Background and career
John Sherman Smith-Schuster (né Smith; born November 22, 1996) is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the USC Trojans, earning second-team All-American honors in 2015. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft. With the Kansas City Chiefs, he won Super Bowl LVII. Smith-Schuster is the holder of several NFL records, including being the youngest player to reach 2,500 career receiving yards and the first player to have two offensive touchdowns of at least 97 yards. He also holds several Steelers franchise records. Off the field, he is also known for his social media presence and affinity for TikTok, which has earned him the nickname TikTok Boy. In 2019, Smith-Schuster was ranked by Sports Business Daily as one of the NFL's most marketable players.
Smith-Schuster began playing football at the age of eight. He changed his name in football program listings in 2012 from "John" to "JuJu," a nickname an aunt gave him when he was young, and legally changed his last name from "Smith" to "Smith-Schuster" while in college as a tribute to his step-father. In his youth, Smith-Schuster was coached by Snoop Dogg when he played youth football with the Snoop Youth Football League, where Snoop gave Smith-Schuster the nickname "Sportscenter," telling him that he believed one day his highlights would be shown on the flagship ESPN show. He later attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California, the high school that at that time had the record for sending the most football players to careers in the NFL out of any in the United States. He played wide receiver and safety for the school's Jackrabbits football team. Smith-Schuster was rated by Rivals.com as a five-star recruit and was ranked as the second-best wide receiver in his class and the 24th-best player overall. He initially decided to attend Oregon, but then announced he would attend the University of Southern California (USC) to play college football under then-head coach Steve Sarkisian during his televised commitment.
Smith-Schuster earned immediate playing time as a true freshman in 2014. In his first career game, he had four receptions for 123 yards against Fresno State in the 52–13 victory. Against the Washington State Cougars, he had six receptions for 74 yards and three touchdowns in the 44–17 victory. He finished the 2014 season with 54 receptions for 724 yards and five touchdowns. In the Trojans' second game of the 2015 season, Smith-Schuster had ten receptions for 192 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Idaho. He followed that up with eight receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown in a loss to Stanford in the next game. As a sophomore in 2015, he played in 14 games and led the team with 89 receptions for 1,454 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. On October 1, 2016, Smith-Schuster had seven receptions for 123 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Arizona State. Two weeks later, in a win over Arizona, he had nine receptions for 132 yards and three touchdowns. As a junior in 2016 the Trojans used Smith-Schuster less. He played in 13 games with 914 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. That year he also helped the Trojans to a victory in the Rose Bowl over the Penn State Nittany Lions, catching seven passes for 133 yards and a receiving touchdown over the course of the game. After the 2016 season, Smith-Schuster announced on Twitter that he had decided to forgo his senior year and enter the 2017 NFL draft, before signing with sports agency Roc Nation. Fellow USC alum Lynn Swann said of Smith-Schuster's pro-potential based upon his college career, "He's got the size. He's got the strength. He's got the attitude ... In Juju, you've got a guy who's got the kind of versatility you might be looking for." Though he left before graduation, Smith-Schuster later returned to take summer courses at USC in order to work towards finishing his university degree.
Smith-Schuster received an invitation to the NFL Combine and performed nearly all of the combine drills and positional drills except for the three-cone drill and short shuttle. He opted to attend USC's Pro Day and performed the short shuttle and three-cone drill. In addition, he performed the vertical and broad jump and improved his combine number on both. The Dallas Cowboys were the only team to hold a private workout with Smith-Schuster and showed heavy interest in him. He was ranked as the fourth best wide receiver in the draft by Sports Illustrated and ESPN, and ninth by NFLDraftScout.com and draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.
The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Smith-Schuster in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2017 NFL draft. He was the youngest player selected in the 2017 Draft and was the 13th USC wide receiver drafted in the last 15 years. On May 17, 2017, the Steelers signed him to a four-year, $4.19 million contract with $1.84 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $1.19 million. Smith-Schuster entered training camp competing with Sammie Coates, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eli Rogers, Marcus Tucker, and Justin Hunter to be the Steelers' third option at wide receiver on their depth chart. He was named the sixth wide receiver on the Steelers' depth chart to begin the regular season behind Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, Heyward-Bey, Rogers, and Hunter. Smith-Schuster made his NFL debut in the Steelers' season-opening victory over the Cleveland Browns and was credited with his first career start as a kick returner, returning one kick for four yards. When Smith-Schuster made his debut, he was the youngest player in the NFL. In Week 2, Smith-Schuster recorded his first career reception and caught his first career touchdown on a four-yard pass from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, as the Steelers defeated the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 26–9. During the Vikings game, Smith-Schuster became the youngest NFL player to score a touchdown since running back Andy Livingston in 1964. He also became the second-youngest player in NFL history to catch a touchdown behind Arnie Herber, who was 60 days younger than Smith-Schuster when he caught a touchdown in 1930. During Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Smith-Schuster caught his third touchdown pass of the season, a 31-yard reception, becoming the first player in NFL history to score three touchdowns before the age of 21. On October 29, Smith-Schuster made his first career start at wide receiver and had a breakout performance with a season-high seven receptions for 193 receiving yards and scored a 97-yard touchdown during a 20–15 victory against the Detroit Lions. The 97-yard touchdown reception was also the longest pass play in team history and the longest touchdown reception in the league during the 2017 season. Smith-Schuster started at wide receiver in place of Martavis Bryant, who was benched by head coach Mike Tomlin after publicly asking for a trade. His 193 yards was second only to Jimmy Orr's 205 in 1958 for the most receiving yards by a Steelers rookie and the most by any NFL rookie since Mike Evans' 209 in Week 11 of 2014. He was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his Week 8 performance. On December 5, Smith-Schuster was suspended for one game after delivering a blindside block to Bengals' linebacker Vontaze Burfict in Week 13. In Week 17, he had a 96-yard kick return for a touchdown and also caught nine passes for 143 yards and a touchdown during a 28–24 victory over the Browns. With this performance, Smith-Schuster became the youngest player in NFL history to have over 1,000 all-purpose yards. He was also named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his kick return touchdown. He finished the season with 58 receptions for 917 yards and seven touchdowns, with the latter two statistics leading all rookies. He was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. He was named the Polynesian Pro Football Player of the Year for 2017. The Steelers finished first in the AFC North with a 13–3 record and earned a first-round bye. On January 14, 2018, Smith-Schuster started in his first playoff game and made three receptions for five yards and a late touchdown in a narrow 45–42 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round.
On January 18, 2018, the Steelers promoted quarterback's coach Randy Fichtner to offensive coordinator after they opted not to renew former offensive coordinator Todd Haley's contract. Smith-Schuster entered training camp slated as a starting wide receiver after the Steelers traded Martavis Bryant to the Oakland Raiders for a third-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft. Tomlin named Smith-Schuster a starting wide receiver to begin the regular season, alongside Antonio Brown.
