Once considered a surefire first-round selection, Clemson WR Justyn Ross wound up an undrafted free agent following the 2022 NFL Draft due to injury. He even had to wait two whole days until he signed a UDFA contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Why did Ross fall out of the draft, and will he stick on a roster in the NFL?
Justyn Ross’ path to the NFL
Ross’ mother, Charay Franklin, had him when she was 16 and raised him with the help of his grandmother in Phenix City, Alabama. Franklin joined the Navy to provide for her son and completed two tours in Afghanistan from 2001-2005. Once she returned home, she joined the Alabama National Guard and would later serve one last tour in Kuwait (2016). So to say Ross was raised by two strong women is an understatement. They instilled in him the courage and bravery that proved to be instrumental traits down the road.
While attending Central High, Ross went to his mother and expressed his desire to quit the football team and spend his time and energy on the basketball court. As I’m sure you could imagine, quitting isn’t necessarily in the vocabulary of a military veteran. Between his mom and head football coach Jamey DuBose, Ross made the decision to play both sports.
Not quitting football turned out to be the right choice. After his freshman season, Ross had already received D1 scholarship offers from Mississippi State and Kentucky. Nevertheless, playing basketball did come back to cost him, as he suffered a torn ACL as a sophomore. But as a senior, Ross enjoyed his best year yet. He hauled in 37 passes for 730 and 13 touchdowns and returned 14 punts for 383 yards and 2 scores. Central High finished 12-1, made the state semifinals, and Ross received first-team All-State honors.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Ross was the No. 1 recruit in Alabama and the No. 7 wide receiver in the nation. As a result, nearly every program sought his services. Ross collected over 20 scholarship offers, including from in-state schools Alabama and Auburn. But it was Clemson that caught his eye, and midway through a campus visit, Ross called his mom to tell her he had made his decision. Ross became just the second top-ranked recruit in Alabama to sign with a school other than Alabama since 2005.
It didn’t take long for Ross to make an impact for the Tigers. In just his third collegiate game, he took 3 passes for 103 yards and 1 TD. He wouldn’t reach 100 yards receiving again in the regular season, but he saved his best for the postseason. In the semifinals against Notre Dame, Ross popped off for 6 catches, 148 yards, and 2 scores. But he wasn’t done. In a national championship victory over No. 1-ranked Alabama, the true freshman turned the tide, generating 153 yards and 1 TD on 6 receptions.
That playoff explosion put the Phenix City native on the map. In his true sophomore campaign in 2019, Ross led Clemson in targets (105) and receptions (66). Yet, he was second-fiddle to Tee Higgins in receptions (864 to 1,167) and touchdowns (8 to 13). It was still a solid campaign, and with Higgins off to the 2020 NFL Draft, it was time for him to be the No. 1 in Death Valley … until it wasn’t.
Ross’ undraftable injury
Ross was undoubtedly born with the talent to be a first-round receiver. However, he was also born with a condition known as Klippel-Feil syndrome. KFS affects roughly one in every 40,000 people, but it can go undetected for years if symptoms aren’t severe, as was the case with Ross. It is characterized as an “abnormal fusion of at least two spinal bones (vertebrae) in the neck.”
Ross was introduced to his condition after a seemingly routine play at practice in the spring of 2020. He took a hit on a slant route by a linebacker but stated it wasn’t an exceedingly hard one. He felt numbness and some discomfort but chalked it up as a neck stinger, a fairly common injury in the sport. Nevertheless, he needed to have his neck and back checked according to team protocols.
A few days later, Ross felt fine and was preparing for practice when head coach Dabo Swinney called him into his office. There, team doctors waited, as well as Ross’ mother on a phone call. Not only did the medical staff tell Ross about his rare condition and that he will most likely need surgery, but they explained that he may never step on the gridiron again.
Complicating matters was the fact that there were no known football players who have had KFS. Additionally, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke recommends that those affected should avoid activities that could lead to a neck injury.
