My Top Five Rerceivers In The NFL Draft.
NFL Draft: Top 5 Receiver
"I said, 'Tee, you're a heck of a basketball player, but with your height, you have the chance to be a big-time star in football,'" Gaddis said. "'In football, you're going to be a receiver, and you're going to be a giant, whereas in basketball, there's a bunch of guys your size.'" In 2017, in The Wayward World, before AI dominated the chat parlance, tee Higgins, currently franchised as a tagged wide receiver for the Bengals, had a career-altering decision. Coming out of Theo State Of Tennessee, Tee Starred as a two-sport athlete and a five-star recruit in both basketball and football; Tee faced a tough decision in his athletic future. Basketball Or Football? Depending On How You Calculate, Football Players Earn More Per Game. However, basketball opens the door for longevity as football's toll on the body becomes too great. Hi Football Coach At The Time, By No Means Unbiased Hit Tee With Some Facts: At 6'4, Tee Would Entered The NBA Undersized At Any Position Outside Of, Say, Point Guard, But With His Height And Length, He'd Dominate The Boundary In The NFL. The Commitment To Football Paid Off—At Least It Will—Tee Has Emerged As One The Best Football Players At His Position, Sure To Score A Big Pay Day Coming Off Of An Injury Riddled Season, But where Higgins Showed His Great Play Making Skills. The Evolution Of The Receiver Position Has Arrived in 2024.
Most Of The Top Receivers In This Class Stand 6'3 Or Better With Skating Blades At Their Feet. Big receivers have entered the league in the past but not in these massive numbers, with the potential of 7-8 to go in the first round, growing, and the demand in the market meeting the supply. Guys like Ladd McConkey and Jermaine Burton Roman Wilson Will Come In As Small Receivers Compared To The Top Of This Stack Class, which also Features A Guy Who Stands 6'7. Colleges Have also Caught On With The Pros By Employing Multiple Top Tier Wide Receivers. A Few Years Ago, Only Clemson, Bama, And LSU Could Boast Of Such Feats. Many Good Teams Have A Pair this season, So I'll go Over As Many As I Can. Recently, Some Debate Has Emerged Over Which Illustrious Prospect Deserves The Top Spot At Receiver The Two Guys We'll Discuss this Soon. Most of the debate stems from the media's desire to churn content at rates that only the die-hard NFL "Draft" Enthusiasts could consume.
If you read or listen closely to any of them, you can get the sense of them trying to talk themselves into the idea of Nabers over Harrison. Most Draft Experts Build Their Draft With Harrison, Nabers, And Odunze In Some Order. This Draft has a Plethora Of "X" Receivers Deep Threat Types, And This Influx Of Receivers Will Impact The Wide Receiver Market In The Future.
The Debate In This Draft doesn't end at The Top Spot, But The Rest Of The Wide receivers in This Draft Have Moved Up And Down The Boards.
Marvin Harrison Jr.—Ohio State University.
