released by the Patriots earlier this summer as they transition to a new regime under centre and along the sidelines in Foxborough.
Smith-Schuster rejoins perennial MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes and future hall of fame coach Andy Reid in KC, and will bring a degree of familiarity with the playbook along with him.
Kansas City will have several new faces running routes this season in Hollywood Brown, and rookie Xavier Worthy so having a veteran presence is never a bad thing. However many NFL insiders have begun to speculate that Smith-Schuster could serve as an insurance policy for WR Rashee Rice who has yet to be suspended for an off field incident this offseason, but could still face additional discipline from the league as Week 1 approaches.
Financial terms of the contract were not initially made public.
Photo: Thomson200. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.