JuJu Smith-Schuster would love to wear the No. 9 jersey as he gets set to play for his third team in the league. However, he is not willing to pay such a huge cost in order to make that happen.
Smith-Schuster wore it with the Chiefs and caught 78 passes for 933 yards and three touchdowns. It was his best season since 2020. Plus, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
In New England, if he wants to wear that number again, it will cost him big time.
Smith-Schuster estimated he’d need to pay $100,000 because Matthew Judon, his new Patriots teammate, already wears the number. The NFL has a rule that requires players who change numbers to buy all the unsold jerseys that have already been printed with their names and numbers.
“When you’re on the same team and you have the same number and if you change it,” Smith-Schuster told reporters. “You have to pay the fee for the rest of that jersey and then whatever new number you get, you’ve got to pay the inventory for that. And that’s a whole process. He’s probably going to have to ask for 100k, which I’m definitely not going to do.”
After a one-year prove-it deal, JuJu Smith-Schuster signed a sweet three-year $33 million deal.
He claims him switching teams was the presence of a certain head coach.
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“To be honest, it was (coach Bill) Belichick, man,” Smith-Schuster told the Kansas City Star. “Just the want and the need. And, you know, the position that I can fill there really, really caught my attention. … I felt that like that was most, feeling wanted in a place when I played against a head coach I have a lot of respect for. And I just think that that goes a long way.”
Having a legendary coach is one thing, but he certainly downgrades in the QB department as he goes from Patrick Mahomes to Mac Jones.
