Can JuJu Smith-Schuster still be considered a WR3?
Liz Loza and Matt Harmon discuss JuJu Smith-Schuster's declining volume among a deep wide receiver pool. Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
LIZ LOZA: I think the big story is JuJu Smith-Schuster and whether or not you can even think of him as a wide receiver three anymore. I'm gonna admit if we were playing Tilted or Jilted, I am now completely jilted on-- well, I'm tilted and thinking about jilting. Does that make sense?
MATT HARMON: Totally. Now let's skew positive first here. At least, again, try to find the silver lining as I feel like I say every week. With JuJu, if this game had been more competitive, I think he gets more volume, right? If Cleveland had put up a fight, I think there's gonna be more-- he's gonna get more than six damn yards is what I'm saying.
But at the same time, this is the thing that I've been talking about with JuJu pretty much from the jump. He's not a guy that beats man coverage. He's not a guy that wins downfield. He is a volume-based player that you can scheme open and is really good at getting open versus zone coverage.
But now Pittsburgh has-- theoretically when Diontae Johnson's back, they have two guys who can win outside on vertical routes against man coverage and can beat press. That is definitely what Chase Claypool is. I can't believe there was tight end talk with this guy. He looks like Vincent Jackson out there. If we're being conservative about it, he looks like Vincent Jackson.
Diontae Johnson is a guy who can win across the route tree. He's clearly somebody that Ben wants to lean on based on the first two games' usage. So I think all of that is gonna continue to be a theme. And for JuJu, it's just the volume is probably not gonna be there to the point where he's gonna even come close to meeting those expectations.
It's also a little strange that when you look at this guy with a great resume, by and large a guy that everybody seems to like, is a very likable player at least publicly, they have not extended his contract. They've let him walk into the last year of his rookie deal. It's worth wondering if there's some fire beyond that smoke.
LIZ LOZA: Well, when you're mentioning the volume, though, Matt, the volume wasn't there. And when we talked about him on "FFL," we know that the ADOT heading into this game was five yards per target, right? That's not awesome. Nobody likes that. So he does have to be volume-based.
But also, he's not even seeing the volume. James Washington saw more looks in this one than JuJu Smith-Schuster and in a matchup where Ben didn't need to push the ball deep. So, I mean, this could have been a dink and dunk, just keep things moving, and why bother pressing opportunity, especially given the matchup and the Browns being leaky versus the slot.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If the game had been more competitive, I think he draws more targets. But that's only just because they'd have to throw the ball more. So obviously that's the case. But at the same time, there's just not much juice there in the role he's playing.
And the reality of it is this is the role he has to play because he's not suited to be one of these outside guys. And that's always been the case if you've tracked him throughout his career. So there's not a ton of surprise there. These guys like Claypool and these guys like Johnson, they keep out-targeting him because their targets have more value behind them.
