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Juju Smith-Schuster - a thread
I have huge respect for @evansilva and generally agree with his thoughts on players. But I couldn't disagree more on Juju. He ranks Juju as his 18th overall player for 2020, and hearing that ranking is why I wanted to share some thoughts on him.
I have huge respect for @evansilva and generally agree with his thoughts on players. But I couldn't disagree more on Juju. He ranks Juju as his 18th overall player for 2020, and hearing that ranking is why I wanted to share some thoughts on him.
First, let's deal with the elephant in the room, which must come up in every conversation about him. He is young. Okay, we get it. He entered the league at a super young age and was successful right away. Props to him for that. But why was that the case? How did he do it?
1. Excellent QB play (Ben about at his peak in those years)
2. Best WR in the league at that time on the other side (absolutely no double teams for Juju)
3. Dynamic offense as a whole, with solid running game
4. Good defense kept the offense out of terrible situations
2. Best WR in the league at that time on the other side (absolutely no double teams for Juju)
3. Dynamic offense as a whole, with solid running game
4. Good defense kept the offense out of terrible situations
The 5th would simply be that he's pretty good. I don't deny that; he's a good player. But Juju does NOT have that immediate success without those 4 elements. He would have struggled, and put up decent but not great numbers, like any other "pretty good" young player.
Everyone seems to be dismissing what happened last season. I will not. Great players (like top 20 overall for fantasy) do not lay giant eggs like that, over that long of a stretch. Diontae Johnson looked great with the crappy QB play, while Juju was straight awful.
He had 3.5 catches per game played, dropped 7.1% of catchable passes, and broke 0 tackles. He looked slow and lacked dynamism after the catch. As a rookie Diontae Johnson broke 9 tackles, had a lower drop percentage, and had 3.7 catches per game played. DJ outplayed Juju, period.
Was the QB play awful? Yes. Does that excuse his performance? No. I believe he got unmasked as a "pretty good" receiver who completely relied on having AB on the other side of the field. Nothing wrong with that, but that's who he is. He's not a top-tier wide receiver.
Final point, which Evan mentioned. Juju does have already established rapport with Ben. That is true. They may click early, more than Ben clicks with the others. But even that I doubt. Ben is a very good QB and sees who is open. He will target the player who is winning.
So if Juju looks like he is "back" early, it likely won't last. The only way I'll be wrong about all of this is if Juju has been fully dedicating himself to getting better this offseason, and comes back an improved player with an improved desire to be great. I seriously doubt it.
