It didn’t take the Steelers’ players long to get in on the fun of speculating what new numbers they may wear with the NFL’s new jersey rule.
The proposed new standard by the Chiefs was passed by the NFL Thursday, extending jersey number alternatives for skill position players. The point was to help manage rosters with extended practice squads in the NFL, as limitations on skill players’ numbers was becoming hard for certain teams to manage.
In view of the new standard, running backs, tight ends, fullbacks, H-backs and wide receivers can wear numbers 1-49 and 80-89. Safeties and cornerbacks can browse 1-49, while linebackers can pick 1-59 and 90-99. Offensive linemen can in any case pick 50-79 while defensive linemen 50-79 and 90-99. Already just quarterbacks, kickers and punters were permitted single-digit jersey numbers, however those groups can in any case wear numbers between 1-19.
That makes the standards nearer to that of secondary school and college football where less limitations on jersey numbers has consistently been part of the culture. What’s more, presently, some NFL players are getting into the thought.
Particularly some Steelers. Here’s JuJu Smith-Schuster’s idea of switching back to his college No. 9, which would require him conversing with Chris Boswell.
Other Steelers like Devin Bush don’t have that issue as his old No. 10 from his Michigan days is totally open. He made a more subtle post on Instagram Thursday, joking around about what he’d look like while picking his new jersey number.
In any case, Joe Haden made it a step further. After not playing college football since he was drafted out of Florida in 2010, his old No. 5 jersey actually had interest to him returning, which obviously clashes with Josh Dobbs’ number. He jokingly asked about that on Twitter.
While some NFL competitors like Tom Brady hate the idea, the idea of opening up jersey numbers appears to get a lot of players interested.
