Steelers Scouting Report: USC WR Jordan Addison
The Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly always have their eye on wide receivers in the NFL Draft, and a return to the city could follow a uprising trend.
A former four-star recruit from Frederick, Maryland has been a known commodity around college football circles since he stepped foot onto the national spotlight as a freshman back in 2020. Jordan Addison leveled up in 2021 with a historic season which was capped off by him being receiving the Biletnikoff award which is given to the nations top wide receiver.
Following his record breaking campaign, Addison shook up the college football landscape by teaming up with Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams at USC. After another highly productive year, Addison is among the most talented receivers in this years draft class.
What does the tape say about his NFL future and could that future involve a return to Pittsburgh for a reunion with Kenny Pickett?
The USC product is listed at 6-0, weighing in at 175 pounds. During his career as a Pitt Panther, Addison was primarily a slot receiver, aligning inside of the formation on 74% of his snaps on offense. Addison said that his move to the west coast this season was purely based around football reasons and he was given a lot more freedom to play on the outside during his junior season for the Trojans. There is an element of special teams value that comes into play as well, as Addison proved to be an efficient punt returner during his sophomore season, averaging a healthy 15.4 yards per return.
Strengths
Addison's strengths revolve heavily around his agility and ability to change directions in a flash. He's insanely quick and sudden in all of his movements. He has a unique ability to drop his weight while using minimal steps to get into his break before driving out of his routes. The phrase "stopping on a dime" really doesn't even begin to do him justice with how impressive he is getting in and out of his breaks.
Addison is a nightmare to defend on quick-hitters such as a slants, outs and whip routes and his play callers exploited this strength in the low red zone area.
A technically refined route runner with three-level separator ability and when you comb through the film, you quickly understand why he's been such a heavily targeted player throughout his career. Due to his ability to create separation with ease, Addison is a quarterback's best friend. If you're running an offense and want a receiver who can win on time, especially in the underneath and intermediate areas of the field, Addison is the man for the job.
The full route tree is always at your disposal with Addison on the field. Regardless of alignment, you name the route and he's going to run it to perfection. Simply put, Addison is just open all of the time and probably more than most even realize from watching the game through a live broadcast lens.
Against off-coverage, Addison eats up the cushion of opposing defenders with ease, stepping on their toes while getting to his top speed in a hurry. Addison is an expert at toying with defenders throughout the route stem, manipulating the leverage of the guy guarding him as he'll continuously work into the blind spot to get corners and safeties alike turned around at the break. There are some PHD-level mastery examples where he'll utilize head fakes to sell double moves resulting in huge splash plays down the field. He's very thoughtful in his approach before the snap, taking what opposing corners give him while also having the ability to win whenever he's out-leveraged.
Against zone coverage, Addison shows a good understanding of when to throttle down his routes to avoid running himself into trouble.
Against man coverage, Addison's change of direction ability causes a lot of problems because he's incredibly difficult to stick with in tight spaces. Against press coverage, Addison has a couple different releases he'll rely on: mainly a foot-fire release or inside/outside jab moves before working the opposite direction. He will vary his tempo throughout the route when he feels necessary and does a nice job selling speed vertically to get the defender in panic mode before breaking off his route otherwise. The best way to describe Addison's movements would be "snappy." He can get in and out of his breaks quicker and more efficiently than essentially anyone that he matched up against in college which was a massive advantage to his offense.
Addison's hands are very reliable and have even improved over the course of time as his drop rate percentage has decreased every year. The technique is pristine, as he's a pretty natural hands catcher. He can make plays outside of his strike zone as has shown to be extremely comfortable plucking the ball out of the air away from his frame before securing the ball in tight next to his body. Addison doesn't ever appear panicked when the ball is in the air and tracks the ball beautifully over his shoulder on deep ball opportunities.
