JuJu Smith-Schuster was diplomatic in most of his comments about

Antonio Brown on Wednesday Riley Ridley Jersey , even when prodded. Asked about Brown’s tweet criticizing Smith-Schuster for fumbling against New Orleans with 32 seconds left, the Steelers now No. 1 receiver didn’t bite. “At the end of the day, that’s his opinion,” Smith-Schuster said, via Joe Rutter of the . “For myself, I stand from afar. I’m not worried about what he’s got going on with his team. I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a great player. He dominates on the field. I’m worrying about the guys we have here, my teammates and how I can be great on and off the field.”Smith-Schuster, though, admits it is quieter around Pittsburgh without Brown, whom the Steelers traded to the Raiders in March.“The chemistry is on point,” Smith-Schuster said, via Will Graves of the Associated Press. “Everyone is on the same page. Everyone is communicating. There’s really no — how do you say? — drama in our locker room.”Smith-Schuster also took a veiled shot at Brown, saying he has no pressure to match the numbers Brown posted in his nine seasons in Pittsburgh. The Pro Bowl receiver leaves Pittsburgh having contributed 11,207 receiving yards and 74 touchdowns, an average of 1,245 yards and eight touchdowns per season.Despite replacing Brown as the team’s featured wideout, Smith-Schuster vows not to let his statistics get in the way of the team goal. “I’m looking at mine, my own team Greedy Williams Jersey , how we do and how we win,” Smith-Schuster said, via Graves. “I’m fine. I would take five catches for 30 yards and win the game than have 10 catches, two touchdowns. It’s not really about myself at the end of the day. It’s about the Super Bowl.”It will take a village to replace Brown. Smith-Schuster concedes that. He will lead a group that includes James Washington, Donte Moncrief, third-round pick Diontae Johnson, Eli Rogers and Ryan Switzer.Only 22, Smith-Schuster finds himself the leader in the receivers room.“There’s no need for me to go out of my way and yell at the guys,” Smith-Schuster said. “We’re all adults here. We all know what’s right from wrong and everyone just works. Everyone has a voice in a room. It’s not just mine.”
The list of players sitting out this weekend’s conference championships is almost as impressive as the starting lineups: Julian Edelman. Carson Wentz. Dalvin Cook. Dont’a Hightower. Allen Robinson. Sam Bradford.

Following the NFL’s season of carnage that claimed the likes of, among others, Aaron Rodgers, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, J.J. Watt, DeShaun Watson, Odell Beckham Jr. and Joe Thomas, this year’s final four all overcame not only the odds – ”Minneapolis Miracle , anyone?” – but devastating injuries to key starters.

”We have a tough and resilient team Sione Takitaki Jersey ,” Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long said of the NFC’s top seed , which is missing its second-year QB in Wentz, an MVP hopeful when he blew out a knee in December.

Even before Wentz’s injury thrust backup Nick Foles into the starting job for the playoffs, the Eagles lost nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters, playmaking middle linebacker Jordan Hicks, versatile return specialist Darren Sproles, and special teams captain Chris Maragos.

Yet, here they are, 60 minutes from Minneapolis and Super Bowl 52.

”I think that starts at the top with Doug, because he sets the tone for being resilient and even keeled,” Long said of his coach, Doug Pederson. ”At the end of the day, we have a tough group of guys.”

So do the Minnesota Vikings, who are trying to reach their first Super Bowl in more than four decades and fulfill mantra to ”Bring it Home” and become the first NFL team to play the title game in its own stadium.

And they’re doing so behind Case Keenum, who crashed Tom Brady’s playoff party along with fellow perennial backup Foles and Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles.

Together, the four quarterbacks left standing have a combined five Super Bowl rings, two NFL MVP awards and four Super Bowl MVP trophies. Brady, of course Sheldrick Redwine Jersey , owns all of that hardware himself.

Such is the panorama of these playoffs following a season of pain in which so many superstars were rendered sideline spectators with broken bones, snapped ligaments, torn muscles.

Keenum replaced an injured Bradford, who had replaced an injured Teddy Bridgewater. Bradford, now back in uniform as Keenum’s backup, blew out a knee in the first month of the season, as did rookie running back in Cook, who needed reconstructive surgery to repair a torn ACL.

Behind resilient coach Mike Zimmer , who resisted the urge to quit just before he got the Vikings’ head coaching gig in 2014, Minnesota rolled right along. Keenum deftly took over for Bradford, and Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray became a productive backfield tandem.

”We’ve got a bunch of fighters on this team,” Zimmer said. ”They’ve been a resilient bunch all year long. I expect it to continue to be that way.”

The Patriots are also a bunch of fighters; they reached their seventh straight AFC title game despite losing Edelman, Brady’s top target, to a torn ACL in the preseason, and Hightower to a torn chest muscle in November.

Play caller Josh McDaniels and Brady, who led New England to a fifth Super Bowl title last year despite the absence of Rob Gronkowski, adjusted accordingly to Edelman’s absence with another terrific year.

Linebacker Kyle Van Noy stepped in for Hightower and ranked third on the team with 73 tackles and second with 5+ sacks despite missing three of the final five games with a calf injury.

Van Noy’s sack total was just a half-sack shy of Hightower’s career high set in 2014.

”The thing about K.V. is he’s very versatile,” said Patriots safety and defensive captain Devin McCourty. ”So we’ve used him a bunch of different ways. … He’s been a big asset to our team.”

The Jaguars are the healthiest of the remaining playoff teams. They have only one opening-day starter on injured reserve: former Pro Bowl receiver Robinson Austin Seibert Jersey , who tore his left ACL on Jacksonville’s opener.

Four months removed from reconstructive surgery, Robinson is now traveling with the team, so he’ll be on the sideline Sunday at New England, serving as a mentor to a raw receiving corps.

”Every person in this locker room put in a lot of work to get to this point, with me being one of them,” said Robinson, who was poised for another big year after dominating the league’s best secondary in training camp.

His injury on Jacksonville’s third offensive snap created a huge void for the offense. Marqise Lee and Allen Hurns tried to pick up the slack, but they ended up on the sideline at one point with injuries, too, leaving rookies Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook to assume bigger roles.

Cole, an undrafted rookie from tiny Kentucky Wesleyan, had 42 catches for 748 yards and three scores in the regular season. He added a clutch 45-yard catch that set up a late TD in Jacksonville’s 45-42 stunner at Pittsburgh last week.

”I wish I could just wake up tomorrow and feel like I did Sept. 9,” Robinson said, ”but I understand it’s going to be a process. I know I’ll be back to that point and better.”

Like so many other stars, Robinson will be in street clothes Sunday, cheering on his teammates in hopes of getting a sideline pass to the Super Bowl.

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