School: Pittsburgh (2020-2021), USC (2022)
Position: WR
Year: Junior
The Good: Jordan Addison definitely produced as well as any WR in this class during his college career, winning the Biletnikoff Award as a sophomore at Pitt before transferring to USC for a limited yet successful follow-up season as a junior. Addison is a good athlete; he’s a silky mover who often looks like he’s gliding, and he’s plenty elusive with the ball in his hands. He’s fluid too, whether he’s flipping his hips on a quick hitter or contorting his body while going up for a ball. He’s natural for the position, with good timing to highpoint balls and feel for soft spots of zone coverages. He can confuse DBs by adjusting his tempo on routes, leading to a bunch of his big plays on tape.
The Bad: Addison is 175lbs and plays like it, I’ll just put it that way. He has some rough tape dealing with press coverage and NFL DBs will certainly attack him at the line of scrimmage. He’s not even particularly quick off the line, and his releases on everything but go-balls are ordinary right now and even ugly on occasion. Addison is going to need to get more creative and nuanced to survive at the next level. Even once Addison gets into his route, he can struggle against tight man coverage. His speed certainly isn’t an issue but it’s not the top-end speed that you typically see for WRs of his weight entering the NFL. Just purely as a pass catcher, Addison has mostly reliable hands but they aren’t the strongest mitts, and he’s better at adjusting to off-target throws that sail high rather than anything wide or low. His tackle breaking ability and impact as a blocker are minimal.
The Bottom Line: Clearly, I have skepticism over Addison staying afloat at the next level. Honestly, I even feel like there’s an element of certainty that Addison will get bullied because we’ve already seen it happen to him lined up across from NFL quality cornerbacks, like Clark Phillips of Utah. There are certainly ways for teams to mitigate physical concerns over Addison; he’s capable of lining up outside and in the slot. Also, I’ve been wrong about lighter WRs before as the game continues to adapt in favor of offensive rules over defensive rules. Still, I’d be hard pressed to remember a less physical wideout who lists near the top of positional rankings. Stats are stats but it’s worth noting for a “production over tools” prospect like Addison that his numbers came out of two elite offenses with the nation’s best QB in each respective season. (And some of the DBs that he cooked, especially in the ACC, aren’t going to play on Sundays any time soon.) Remember the way some people talked about DeVonta Smith and his weight going into that Draft? That discourse is actually justified in the case of Addison this year.
Grade: Second Round
Pro Comp: Russell Gage
Games Watched:
- Western Michigan 2021
- Virginia Tech 2021
- Duke 2021
- Stanford 2022
- Utah 2022
- UCLA 2022
- Utah 2022 (PAC12 Championship Game)
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