I Feel Cheap Writing On Harrison Jr. This Kid, For His Name and His Pedigree, Has Tightly Held The Gaze Of All College Scouts For The Better part Of Two Season He Played Major Snaps In Columbus. Even For A Player Of His Status, The Number One Ranked Player On Most Boards, The Son Of A Hall Of Fame, and A Heralded Recruit, Harrison Jr. Has Uber—Effortless Athleticism; He Appears "Not Trying" When Dominating Some College Football Best The Last Two Season. At 6'4, Harrison Possesses The Ideal Frame For The Future Position; Harrison also gets to Top Speed Economically With His Strides. Early in the evolution of the receiver, the league gradually embraced the change in size because most bigger receivers need longer strides to get downfield or because of the question of guys like DK Metcalf struggling with movement and change of direction skills. His movement skills don't betray him, as getting to top speeds doesn't require Harrison Jr. to sell out his route to defenders with heavy strides up the field; instead, he charges up like a stunting lion. Despite Having Ameba-like body movements, Harrison possesses Elite Body Control; even In Mid-Air, Harrison Can Reject The Rules Of Gravity and The Rules Of Reality Like Thanos With The Reality Stone. Harrison made such a play against Georgia in last season's college football playoff when quarterback CJ Stroud scrambled and fired a laser that Harrison had to climb to the imaginary ladder to secure the pass and get one foot in bounds. He Makes These Plays Routinely. If Harrison Jr. has any quality that stands above all else, Junior HAs have mastered the art of going up and coming down, which abounds with cats. At The Pro Level, He's Going To Need To Work On Getting Both His Foot Down Inbounds Rather Than the One Foot I've Seen On Tape. He's built tall with a high center of gravity, so he doesn't have the full range of the route tree to work with because turning doesn't come so quickly to longer-legged athletes. Another Knock On Harrison Jr., Something That Pops Up On Tape. From my perspective, As The Top Receiver In The Draft, He's Never Played The Role Of The Single Top Option For Ohio State's Offense. Ohio State, Along With LSU, Has Firmly Gripe The Title Of "Wide Receiver U," And Harrison Has Played With More NFL talent than Any Other Wide Receiver In This Draft. A lot Of Harrison's Best Worl Came In Single Coverage, Which You Wouldn't Think Of A Top Target. In Harrison's Freshman Year, He Couldn't See The Field Because Of The Talent Level He Played. This argument hasn't hurt Chris Olave or Garrett Wilson, but Harrison proposes a different skill set than those quick, route-running specialists and former Buckeyes. He's not the most gifted separator, and this showed up somewhat against Michigan. Other draft analysts have pointed out that the "issue is explosiveness and separation" in Harrison's game. PFF's Draft Analysis Points Out That Harrison Tends To Lean Into Using His Physicality To Get More Separation. I don't see him winning too many one-on-one routes at the next level with such limited explosiveness. His Big Ability More Than Makeup For Lack And Capture The Attention Of Scouts and On Lookers, He's "Nothing Special" In The Short Screen, End Around Game But He's Great At Catching In The Open Field. He's Not Perfect By Any Measure; Im Not Even Sure He's a 1 Or 2 In This Draft, But He's A Close Mike Evans-type receiver.
Malik Nabers--LSU.
I Wouldn't Want To Call Malik Nabers A Challenger For The Top Spot Received In the NFL In The 2024 Draft; He Could Very Well Own That Spot By The Time The End Of April Rolls Around. One of The Few "Traditionally" Built Wide Receivers, Nabers Checks Internal At 6'0, 200 Lbs. Nabers Enters Theo NFL Built Similarly To Other LSU Stars, Jamar Chase And Odell Beckham Jr. He's Not The Power Of Chase, but He's All The Quick Footedness Of An Odell Beckham If Not Even Faster." Explosive" That's The Term That Seems To Cycles Nabers's Games Like' Arm And Dangerous' On The ABP On A Wanted Murderer. However, Explosive Doesn't Quite Do Nabers Justice. His Feet Have A Certain "Electricity" And Juice To Them As Nabers glides across The Field. LSU's Offense did ask Nabers To Explore The Range Of His Athlectism As He Primarzmy Ran Two Main Routes That Exploited His Quick Feet; Those Route Question, Go Routes, and Hitches, And Nabers Dominated By One Route Up With The Guise Of Another Route. However, He's Raw, Or At At Least Not Fully Explored As A Route Runner He's Still A Athlete More Than Anything Else, But He Uses His Hitches And Slant Movements To Set Up Fades and Go Routes. LSU Also Featured A Lot Of Wide Receivers--Naber Recruiting Class Featured FIVE recruited Wide Receivers For Ed Orgeron At The Time-- And Thus, The Offense Only Needed A Role From Naber, Not A Complete Number Option, And His Open Target Percentage Still Ranked In Just The 64th Percentile.
Nabers did get Great Separation In College Mainly Because DBs have a lot of Off Coverage, And He's Not A Release Mechanic; Nabers Usually Takes Into Full Stride. He'll Need To Vary His Releases To Succeed At The Next Level. Nabers does not get awful physical contact with DBs and rarely makes contact to gain separation.
