JuJu Smith-Schuster Selects DeAndre Hopkins Over Himself on His 2019 Fantasy Football Team

JuJu Smith-Schuster's fantasy football value looks to be at an all-time high heading into the 2019 NFL season with Antonio Brown gone from the Pittsburgh Steelers offense.

His fantasy football average draft position (ADP) of WR7 has him going off the board in the second round, positioning him among the best of the best at WR. An ADP that high even has him sneaking into the first round in some drafts. But JuJu himself doesn't seem to believe he warrants quite that high a pick.

With the seventh selection in a celebrity fantasy football draft Smith-Schuster selected fellow WR DeAndre Hopkins. In JuJu's defense, he got himself a bargain with Hopkins, who is going on average as the fifth player off the board.

There are a few reasons it made sense for JuJu to take the humble route and draft Hopkins instead of himself.

At the most basic level, Hopkins finished well ahead of Smith-Schuster in 2018. Hopkins scored the most fantasy points at the position, while Smith-Schuster finished eighth. That came one year after Hopkins finished second in 2017, and he has a proven track record as an elite producer.

JuJu has been outstanding to start his career, no doubt. But the sample size is smaller, and his 2019 fantasy football outlook might not be as strong as it seems on the surface.

The Pittsburgh Steelers losing Brown may not actually translate to a ton of extra volume going JuJu's way, as the two were used in very different roles in 2018.

Hopkins, on the other hand, could be in for an even more productive 2019 season. He dominated in 2018 despite Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson playing hurt, and in 2017, he had to deal with Tom Savage throwing him the ball in eight games.

With running backs flying off the board early this year, there's plenty of value in targeting wide receivers in the first round. If JuJu himself thinks that Hopkins should be your pick in that spot, who are we to argue?

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.