As you'd expect with a player of his skill set, the body control is excellent and he's comfortable adjusting to throws that are off-target. There were no "alligator arm" examples on tape where he would get hesitant at the catch point in the middle of the field, as he's proven to be tough in that space.
His impact as a receiver is obviously undeniable but he's also a gifted weapon with the ball in his hands. Throughout his career, offensive coordinators have made a concentrated effort to get the football in his hands out in space where he can make magic happen. His vision as a ball carrier is notable as he understands when to be patient to set up blockers and when to hit the gas to sprint to open space. His sophomore tape was littered with examples of him making guys miss in the open field. It's also refreshing to see him display good ball security, as he's only fumbled once in his entire career.
As a blocker, Addison shows supreme effort which goes against what we typically see from players of his smaller stature. He's willing to throw his body around on stalk block attempts and will even come inside to get in front of safeties if asked. On screens to his side, he'll show plus effort to at least get in the way of potential tacklers. A rather obscure observation but he seems really invested in his teammates success and he'll transform into a blocker for his teammates when they catch passes in his vicinity.
Weaknesses
Addison's frame will be heavily scrutinized throughout the draft process as his slender build is a a pretty significant outlier for his height. With the frame concerns, naturally there will be play strengths concerns and whether or not he'll be able to consistently play through contact against bigger, better athletes at the next level. While there were flashes of highlight-reel contested catches at Pitt, those opportunities and conversions diminished this past season and this doesn't figure to be a significant part of his game at the next level. He's tough and the effort is certainly there as a blocker but he's frequently jolted backwards upon contact because he doesn't have the mass to hold up for very long.
An ankle injury kept him sidelined for about a month this past season and with his size in mind, questions about his ability to stay healthy at the next level will be in the minds of evaluators.
He's definitely more quick than fast. He displays solid speed but he doesn't project as a significant deep threat at the next level. Almost all of his explosive plays over the top came with him working in the slot where he was allowed free access to eat up cushion before heading vertically. On the boundary last season, those linear wins didn't seem to come very often as he wasn't stacking defenders with any sort of regularity. For whatever reason, Addison seemed more dynamic in the open field prior to the transfer than he did last season on the west coast.
As a junior, Addison proved that he could beat press coverage with his release package and quickness but the sample size is still pretty small for a player with this many snaps. Addison didn't see a large amount of press coverage over the course of his career, whether that be to his slot alignments at Pitt and USC would even run some switch releases to free him up against the few press teams they had on the schedule. It would be nice to to see him incorporate an inside arm swipe to get defenders hands off of him whenever he is met with physicality and length. He can win with quickness but he'll need to work to stay low and reduce his surface area to ensure longer corners can't stunt his route off the line.
Numbers to Note
-Career totals- 219 receptions, 3,134 receiving yards, 14.3 yards per catch and 29 receiving touchdowns
-2022 totals- 59 catches, 875 receiving yards, 14.8 yards per catch and 8 receiving touchdowns
-17 total receiving touchdowns in 2021, 12 of those from the slot, both of which led the NCAA (PFF)
-21 forced missed tackles in 2021 (PFF)
-2 drops on 87 targets in 2022 (PFF)
Projection
Even if some of it was schemed up, Addison's elite production throughout his college career speaks for itself and the tape shows multiple translatable traits that should make him an incredibly useful asset at the next level. With added play strength and continued growth against press coverage on the outside, Addison could unlock his true inside-outside versatility and help him reach his ceiling as a player.
With as dominant as he's been at the college level, it's important to understand that he'll be just a 21 year old rookie who is just scratching the surface of what he could potentially become. One of the better route runners in the class, Addison could probably benefit even more from playing in a more timing based offense to take advantage of his separation ability. He's certainly in the WR1 conversation and pending testing numbers, Addison earns a mid first round grade. This puts him firmly in the range of where the Pittsburgh Steelers will likely be picking in round one, which will surely fire up some conversation about reuniting him with his former college quarterback, Kenny Pickett.
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