Romeo Odunze—Washington.
The Number One Spot AT receiver In This Year's NFL Draft HAs Widened Considerably, and Rome Odunze Has Entered The Chat And Made The Division Hard and Interesting For Many.
NFL Teams Hungry For The Position. He's a prototypical "X," a boundary receiver more than any Of the top guys in this draft. At 6'3 Over 200 lbs, he's A Slippery and Tractable Athlete. As I said, Bigger Receivers Usually Get Knocked Because A Bigger Frame Denotes A Less Flexible Body And a More Straight Line Target, Not Odunze. He Transitions Easily In And Out of His Breaks, Quantified By His 4.03 20 Yard Shuffle(96th Percentile), Which Opens Up The Entire Route Tree To His Arsenal. Odunze Draws Most Of His Acclaim For His Contested Catch Artist. His 39-inch Vertical Helps Him Fend off Defenders Who Hung Tight In Coverage Despite Possessing Smaller Hands.
He's Got 4.45 Speed Adequate For His Height, And Help Him Lead The Nation In Deep Catches. He led college football in deep caches, deep yards, and tested caches. Washington's Offense Ask Him To Win Over The Top, And He Excelled; Odunze Willow plays a Role Closer To What Mike Williams Plays For The Chargers. Washington's Offense Featured Ja'Lynn Polk as another Highly Touted Receiver in This Year's Draft. Odunze Held The Roll As The Number One Option In The Run And Shoot Offense Of Washington.
Brian Thomas Jr.—LSU.
Draft Guides List Thomas At 6'3 With The Rest Of The Behemoths. The LSU Product Looks and Plays A lot Bigger Than Say, Harrison, And Odunze In Some Effect. Reminiscent Of Former Bayou Bengal Terrence Marshall, Thomas Has a Long Sidney Frame, With A WingSpan In the 89th Percentile, Which OPENS up A Wide Catch Radius. Impressively Explosive For His Size, He's A Long Strider Who Gets Up Field Fast, And His 4.3 Speed Corroborated His Tape And 13.9 Average Depth Of Target. Thomas Finished 2nd In Deep Yards With 670 and Brought 17 Touchdowns For LSU. Thomas didn't face much press coverage because of his speed and size and because he played a
stacked-ish LSU offense. He's got great speed off the line to beat Defenses, but his frame needs more strength. There are only 11 reps on the bench press to get into a "Tug" with other corners.
Adonai Mitchell--Texas The Number Five Receiver In This Year's Draft Could Belong To Any Of The Other 5-7 Candidates. The Technical And Athletic Savvy Of A Ladd McConkey May Catch The Eye, Or The Explosion And Speed Of A Xavier Worthy Or Like The Size and Sky Rising Ability Of A Keon Coleman. If you want all these attributes in one form, you can take Texas's Adonai Mitchell. Mitchell, the Sketchiest Level Of Production of Anyone, Maybe In This Draft. Mitchell Played At Georgia in His First Season And Struggled With Injuries in His sophomore Year And Absence In a Georgia Offense that Featured Tight End Brock Bowers As The Number One Pass pass-catching option, A Run First Defensive Orientated Team With Another Tier Receiver. Mitchell Played 14 Games For The Long Horns And Finished With 845 Receiving Yards, 55 Reception, 15.8 Yards Per Reception, and 11 Touchdowns In One Season Passes In Texas Brown and White. He's Not Particularly Strong In Areas Like EPA Per Play, Success Rate, Yards Per Route Run, And YAC; He's Extreme Inconsistent. If Those Numbers Sound Pedestrian—Outside of The Touchdown—Say Compared To A Malik Nabers, That's Because Mitchell Simply Didn't Produce To The Level Of A Number One Guy. Texas's Offense Featured Other offensive Stars, Including Record Breaking Wide Receiver Xavier Worthy—Who Lead The Team In Receiving yards And Receptions—And Number One Running Back Jonathan Brooks—Any running-back In This Class Can Claim The Title Running Back One And The best Best Tight Not Named Brock Bowers. Mitchell departed One Unfavorable Situation For Another, But Scouts See The Upside IN Mitchell's Skill Set. According To RAS Standards, He's The Most Athletic Prospect In The Draft Of Any Player, NFL.com Ranked AD Third Overall In Athletic Testing, But 4.3 Speed Doesn't Always Translate. Mitchell Has Terrible Balance; He struggles a lot, Even In The Open Field.
