Clemson Football: What Justyn Ross’ injury means for Tigers in 2020

Clemson football lost its star receiver Justyn Ross for the season due to an unfortunate injury. How will this affect the Tigers in 2020?

Clemson is accustomed to good news, but this week, a big blow was dealt to the Tigers’ offense when news broke that star wide receiver Justyn Ross has a congenital fusion in his spine and will miss the upcoming 2020 season and quite possibly the rest of his career according to head coach Dabo Swinney.

This will come as a surprise to everyone, but Swinney said that Ross sustained the injury during the Tigers final few practices before the COVID-19 outbreak and after X-rays, it was revealed that he had suffered much more than just a stinger.

Ross was going to be one of Clemson’s big time playmakers down the field and was going to have an even bigger role in the offense with Tee Higgins leaving for the NFL draft after last season.

Ross has been a playmaker since the day that he arrived on campus at Clemson, possessing great size athleticism and hands, racking up 46 catches for 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns. His numbers took a slight dip last season due to some of Clemson’s offensive struggles early, but Ross still managed to post up 66 catches for 865 yards and eight touchdowns — his yards per catch went down from 21.7 to 13.1, though.

The junior is an excellent receiver and will be missed in Clemson’s high-powered offense, but I do think that the Tigers will be able to overcome his absence due to a couple of key factors.

One, Clemson has recruited as well as anyone in the country at nearly every position and they have the most talented quarterback in the nation in Trevor Lawrence, so it may be a little sluggish at first, but the junior gunslinger will right the ship and keep the Tigers offense on track.

Two, Clemson doesn’t exactly have a murderers’ row of a schedule and aside from Notre Dame, the Tigers will not face a top 15 opponent in the regular season and that should give the offense time to adjust to Ross’ absence.

Ross will surely be missed, but don’t expect this to completely derail Clemson’s offense as it’s still as talented as ever and has the best player in the country in Lawrence.