Rookie Profile: JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR USC

“Great, it’s another player profile on JuJu Smith-Schuster.  I’ve never read one of those before!”

Yes, indeed, it seems that the Fantasy Football community has been talking about JuJu Smith-Schuster for what seems to be a life time now (especially if you’re into devy leagues).  And much like any young player who dwells in the spotlight for too long JuJu has been gaining a long list of haters and critics.  There are still some who believe in his talent, but it seems that list is shrinking.

Why is that?  What is it about Smith-Schuster that has made many dislike him so much?

Let’s take a look at what we know and try to figure him out once and for all.

Rise and Fall?

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Statistics from sports-reference.com.

When JuJu Smith-Schuster started his collegiate career with USC, expectations were already set incredibly high.  He was a consensus five-star and top 20 recruit nationally according to the 247Sports composite recruiting rankings.

That hype didn’t go anywhere but up during JuJu’s freshman year.  In his first game as a 17-year-old college wide receiver Juju caught four passes for 123 yards against Fresno State.  By JuJu’s 18th birthday (in late November, 2014) he had already accumulated 46 catches, 610 yards, and five touchdowns for the Trojans.

But young JuJu didn’t stop there.

No, by the time Smith-Schuster turned 19 he had logged eight games with over 100 receiving yards and grabbed fifteen touchdowns.  By the end of his sophomore year JuJu was already expected (by many) to go in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

However, as you all may know, 2016 happened and everyone began to doubt.

Week one of the 2016 season brought with it tons of excitement for many USC Trojan fans and JuJu Smith-Schuster devy league owners and dynasty hopefuls.  However, that excitement was short-lived.  Alabama held JuJu to just one catch for nine yards.  Of course then everyone panicked.  After three weeks, JuJu still didn’t even have 100 total receiving yards.  Max Browne (the USC quarterback) looked completely overwhelmed and unprepared each week and the Trojans found themselves sitting in a hole at 1-2.

It was right about that time that all of the haters came out of hiding and started to point fingers.  But was it too soon?

Sam Darnold took over at quarterback in week four and everything seemed to change for JuJu.  In Darnold’s first four games as the primary passer JuJu grabbed 29 catches for 466 yards and six touchdowns.  In that stretch Juju had no less than 98 yards and at least five catches in each game.  It seemed that the issue had been the quarterback Max Browne, not necessarily JuJu himself.

“But down the stretch Smith-Schuster’s statistics cooled way down!”

Yes, they did.  Why is that?

As Sam Darnold and JuJu heated up, defenses had to try and stop the bleeding.  After the Arizona game the shift in attention from opposing defenses opened up plenty of holes for Ronald Jones II as he rushed for 742 yards in the final five weeks of the regular season.  Other wide receivers like Darreus Rogers and Deontay Burnett also took advantage with the shift in attention.  Darreus Rogers grabbed all four of his touchdowns in the back half of the season.  Deontay Burnett grabbed five of his seven in that same span.  Clay Helton and the entire USC coaching staff did a phenomenal job shifting game plans and adjusting to the tune of nine wins in a row to end the season (including a Rose Bowl victory against Penn State).

JuJu played the role that he needed to during that amazing run that nobody seems to talks about, but that’s just not generally sexy enough for the dynasty community.  We want to see complete domination every week, regardless of the need for it.  We want to see a wide receiver who wins every down, every route and every contested catch.  Is that JuJu?  No.  But should we dismiss him as an excellent candidate to succeed in the NFL?  Let’s keep digging to find out.

Where All That Hate Might Come From

Oh.  That’s not the kind of Player Profiler page you want to see.

JuJu didn’t exactly light it up at the NFL Combine this year.  However, when it came to the areas in which Smith-Schuster struggled, nothing surprised.

His 40-yard dash was about what many expected.  He ran a 4.6 coming out of high school, so a 4.54-second 40 makes sense with some expected marginal athletic improvement in college.

Let’s look at his gross burst score.  JuJu’s vertical jump was the exact same as his high school combine (32.5 inches).  His broad jump was just a hair below average for this class, but he improved it by three inches at his pro day.

It doesn’t take very long watching JuJu Smith-Schuster to expect the exact results that you find on Player Profiler.  Outside of some solid highlights JuJu does get beat in jump ball situations fairly often because of his vertical.  He doesn’t have that extra gear to “take the top off” of defenses.  That much is true.

However, there is still hope.  You may notice Player Profiler’s comparison for JuJu is DeAndre Hopkins.  I see that comparison from a raw athleticism and breakout age standpoint, but that’s probably the extent of it.  That seems to be common with JuJu.  There are some decent comparisons out there, but they always seem to be missing something.

Incomplete Comparisons

You could spend hours upon hours trying to find a decent comparison to JuJu Smith-Schuster.  One quick note you’ll realize when skimming the list of comparisons on Mock Draftable is that even the best ones don’t even hit 88% comparable.  With most prospects you can generally find at least one option above 90%.

But even when you look beyond the physical attributes with the players listed, Cam Worthy, Cody Core, DeAndre Smelter, Jordan Payton, Marquez North all “broke out” way later or in a much lesser capacity as far as production is concerned.

When you go on down the line of potential comparisons they’re all either missing some pivotal physical attribute or some major aspect from their college production.

But!

After much digging I landed on Davante Adams as the best comparison for JuJu Smith-Schuster.  Their physical build, 40-yard dash, broad jump and even agility scores are incredibly similar.  Adams just has a better vertical jump.  They both broke out statistically very early when given the opportunity.  Both wide receivers were perceived to be solid possession wide receivers that could use some improvement in route running and struggled with a few concentration drops.  In the end they may even be taken within just a few picks of each other in the NFL Draft (Adams went round two, pick 21).

That’s probably the best you can hope for in terms of comparisons go with JuJu.

Summary

Just like Davante Adams, JuJu Smith-Schuster isn’t nearly a perfect wide receiver.  I still don’t think anyone has really figured JuJu out (sorry, I didn’t make any promises).  He struggles with several things that may one day prove to be too much to find sustainable NFL success.  However, given the opportunity, JuJu possesses the skill set to make defenses pay on several different levels.  It may take a couple years for JuJu to refine his game as he is still only 20 years old (turns 21 in November).

The issue that many have with JuJu is what it may cost to own him.  Right now he’ll most likely cost in between the 1.07 and 1.12 in most rookie drafts.  If you do choose to select him in that range just be patient.  JuJu may just bloom into a stud when you least expect it.

As always, you can find me on Twitter @FF_TravisM.  Feel free to tell me how bad of a dancer I am.  Also, enjoy these JuJu Smith-Schuster highlights!

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