Should Clemson football wide receiver Justyn Ross be cleared for full contact and be able to resume the game of football, the Tigers will have the best offensive weapon back on the field and sophomore DJ Uiagalelei will have a weapon he has never had.
That isn’t to say that Clemson football isn’t loaded at wide receiver again, because they are but Justyn Ross is just built differently. Having that type of playmaker on the field is a difference-maker for the quarterback and will go a long way into determining just how well the offense moves on from the departure of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne.
In 12 full seasons now as the Clemson football head coach, Dabo Swinney has had a 1,000-yard receiver in eight of those seasons. Here is a look at the leading receivers over those 11 seasons:
- 2009: Jacoby Ford – 779 yards and 6 touchdowns
- 2010: Deandre Hopkins – 637 yards and 4 touchdowns
- 2011: Sammy Watkins – 1,219 yards and 12 touchdowns
- 2012: Deandre Hopkins – 1,405 yards and 18 touchdowns
- 2013: Sammy Watkins – 1,464 yards and 12 touchdowns
- 2014: Mike Williams – 1,030 yards and 6 touchdowns
- 2015: Artavis Scott – 901 yards and 6 touchdowns
- 2016: Mike Williams – 1,361 yards and 11 touchdowns
- 2017: Deon Cain – 734 yards and 6 touchdowns
- 2018: Justyn Ross – 1,000 yards and 9 touchdowns
- 2019: Tee Higgins – 1,167 yards and 13 touchdowns
- 2020: Amari Rodgers – 1,020 yards and 7 touchdowns
Clemson football has the talent to be special on offense again in 2021
Even with the departure of Lawrence and Etienne, the Clemson football offense has the chance to be special once again. The Tigers don’t rebuild, they reload and that is something very few programs can actually say across college football. Only Alabama and Oklahoma come to mind in recent years.
Uiagalelei will have six of the Tigers’ top eight returning receivers for 2021 before you add Ross, Beaux Collins, and Dacari Collins into the rotation for receivers coach Tyler Grisham.
Last year, we set the over/under for Justyn Ross at 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns. Obviously, he was never given a chance to step on the field and be productive but if he is cleared for 2021, there is no doubt that he blows by those numbers.
If Ross is able to resume normal football activity, expect Ross to challenge Sammy Watkins’s single-season record of 1,464 receiving yards that he set back in 2013 when he had 101 receptions.
Ross won’t catch 101 balls in 2021 as Watkins did in 2013 as the Tigers have too much talent, but he spreads the field better than Watkins did and is a far better deep threat. Given the arm talent that Uiagalelei possesses, the Tigers won’t be a pump and dump offense this year.