USC Football: The beautiful and the ugly from PFF's top 25 WR list
By Evan Desai
USC football has one of the top wide receiver rooms in the country heading into 2022. It's no surprise--they do every year. Even last year--in what was likely USC's worst year in program history--they still had the best wideout in the nation in Drake London, plus some elite recruits playing at the position.
This year, they have the best wide receiver in the nation again, right? Jordan Addison, who took home the 2021 Biletnikoff award last year after London got hurt and missed the rest of the year in the eighth game of the season, is with USC now. According to PFF's Anthony Treash, however, Addison is somehow NOT the best WR in the nation.
In his top 25 wide receivers ranking, he somehow has Addison second. He has Ohio State's Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the No. 1 on his list, and claims "He was the nation's most productive receiver in 2021." That is quite literally false, which is why Addison was named the Biletnikoff winner over him.
New USC Football WR1 Jordan Addison doubled the amount of touchdowns Smith-Njigba had in 2021.
New USC Football No. 1 Wideout Jordan Addison had 17 receiving touchdowns last year, and 18 total touchdowns (one rushing). Smith-Njigba had just nine receiving touchdowns, and no rushing touchdowns.
While Smith-Njigba did have 13 more receiving yards (1,606) than Addison, Addison had 43 more total yards (1,649) than Smith-Njigba. He also did this at a much lesser program in Pitt than the Buckeye program Smith-Njigba played for. The list, however, wasn't all bad for USC though.
Treash had Mario Williams as the No. 6 WR in the country. So, while he underrated Addison, he gave Williams his proper respect. After all, as just a true freshman last year at Oklahoma, Williams caught 35 balls for 380 yards and four touchdowns.
Doing that in Lincoln Riley's offense, which emphasizes spreading the ball to the fullest extent, is huge. He had more receptions than OU's No. 1 Wideout last year in Marvin Mims had. He's an outstanding deep threat, and Treash made sure to give him his praise.
Treash missed the mark on Addison, but even when the top USC receiver was snubbed like this, Treash had to AT LEAST accept that the Trojans carry two of the nation's top six receivers. Giving Riley that type of talent on the outside makes for a dangerous offense.