Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Juju Back with the Steelers! Let's Rank the Pittsburgh WRs (03/19 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Who is our favorite Steelers WR? Do any of them have elite upside? Is Juju Smith-Schuster still capable of making big plays or is he what we saw last season? Let the debates begin! Subscribe to the FFT in 5 podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to FFT. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming at you with another bonus podcast on the best sports day of the year. I am into it. I am enjoying March Madness. It is Friday afternoon. Already some great games, but that's not why we're here. Although we thank everybody who joined our FFT Bracket Challenge. We're here to talk about Juju Smith-Schuster back with the Steelers on a one-year deal. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, Chris Towers. Dave, we'll start with you. How are you ranking these Steelers wide receivers this year? I'm pretty sure Juju Smith-Schuster will be third in the bunch. And I know that he's, I think I'm ranking him third because he's the least exciting of the three,

but he does have a good role in Pittsburgh. Given the strengths and weaknesses of Ben Roethlisberger's game at this point, I think it's probably one of the best destinations we could have asked for for Juju, for him to be a usable fantasy starter. The targets will be there. He's a short area worker. He's a slot guy, not a downfield threat, not an explosive playmaker. But as long as he's in a position to get a lot of targets week in and week out, he belongs on fantasy starting lineups. Didn't he used to be an explosive playmaker? Right now, I believe I have Deontay ahead of Chase Claypool.

It could be opposite. Chase could be first. I'm excited about him. But those guys are my first two. But every single stat that I look at points to Juju being nothing more than a volume-dependent fantasy wide receiver. Didn't he used to be an explosive playmaker?

I mean, last year, he kind of rewrote the narrative on him, and he used to make some big plays. He would make big plays occasionally, which you could look at any receiver in the league not named Larry Fitzgerald and A.J. Green, and last year they made a couple of big plays. Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is the the routes yeah i mean just the way they used him last year and the way ben roethlisberger played if

like all deontay johnson is is a high volume uh fantasy receiver if if deontay johnson doesn't get you know 130 targets he's probably not going to be particularly useful. And that's more about the fact that at this point in his career, at least based on last season, Ben Roethlisberger really doesn't want to push the ball really in the intermediate range. I think his rate of passes 20 plus yards downfield was actually relatively high,

but it was more like all or nothing. If the deep ball wasn't there, he was just throwing it three yards. Like Juju Smith-Schuster last year, his average depth of target was 5.5 yards down. And that's just silly, but it doesn't mean that's going to be that way this year. New offensive coordinator,

maybe Roethlisberger can air it out a little bit more in a year removed from the surgery. So, all right, Dave, you're going Johnson. You said Johnson, Claypool, Juju? I think that's how I have it ranked. Okay, Chris, what about you? Johnson, Smith-Schuster, Claypool, but Johnson's the only one inside my top 36.

Wow. All right, so Juju last year was number 23, I believe, in non PPR 20. Yeah. 23 and non PPR 24 and PPR. He did play 16 games. He had 97 catches, but only 831 yards. That's wild. And, uh, and nine touchdowns, Deontay Johnson, considering he missed it, considering he left two games, you know, really early, just had a much better year and he was number 25 in non-ppr number 21 in ppr but uh like i said he left two games really early and claypool uh he finished i think ahead of juju in in non-ppr but not in ppr he had only 62 catches but 873 yards and like they had very similar totals in yards and Juju had 35

more catches and the thing is if they can catch 25 touchdowns between them again you know they'll all be better than I project them for but it's it's really hard

to to predict you know another 30 touchdown season for Roethlisberger given the way he played. And 80% of those targets going to those three wide receivers. You have to figure they'll be spread out at least a little bit more next season. So I think that's partially why I'm a little down. It's hard to get behind them because of Roethlisberger for sure. But I don't see the Steelers looking at Roethlisberger and saying, okay,

we're going to air it out a lot more. I think the bigger, the biggest concern of all is what is the run game look like for Pittsburgh? Are they able to effectively run the football? That's something they have to do to take pressure off of Roethlisberger. Otherwise we are going to see a lot of this next year, the dinking and the dinking, not dinking and dunking. It's just because these are short a dots. You talked about Juju's a dot.

