Carter's Classroom: Jump balls for Juju Smith-Schuster

The departure of Markus Wheaton in the offseason left the Steelers' wide receiver corps in a position of intrigue, especially when the team learned that Martavis Bryant would be reinstated for the 2017 season.

While Antonio Brown and Bryant were the two clear frontrunners of the group, behind them were the undrafted talents of Eli Rogers and Cobi Hamilton, the still developing Sammie Coates and DeMarcus Ayers, and the proven speedster Darrius Heyward-Bey along with the newly signed Justin Hunter. 

Eight receivers with three players in Brown, Bryant and Rogers that would presumably be the top three in the depth chart, but lots of questions afterwards. If the Steelers had a run of injuries like last year at the position, Ben Roethlisberger could again be left with only one dependable receiving option and a few less threatening players.

Enter Juju Smith-Schuster:



The Steelers' second round pick of the 2017 NFL draft does not fit the mold of any of their most recent receivers on the team. Over the past years the Steelers have either gotten tall speedsters like Bryant and Coates or shorter but quicker route runners like Brown, Wheaton and Rogers.

Smith-Schuster is a 6' 1" 215 lbs. receiver that lacks elite speed but is a consistent target that attacks the ball at it's highest point and fights for jump balls in traffic better than most receivers in his class. The more you hear people talk about him, he gets compared to the likes of Anquan Boldin, a larger possession style of a receiver rather than a speedster or a sharp route runner.

His sophomore season is when he exploded onto the scene at USC with 1454 yards on 89 receptions for 10 touchdowns and he followed it up with another 10 touchdowns on 70 catches for 914 yards in his junior season before he decided to forego his senior year for the NFL draft.

Smith-Schuster made most of his plays by being larger and more physical over defensive backs when the ball was in the air. He locates the ball well and competes for any pass thrown in his radius. His competitiveness shows a highlight tape in which he wins plenty of contested balls deep down the field:

GOES UP AND GETS IT

Smith-Schuster is not going to outrun most NFL cornerbacks with his speed, but what he does is get in position to compete for jump balls and wins them.

Watch how he pulls up on his route and outfights the cornerback for the ball at the ten yard line:



What puts Smith-Schuster above other receivers is that when he gets his hands on the ball he has the core strength to pin it between his hands or to his chest without letting his opponent knock the ball free. Once he grabs the ball he has the confidence that he's got it under control and begins fighting up the field for more yards.

Watch when he does that here, beating one of the better cornerbacks from this draft class, Fabian Moreau, for a jump ball and shows good effort to extend his body and the ball towards the pylon:



While some may be wary of Smith-Schuster's actual playmaking ability due to his lack of elite speed, his use of his upper body neutralized that in the NCAA and helped even the playing field with the much faster cornerbacks he faced.

He won't face too many faster cornerbacks in the NFL than Moreau, who was drafted to the Redskins in the third round while running the second fastest time in the 40 yard dash with a 4.35, and finishing among the best in both the vertical and broad jump events as well as the 60 yard shuttle.

Smith-Schuster tries to use quick feet to get to the outside of Moreau on the above play, but the real separation is created with his inside arm as he boxes out Moreau to create a larger window for his quarterback to throw into and for him to essentially make a one-armed reception.

He didn't end up scoring on the play as his knee was down, but the effort and the strength while in the air were put on display.

His ability to stick with the ball even under the tightest coverage made him USC's best target for the past two seasons and could provide an interesting new contrast in the Steelers' receiving corps. Watch this sideline reception he made against Penn State in the Rose Bowl amid great coverage:



One thing that I also noticed is that there were plenty of sideline catches and deep balls in which Smith-Schuster would get his hands on the ball and hit the ground hard or be hit hard by a defender. Nine times out of ten, he was holding onto the ball the entire way and completing the process of what the NFL would define as a catch.

NEEDS TO WORK ON ROUTE RUNNING

Undoubtedly this player's biggest weakness is how he does not have the ability to make sharp cuts in open space and run the better routes that will beat the NFL-caliber cornerbacks with his feet. Often Smith-Schuster will rely on his hands to create separation down the field instead of using quick feet to get the job done.

Watch here as he works to the outside again on Penn State and uses that inside hand to push off on his man and create the separation needed to get open:



This was something I saw pretty consistently in his tape when he was beating defenders. He does have a knack for using his hands deceptively so that he wouldn't get called for pass interference, but the Steelers are going to want him to work on his footwork as he gets ready for his rookie season.

Let's look at a play in which he did use his footwork to get open. It came against Idaho on a deep post pattern when he beat his man who was playing a few yards off of him with a double move:



While the result of the play was great, the footwork that set it up might not pass for a good fake in the NFL. Smith-Schuster uses several steps that don't pose too much of a threat to make a big cut elsewhere and probably wouldn't have fooled a more talented defensive back.

