KC Chiefs: Five serious questions at wide receiver
By Matt Conner
Can JSS return to form?
Through his first two seasons in the NFL, JuJu Smith-Schuster looked like he was ready to make the leap into the pantheon of the league’s elite—the youngest wideout in NFL history to reach 2,500 receiving yards. Through those two seasons, back in 2017-18, the Steelers wideout put up 169 catches for 2,343 yards and 14 touchdowns working across from and beside Antonio Brown.
Unfortunately from there, things began to go downhill for a number of reasons. In 2019, Brown left and Smith-Schuster received far more attention from opposing defenses. Injuries began to add up as well, including a concussion and knee injury in 2019 and a season-ending shoulder injury in 2021.
Even more frustrating, for Smith-Schuster at least, had to be the decline of the Steelers’ offense. Check out the totals for Smith-Schuster’s average yards per target in each of the last few seasons:
- 2017: 11.5 yards/target
- 2018: 8.6
- 2019: 7.9
- 2020: 6.5
- 2021: 4.6
You don’t have to be into analytics to know that’s very bad news, and a declining Ben Roethlisberger has kept things below average in Pittsburgh for multiple seasons now.
Back to Smith-Schuster and the questions surrounding him. The cheaper, single-season deal given to him by the Chiefs reflects the risk involved, but here’s a guy who is still 25 years old and healthy. He’s also making the leap from a noodle-armed Big Ben to Patrick Mahomes coming into his prime. It’s reasonable to expect JSS to return to form, yet at the same time, three full seasons have passed since his lone Pro Bowl.
What is his ceiling? Can he carry an offense? Is his shoulder going to be an issue going forward after only playing five games in 2021? There’s a lot of wait-and-see involved with Smith-Schuster this season.