Ross pursued multiple other opinions, all of which shared the same diagnosis. At the same time as his football career came to a screeching halt, so did the rest of the world as the COVID-19 pandemic ran rampant. But Ross never quit, finally securing an appointment with Dr. David Okonkwo, the same doctor who performed spinal surgery on former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier.
After months of tests and consultation, Okonkwo agreed to do a surgery that would remove a bulging disc in the neck, relieving pressure from Ross’ spinal cord. The surgery itself isn’t rare, but it was rare under the circumstances. Okonkwo stated, “There are other options, but those other options are surgeries where no one goes back to play football. This was the best combination of the exact right treatment for Justyn Ross as a person while simultaneously preserving the possibility of playing football again.
“Justyn has a condition that is very rare, and to my knowledge, there is no precedent of another high-level American football player with this condition playing football. So we were paving new road as we went through the process.”
The surgery was a success, and throughout the coming months, Ross reached every benchmark he needed to. One year after the initial hit that sent him down a faith-testing journey, Ross was cleared for non-contact drills at practice.
Of course, Ross’ journey was far from over. In August, Clemson finally cleared him for full contact. Yet, on the same day he was supposed to step on the field in full pads, he contracted COVID-19. And unfortunately, Ross wasn’t asymptomatic. During his ordeal with the virus, Ross lost 15 pounds, and it affected his breathing. Like with all the previous adversity in his life, he fought through it and returned to the field a couple of weeks later.
In practice, everyone was nervous for Ross to take his first hit in 20 months. On a quick pitch and catch, he was tackled but swiftly bounced up, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. But spinal surgery and COVID weren’t enough turmoil to deal with, as Ross then suffered a stress fracture in his foot, likely due to the rapid increase in physical activity.
Ross decided to play through the injury, accruing 46 catches for 514 yards and 3 TDs in 10 games. However, he sat out the last three games to undergo surgery to repair his foot. Ross sports the size (6’4″, 200+ pounds, with 32″ arms) and athletic ability to compete in the NFL. But the physical and mental toll of the last two years assuredly zapped him (hopefully temporarily) of some of his juice.
Falling out of the NFL Draft and landing with the Chiefs
Ross didn’t participate at the NFL Combine outside of the bench press (11 reps) as his foot continued to heal. But Ross did test at Clemson’s Pro Day, recording a 4.63 40-yard dash, 31.5″ vertical, and 9’8″ broad. All of those numbers were less than stellar, but teams knew he wasn’t 100%.
Still, with poor testing numbers, lack of production beyond his true freshman season, and a serious neck injury, it’s easy to see why some teams took Ross off their boards completely. Various doctors believe taking the wrong type of hit in the NFL could do significant damage to Ross’ neck/spine, and no franchise wants to have that happen to a player.
Thus, in an event where we get to watch players’ dreams come to fruition, we also saw one falter before our eyes. And while it was difficult to watch and is unquestionably more difficult for Ross to experience, it only added to his motivational fuel. He had to wait two days before he signed a UDFA contract with the Chiefs, but the chip on his shoulder can’t get any bigger.
Kansas City has a need at receiver after shipping off Tyreek Hill and letting Byron Pringle walk. They brought in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, as well as drafted Skyy Moore in Round 2, but there is room for a talented wideout behind them.
With an offseason to fully recover, regain his physical shape, and learn from NFL coaches, Ross could make the Chiefs’ 53-man roster. If not, there is a practice squad spot with his name on it somewhere in the league. Ross has the ability to thrive in the NFL, all he needs to do is remain healthy — which isn’t guaranteed.
“With Justyn (Ross), everyone kind of knows the story,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said. “He’s certainly a really talented individual that has gone through his share of injuries at Clemson. One thing, trying to go back to last year and the Trey Smith setup, I mean, I’ve always said that our docs are on the more conservative side. We spent a lot of time, and I know our doctors at KU spent a lot of time talking to the experts that dealt with Justyn. He’s cleared.”
From destined first-round selection to undrafted rookie, the courage and bravery Ross’ mother and grandmother bestowed on him are what has pushed him to keep standing up when many of us would have stayed down. Ross’ internal fortitude and external support system will see him succeed in life and, hopefully, in the NFL.