Juju Smith-Schuster

• #9 WR
• Junior
• USC
• Hometown: Long Beach, CA
• Height: 6-2
• Weight: 220 lbs.
• DOB: 10/22/96

Statistics:

Receiving:

2014: 54/724/5

2015: 89/1454/10

2016: 19/197/2   (4 games)

USC has produced several NFL receivers in recent years. Robert Woods, Marqise Lee and Nelson Agholor just to name a few. All of which have been taken in the top two rounds of the NFL draft. JuJu Smith-Schuster is next in line at the position for the Trojans.

Smith-Schuster is a thick framed wide receiver, who generates a lot of power in his game. One of his best assets is his ability to stiff arm defenders in order to break tackles in the open field. 

Smith-Schuster has good hands and has shown the ability to make spectacular receptions well outside of his frame.  However, drops can be an issue for him. He has strong hands but again his concentration or consistency can become an issue. On the other hand, he is the featured pass-catcher in this offense, so there will obviously be some drops due to the high number of targets that he will receive.

Smith-Schuster has great control of his body and awareness of his surroundings. He possesses the sideline awareness to get his feet down in bounds. However, he's not efficient with his footwork at the break point when he's working back to the football. His route running could surely be more consistent. At times, he runs very good routes but there are definitely some poor routes mixed in. All together he is a solid route runner but could improve in this area.

JuJu lacks elite speed, but he has a long powerful stride that allows him to produce big plays on a consistent basis.  There is no tape of Smith-Schuster on Draft Breakdown for this season. However, there are 5 or 6 games from last season that you could check out. Here is Juju, last season, against Notre Dame, arguably USC’s toughest defensive opponent last year.

Smith-Schuster, went 6/139/1 in this game. His very first catch you can see that he does a good job of fighting off the corner with his hands prior to making the catch down the field between both the corner and the safety.  In this game, you can see a lot of the positives in his game that were hit on earlier.

As a blocker, again there are consistency issues. There are occasions where he seems disinterested in blocking but then there are times where it looks like his blocking could be a huge asset for the run game. With Smith-Schuster’s size and strength, he should be an asset as a blocker and help spring some long runs for his running backs

Juju Smith-Schuster is one of the top prospects in the devy community. All the issues that I have touched on are really minor issues that can easily be correct. Smith-Schuster is still very young player as he is not even 20 yet. He is also on a bad team at USC. The quarterback play has been horrible as USC is now on their second quarterback and there really doesn’t seem to be any rhythm on that offense. His poor play this season is most likely due to the poor quarterback play or decision making. I wanted to include Smith-Schuster’s highlights from last season as he had much better quarterback play from Cody Kessler. You can easily see how much more dynamic JuJu looks last year compared to the first 4 games of this season.

 I still have JuJu Smith-Schuster going in the first round of the NFL draft. He still is a top asset for devy leagues. Don’t let the lack of statistics scare you off. I would imagine that when we get around to the combine you will get to see him in a much more positive environment.

NFL Comparison: Michael Floyd