What did you say it was, Chris? It was 5.5 yards. I'm on pro football focus. They're real close to it. They say it's 6.0. They've got Deontay at 8.5. I look at their yards per route run. It's 1.29 for Juju. That's really low. 1.76 for Deontay at 8.5 I look at their yards per route run it's 1.29 for Juju that's really low

1.76 for Deontay Johnson you look at the catch rate it's a little bit it's significantly higher for Juju he didn't have 14 drops like Deontay did but Johnson does have just a little bit more explosiveness to him so if I'm picking between those two that's the tiebreaker is that Johnson just seems to have like a little bit more of that second gear even though the two of them seem to be kind of the same they even average really close to the same amount of ppr fantasy points per game yeah he was 14 for juju i think it was 14.3 for deontay last year i gave the wrong note i'm sorry i just want to correct myself because i said juju was uh 23rd and non-ppr 24th in ppr sorry he was 23rd in non-PPR. He was 16th in PPR. He was on a per-game basis

24th in PPR and 35th per game in non-PPR. And that was with nine touchdowns and a 75% catch rate. I think one of the keys for the Steelers' offense, and there's no way of knowing this going into the season,

but I think it's actually a really bad thing that Ben Roethlisberger had the lowest sack rate in the NFL for that offense because I think that was the reason why there were so many of those short targets is because

he was really trying to avoid getting hit and getting sacked. He had a stretch in the middle of the season where he went a long time without a sack. It was like several hundred dropbacks or something. And I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. It's good for him. He's 38 years old.

He probably doesn't want to get hit. Right. But it was a really lame offense. And you know what, Dave? Yeah. Left tackle, being away of a free agent center, a pouncey retired. I think they lost one of their guards to the chargers.

I believe, I believe so. And they, and they don't, they didn't have a very good offensive line last year, despite the low sacks, because of what Chris just said, this is,

you know, other than when Roethlisberger got hurt, but that wasn't a preseason injury. This is probably the, the other than when Roethlisberger got hurt, but that wasn't a preseason injury. This is probably the lowest on the Steelers offense people are going to be in a long time. You know, it's a new, I think it feels like the end of an era. And people are, I don't think they're going to be excited about the Steelers anymore.

I think it's entirely possible that we end up feeling that way. The only issue is, is that if they continue to create positive volume then these receivers are going to have they're just going to fall into production and ppr leagues that people will be okay with you know juju might have nine touchdowns and he might have over 90 catches and the the averages might suck and the efficiency might suck, but people won't have a problem still starting them with the hope of them getting 15 plus PPR points. It's not going to be often where it's going to be 25 to 30, but he will still have serviceable use.

And at the very worst, the offense that we saw from the Steelers last year is what we're going to see from the Steelers last year is what we're going to see from the Steelers this year. Does this return of Juju Smith-Schuster mean that none of the three wide receivers have a great chance of truly breaking out and having a huge season? Well, that's where I look at Claypool. And I think to myself, second year in the league, schemed up as a rookie and pretty quickly on as a rookie to be useful in the red zone and downfield. And he made his fair share of mistakes, too. But I think he's probably the most explosive and draft pundits will laugh at me for this. But just compared to the other two, certainly compared to Juju, maybe not in terms of raw talent compared to Deontay Johnson, but he's got some explosiveness too. And his size is

something that Roethlisberger is going to love. He has been. So I think that he's probably got the most upside of the three, especially in non-PPR. Yeah, I have him projected for the most touchdowns, actually. Makes sense. And the highest yards per reception by

a significant number. He's almost three yards higher than Deontay and more than three yards for Juju. So he's the one guy in this offense that was consistently getting those deep targets. And you would imagine there's not going to be a situation in 2021 like there was in 2020 when he was weirdly benched for James Robinson for like

I feel like it was like two games but it was it was it was he explained it he just said they were trying to keep him fresh so you wouldn't expect to see that kind of drop in snaps from Claypool I would say that even though what I just said about the Steelers and people aren't going to be excited about their offense and it feels like the end of an era

I don't think that they're going to be the same as they were last year I think they realize last year's offense was bad. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good enough. They didn't get enough big plays. They couldn't run the ball at all. They can't do the same crap that they did. And I think Juju Smith-Schuster's a better player. I know he's a better player.

