JuJu

Smith-Schuster

Smith-Schuster is barely on the FLEX radar, now thoroughly past his prime. He has totaled five targets in 3-of-4 games thus far, though, so losing him to an injury could hurt Patrick Mahomes’ scoring ability a tad. Fortunately, that will not be an issue here. Smith-Schuster should be good to go for Week 5 against the Jaguars.

Smith-Schuster logged a route on 37 of Patrick Mahomes’ 44 dropbacks and caught one of Mahomes’ four touchdowns in the easy win over a beat-up Baltimore defense. Smith-Schuster caught his touchdown — the first of his 2025 season — between two defenders from four yards out. An every-down player in the pass-heavy KC offense, Smith-Schuster — with 14 catches through Week 4 — should be rostered in deep fantasy leagues. He gets the Jaguars in Week 5.

Not a big surprise here as Chiefs head coach Andy Reid described Worthy’s odds of playing in Week 2 as “slim” on Friday. Reid would go on to say that Worthy is doing well, which bodes well for his availability in Week 3, after suffering a shoulder injury that stemmed from a collision with tight end Travis Kelce in Week 1 against the Chargers. The Chiefs’ wide receiver room is wide open without Worthy and Rashee Rice, who still has five games of his suspension left. Hollywood Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster are next up for Kansas City in the passing game with Brown seeing 16 targets in Week 1 against the Chargers.

The Chiefs lost Xavier Worthy to a shoulder injury early in this game and Rashee Rice is serving a six-week suspension, elevating Smith-Schuster to a starting role. He was open for the occasional check-down from Patrick Mahomes but wasn’t overly involved in the game plan. Hollywood Brown led the team with a staggering 16 targets. JuJu’s five looks were second-most on the squad. Smith-Schuster will have WR6 fantasy value if Worthy is sidelined for Week 2 versus the Eagles, though most fantasy managers won’t need to dig that deep this early in the year.

Smith-Schuster returns to the Chiefs on a one-year deal after serving in a complementary role with the team in 2024. The financials have not yet been released, but they are unlikely to turn many heads. Smith-Schuster was responsible for modest returns outside of the one game he played without all of Rashee Rice, Hollywood Brown, and DeAndre Hopkins, putting up a massive 8-130 receiving line in Week 5. While Nuk is no longer in town, the team also re-signed Brown, have promising second-year speedster Xavier Worthy, and will likely be getting back Rice, pending any legal ramifications from his previous troubles.

Back in Kansas City after an unsuccessful 2023 hiatus in New England, 28-year-old Smith-Schuster emerged as an injured Rashee Rice’s unlikely replacement in Week 5 only to suffer a hamstring ailment of his own. After erupting for 130 yards in that contest, Smith-Schuster would produce only 84 total yards upon returning from his muscle pull in Week 11. He was slightly more involved in the postseason, but this remains a player in terminal career decline. Heading back to free agency, the former Steelers phenom has just 491 yards over his past 25 regular season games.

Smith-Schuster’s 31-yarder in the first quarter set up the Chiefs near the doorstep of the red zone, and a 29-yarder did the same on Kansas City’s go-ahead touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter. Smith-Schuster handily outsnapped No. 4 and No. 5 wideouts DeAndre Hopkins and Justin Watson 37-12-11. There may not be enough balls to go around for Smith-Schuster to have more than this kind of splash DFS value in the Super Bowl, but he appears well ahead of Hopkins and Watson on snaps.

Smith-Schuster was both ineffective and on-field throughout a Week 18 loss in which the Chiefs rested all valued players. Both factors bode negatively for Smith-Schuster’s potential playoff role. He should not be relied upon for fantasy purposes against whichever team the Chiefs face after their first-round playoff bye.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes targeted nine different pass-catchers with his 37 pass attempts, leaving only DeAndre Hopkins to see more than a modest six looks. Either way, the addition of Hopkins has pushed Smith-Schuster down the pecking order for targets in a highly unconcentrated offense, leaving very little meat on the fantasy bone the rest of the way.

Watson, additionally, had a brutal deep drop that likely would have been a score in the game’s opening three plays. He beat out Juju Smith-Schuster as the fifth option in the passing game today, but the lesson with the Chiefs right now is that they are going to spread the ball around. Watson will be a deep-leagues only play in Week 14, as he is every week.