Is Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster as good as his stats indicate?

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster was one of the NFL leaders in receiving last season. However, is he as good as his stats indicate?

Disagree with me if you will, but fantasy football has fogged the minds of many NFL fans. There is not a direct correlation between how many fantasy points a player receives, and he good they are in the NFL. But what about Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster?

A lot of what it takes to earn a great deal of fantasy points comes from opportunity. Players who are fortunate enough to be in a situation where they receive a large workload will more than likely put up good numbers.

This brings JuJu to mind. The Steelers second year wide-out received 166 targets in 2018 – just 4 behind Julio Jones for the most in the league.

However, is JuJu as good as his stats indicate?

In 2018, JuJu broke out in a big way – earning 111 receptions, 1,426 receiving yards, and 7 touchdowns. While these numbers are impressive on paper, it’s  important to remember how many targets there were to go around in Pittsburgh.

Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball a whopping 675 times – more than any other quarterback in the league. In fact, this was 95 times more than Tom Brady threw it, and 186 more times than Drew Brees. With this many targets to go around, it’s not surprising to see two Steelers receivers with over 100 catches and 1,200 yards.

I am not saying that JuJu wasn’t deserving of the targets he earned. However, it is interesting to note.

JuJu is the unquestioned number one receiver this year in Pittsburgh, and he stands to be one of the leaders in targets again in 2019. However, a good way to separate the fantasy player from the receiver is his efficiency with his looks.

Obviously, quarterback rating when thrown to is a two-way stat. If Ben throws a wild pass for an interception, that will go down as an intercepted pass intended for JuJu; thus hurting his passer rating when throwing Smith-Schuster’s direction.

Pro Football Focus has staff members that chart every play as positive or negative. They gave JuJu an 81.8 grade in 2018 – good for the league’s 16th best wide receiver.

Of course, PFF isn’t the ‘say all, end all’ when it comes to evaluating receivers. In fact, there is no statistic that can accurately measure how important a receiver is or how good they are compared to other receivers around the league.

What we do know was that (despite some concentration drops) JuJu was impressive last season. He showed up in big moments, and as the team MVP, he was a very important part of their offense. I don’t know if JuJu is as good as his stats indicate, but he’s a fine football player and I’m glad he’s on the Steelers.