My concern for his future with the Steelers is rooted in his ability to learn from Brown, the best route runner in the NFL, in how to be sharper and quicker with his cuts and footwork when working down the field. If he combines a more disciplined route running regimen, his lack of elite speed won't be a major concern as opponents will respect both his size and his moves.

Watch what happens when Penn State was able to keep up with him to force an incomplete pass in the 1 out of the 10 passes I mentioned earlier that he didn't bring in once the ball hit his hands:



Smith-Schuster does a good job getting off the line, but when he goes into his cut to the inside part of the field, he just kind of meanders into it. Instead of using a hard jab step at the cornerback to force him to honor the possibility of a deeper route or a quick change of direction, he flows into his route which allows the cornerback to commit to his direction and challenge the ball more.

Smith-Schuster will always challenge a pass thrown within his radius and won't give up just because it's thrown somewhere he doesn't like, but he can make his job much easier if he sharpens his routes. Doing so would help him create a better window for Roethlisberger to target and make those contested jump balls look more like routine deep patterns.

STEAL? REACH? OR JUST RIGHT?

What intrigued me the most about the selection of Smith-Schuster was how he contrasts from the various styles of receivers which the Steelers have come to rely on in this age of Roethlisberger's career. The Steelers passed on the likes of Chris Godwin and chose not to wait around for the taller and faster but still unproven types like Coates and Bryant in Tennessee's Josh Malone, who went in the fourth round to the Bengals.

Smith-Schuster was the faster version of one other receiver that was on the board that played to his style, and that was the human highlight reel known as Cooper Kupp, who totaled 6,464 yards and 73 touchdowns in his career with Eastern Washington University in the Big Sky conference.

What Smith-Schuster has on his side is that he consistently went up against premiere NFL-caliber talent in the Pac-12 conference as well as the other big name opponents like Alabama, Notre Dame and Penn State which USC's schedule allowed them to play. Kupp did post good numbers against two Pac-12 teams himself, but did not have to consistently face the top cornerbacks of top programs in the NCAA week after week as Smith-Schuster did.

Ultimately the Steelers went with a less polished route runner that knew how to use his size over a sharper but slower runner that has a similar ability to make plays on the ball in Kupp, or the faster options like Godwin and Malone that were available.

If the Steelers were going to get him they had to do it right then, as receivers were coming off the board fast in this draft. The selection adds an interesting depth battle in the wide receiver group, as Rogers looked to be a proven slot option while Coates still has to prove that his hand injury is behind him from last season.

It also puts a bind on the lower part of the depth chart in players like Hamilton, Hunter, Heyward-Bey and Ayers. Each of these players made plays for the team in 2016, but didn't see as much of the field for various reasons.

Heyward-Bey will probably retain a roster spot as the savvy veteran whom is useful on special teams, but Hamilton came off the practice squad as an undrafted free agent and was not consistent while Ayers was a seventh round draft pick that made a few plays towards the end of the season.

The addition of Smith-Schuster puts nine receivers on this roster that the Steelers have to consider. The most the team could afford to keep for its 53-man roster to take into week one of the 2017 season would be six of them, but that would be a stretch as five is the normal receiving corps which a team takes with them.

Presumably that group take in the obvious players of Brown, Bryant, Smith-Schuster, and Rogers as the top four players. But as a fifth option the team is open to the best combination of size and speed remaining in Coates, the wily veteran in Heyward-Bey, the newly acquired deep threat in Hunter, the unpolished and probably lost Hamilton or the sharp route runner in Ayers.

Where Smith-Schuster will fall in the offensive gameplan is another concern. His size and skill-set make him for a typical flanker receiver outside the numbers, but those two positions have belonged to Brown and Bryant in recent years and would be even more so with Rogers being a slot specialist.

What the Steelers could end up doing is resorting to a more consistent three receiver attack in having Smith-Schuster and Bryant as the outside receivers with Brown being the slot option that terrifies nickelbacks and safeties with his insane route running skills. Doing so would mean that defenses would not be able to commit their top cornerbacks to Brown without moving them from the traditional cornerback spots that sit outside the numbers and eliminate the deep threats of opposing teams.

This could potentially revolutionize how the Steelers' passing attack works and provide a brand new way for Roethlisberger to carve up defenses if Smith-Schuster lives up to his hype. Two dependable deep threats that are big targets and could win jump balls would be a lot to handle as is, but throw in Brown running underneath routes and occasionally challenging the deep middle part of the field and that can be a nightmare for opposing defenses.

If that's what the Steelers are planning, they chose the right time to make the move as the receiver talent was dwindling in the draft pool and Smith-Schuster could fit that role better than most of the options left. They just have to hope that this doesn't turn into another Limas Sweed situation that leaves the offense basically back where it was last year and takes up a roster spot with a warm body that never lives up to expectations in the NFL.