We know he's a better player than what we saw last year. So if we circle back and make this the Juju Smith-Schuster pod, Dave, it does not sound like you have that optimism that he can get back to being a great fantasy wide receiver. He was a 1,400 yard guy. He was a top 12 guy on a per game basis two straight years. So

yeah, you don't sound optimistic that he can get back to that. I think there's a chance for him to do it, but I think it would involve the offense changing and being more downfield and being more vertical versus horizontal. And last year it was horizontal, and it's hard to believe that they're going to be

much more vertical, given Roethlisberger's shortcomings with his arm. And listen, in September, it might be more vertical because he's fresher. But by the time you get to the midseason and beyond, I don't know if we can count on that. And I said that the worst case scenario is that the offense is the same as it is last year. For the sake of the Steelers receivers, the worst case scenario is the Steelers figure out a run game. And that just takes past attempts off of Roethlisberger. We already talked about that. That's the worst case scenario because then these receivers won't be one of

them will get targets that we'll be happy with and the other two will be disappointed by. Yeah. And one thing with Juju is usually when a player has a lower air yards, there's an inverse correlation between air yards and yak per reception. The longer, the further down the field your throws are, generally the less yak you get.

Right. For Juju, his air yards per attempt dropped by 4.2 from 2019 and 3.3 yards in 2018. And he had his lowest yak per reception ever by more than a yard so it wasn't just short targets i think a lot of it was just like there were so many targets to juju and dionte that were just with their back to the defense and when you're doing that on a, you know, a 12 yard comeback, that's fine. But when you're doing it three yards down the field, and that makes up a significant portion

of your targets, there's just nothing you can do with that. So, you know, I think there is room, you know, cause this should be a high volume passing offense. There's room for Roethlisberger to bounce back and for them to tweak some things in their offense that get those guys in better positions, but I just can't bet on it. I'm going to ask you guys some rankings questions now to finish it off. Let's go. Would you rather have Ben Roethlisberger

or Ryan Fitzpatrick? I still have Roethlisberger higher. I have Fitzpatrick higher. They are back-to-back, but Roethlisberger is higher. Would you rather have Roethlisberger higher. I have Fitzpatrick higher. They are back-to-back, but Roethlisberger's higher. Would you rather have Roethlisberger or Carson Wentz? That one I've got Wentz higher. I think I have Roethlisberger higher.

Okay. How about Juju Smith-Schuster or Will Fuller? PPR Juju, non-PPR Fuller. I think I have Fuller higher in both. Yeah, I do. Fuller going to the Dolphins made me squirm. Not a fan? No.

I'm really going to work out for the Dolphins, but I don't know if Tua can connect with him consistently. They actually were shockingly pass-heavy last season. If you look at situation, there were a lot of situations where, because their defense scored so many touchdowns, especially in the middle part of the season, that they were in a lot of easy situations.

But in situation-neutral context, especially in the middle part of the season, that they were in a lot of easy situations. But in situation-neutral context, I think the Dolphins were consistently at least top 10 in pass rate, which I thought was pretty interesting. And Tua actually had a higher rate of passes 15 and 20 yards down the field than Fitzpatrick. That's true. just wasn't good. Really, really bad connecting on them,

but he was a rookie and he had, you know, there were, there were games when Mac Hollins was his number one wide receiver, you know? So I think the dolphins offense as a whole takes a, a nice step forward. And I have Fuller projected for over a thousand yards.

That's nothing for Will Fuller. If you put it all the time, you project it. So by the way, do you project him for 16 games or 15 games? 16 games, but because that's suspended because it's a 17 game season. Oh,

right, right, right. Yeah, not officially, but yes. Okay. That's,

that's a good point. So you, so you're projecting for one fewer game. All right. No, right, right, right. Yeah, not officially, but yes. Okay, that's a good point. So you're projecting for one fewer game. All right. Now, 16 games from Will Fuller. You heard what I said. I've been saying he's the best receiver in the NFL. I've said it two straight days now. That's 1,300 yards, at least.

Okay. And finally, how about Chase Claypool? Or, well, it's easy. You're going to take T. Higgins, right? I am. How about Brandon Ayuk or Claypool? Claypool. I have Ayuk a little higher.

Okay. All right, well, those are our thoughts on Juju Smith-Schuster. This feels like kind of a meh reaction. Yeah. Don't love it, don't hate it. Yeah. I mean, the. Don't hate it. I mean, the guy apparently had the chance to play for the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Eagles.

And in the case of the Chiefs and the Ravens, he would have been paid more money. And he chose to stay in Pittsburgh. Good for him. And you know what? I'm thinking maybe some of that isn't true. Okay, maybe. But I'm just glad he didn't end up on the Ravens.

I think we could all agree that end up on the Ravens. I think we could all agree that that would not have been good. We are done for this bonus podcast. Thanks to Dave and Chris for hopping on, all of you for listening.

Enjoy March Madness. You are already beating me because I had Virginia Tech. I don't like losing the first game. I do not like that feeling. It's a bad feeling. But I'm going to make

a comeback. I will talk to you when Gallaudet signs. See ya.