The Minnesota Vikings filled arguably their biggest short-term need by selecting USC wide receiver Jordan Addison with the 23rd-overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Before heading to Los Angeles for Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams‘ debut season with the Trojans, Addison won the 2021 Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver with Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Panthers.
At 5’11”, 173 lbs., Addison enters the NFL with legitimate size concerns, and his 4.49 40-yard dash from the NFL Combine certainly won’t blow anyone away. However, Addison was one of the more productive receivers in college football throughout his three years at Pittsburgh and USC, totaling 219 receptions, 3,281 scrimmage yards, and 30 touchdowns. While playing in Mark Whipple’s offense at Pittsburgh, Addison went toe to toe with Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the nation’s best slot receiver in 2021. While 92% of Smith-Njigba’s targets that season came from the slot, Addison wasn’t exclusively a slot receiver — 66% of his 144 targets came inside. Out of 48 receivers that commanded 60-plus targets from the slot, Addison recorded the third-highest passer rating when targeted at 136.0, trailing Smith-Njigba’s 140.6 and Utah State receiver Brandon Bowling‘s 140.6.
Addison mixes up intentional and sometimes delayed quickness out of his breaks to create separation on in-breaking routes. He’s also demonstrated a knack for being a scrappy finisher on gotta-have-it 50/50 balls. Notice how Addison works back towards Pickett on this corner route to help singlehandedly push Pittsburgh across the finish line against Virginia in the clip below.
And although he doesn’t possess game-breaking speed, Addison does a great job of slow-playing his burst to win vertically. Notice how Addison’s motion puts him in the slot in this 1×3 look, which allows him to beat the zone coverage safety on the deep post.
Addison’s style of play makes it easy to agree with the Robert Woods comparisons that have been thrown around throughout the draft process, even if he’s roughly 30 lbs. lighter than the former Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams, Tennessee Titans, and current Houston Texans receiver. Woods entered the NFL with roughly the same 4.5 speed, but he has a knack for generating consisting yardage after the catch and in the running game. Throughout his college career, Addison averaged 7.4 yards on his 20 carries and both Whipple and Riley leaned on his explosiveness in the screen game.
But don’t get it twisted, just because Addison excels in the screen and run game, he’s far from a gadget player. Circling back to his Biletnikoff Award 2021 season, Addison’s 144 targets were essentially even in all four categories.
- 23.6% — Behind the Line of Scrimmage / 118.8 passer rating when targetd
- 27.8% — 0-9 yards / 123.6 passer rating when targeted
- 20.8% — 10-19 yards / 97.3 passer rating when targeted
- 27.8% — 20-plus yards / 117.9 passer rating when targeted
At USC, Riley used Addison much more frequently closer to the line of scrimmage; 35.4% of his targets came in the short game (0-9 yards). But that didn’t deter him from occasionally taking the top off of Pac-12 defenses.
Sticking with the contrasts from his time at Pittsburgh, Addison was deployed primarily as an outside receiver in Riley’s offense. Only 23% of his snaps came by way of the slot. Despite the change in role, Addison’s improved on his efficiency by bumping up his passer rating when targeted to 139.0 — which just so happened to be better than Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.’s 137.1.
When it comes to Addison’s fit in Kevin O’Connell‘s offense, it’s fair to assume that he’ll fill an eerily similar role that Robert Woods had during their two years together with the Rams from 2020 to 2021, but with more vertical opportunities than Woods had in Los Angeles. Woods split his snaps between the slot and outside in O’Connell and McVay’s offense, and Addison demonstrated in his prolific college career that he can win from both spots on the field.
With the addition of Josh Oliver as the TE2, Addison creates new opportunities for this offense to generate non-Justin Jefferson explosiveness in the screen and short game, while possessing an equally daunting vertical threat off of play-action when the Vikings likely lean on more 12-personnel on early downs. If/when opposing defenses continue to load up their two-high coverages on Jefferson, O’Connell now possesses a legitimate WR2 that can beat defenses at all four levels.
Although his 40 time doesn’t necessarily show it, Addison is a big-play creator with the ball in his hands and a reliable chain mover on money downs. He also enters the NFL in arguably one of the best situations for a young receiver as Jefferson’s Robin. Lastly, the former USC receiver has the luxury of being paired with an offensive mind in O’Connell that now has the proper personnel to dip back into his beloved dagger concepts that he once ran with regularity for Woods and Cooper Kupp.
With Addison’s ability to create separation on those intermediate digs as the outside receiver, while also being more than capable of getting behind the defense as the field-stretcher from the slot, the Jefferson and Addison pairing allows O’Connell the flexibility to flip both players for one of the biggest staple concepts in his offense. That’s a luxury he wasn’t afforded last season with Adam Thielen as the WR2.
The quarterback questions in 2024 are tomorrow’s problems. Addison is a win-now decision that should open up the offense seemingly from Day 1. And with Kirk Cousins playing in the same scheme, with the same play-caller, for the first time since Sean McVay in 2015-16, the selection of Addison provides warranted expectations for this offense to make a noticeable jump in Year 2 of O’Connell.