I Don't See A Lot Of Separation On Tape—The Primary Reason He Struggled To Produce Yards After The Catch. Despite only one drop pass in 2023, Mitchell possesses small hands, like tiny hands, 9.25 inches, and in The 38th percentile of his position. His hand size makes clean catheters routine, but tough catheters in traffic, if not impossible, and tested catheters are unthinkable. The Ball gets knocked Away From Mitchell's grip Easily, And Despite His Height(Which Ranges From 6'1 To 6'4), He Only Came Down With 4 Contested Which Translates To A 36% Contested Catch Conversion Rate. He's a fluid manager but must get schemed open on the next level. Mitchell Ranked in the 58th Percentile In Getting Open And 61st In Separation; he'll Run Select Routes, But Reason Stands That Neither Texas Nor Georgia Fielded The Offense Glided To Exploit All Of Mitchell's Talent. Mitchell Has All The Athleticism Of A Pure X Receiver Who Could Play Some Slot. However, He's Still A Project Receiver Compare To guys like Ladd McConkey, Xavier Lagette, Or Troy Franklyn, But he is A Promising Prospect.
Other receivers I Love:
Xavier Leggette, South Carolina. Leggette Played Five years at So. Carolina Looks Like A Finished Product In His Last Season, with 1255 Yards, 17.7 Yards Per Catch, And 7 Touchdown. Leggette's 6'3 227 Lbs Sturdy Frame Belies his Shocking Athleticism After Ran a 4.3 Forty And 40 Inch Vertical.
Keon Coleman, Florida State.
I Love Coleman As A Receiver Prospect. He Ran A 4.6 Forty At Theo Combine, Which Hurt His Overall Buzz, And Heights Didn't Reach 1000 Receiving Yards For Florida State(His Starting Quarterback Got Injured), But His Play Speed(On The Field), NFL Network Clocked Him In At Over 20 Miles Per Hour On The Gauntlet Drill And PFF's In-Game Speed Metric Ranks Coleman In The 93rd Percentile Of Players. Why Dont Coleman's Forty Time And Field Speed Add Up? Probably The Differences Between Speed and acceleration. Coleman Accelerates Better Than Most Receivers, and He's More Explosive Than Fast Registering A 10'7 Broad, 38 Inch Vertical. He's A Limited Receiver With Limited Separation, But He'll Climb The Imaginary Ladder Better Than Anyone Else In This Draft. Coleman looks "Good Enough" Of A Route Runner And Reminds Me Of Mike Evans Or The Cardinals Micheal Wilson. The two college teams he played for asked him to run mostly routes and win over the top in the end zone. He's "My Type" Of Receiver, And He Came Down With 11 Touchdowns Last Season. Pff Says Coleman Lacks Agility, Which I Didn't See, And Every Catch For Him Falls In The Bin Of A Contested Catch, But When You're So Good At Those Catches, Why Not? Shouldn't Every Steph Curry Shot Be A Three? I Don't Have A First Round Grade On Him, But I'm High On The Kid.
Troy Franklin, Oregon.
Troy Franklin Reminds Me Of Spider-Man Or Dr. Octopus. Just Limbs Dangling Everywhere Drew Locks Top Target Has A Distinct build And An Unlimited Volume For Pulling In Tough Catches. Incredibly Sinewy, Franklin Has The Ability To Pull In Passes From All Placements and Angles With The Added Speed and Agility To Convert Smaller Short Gains Into Bigger Plays. He's got good speed and a strong enough frame to stack cornerbacks and burn rubbers past one-on-one coverage. I don't get clear number-one receiver vibes from Franklin, but he's a better second-option type of talent, similar to what we witnessed from Nico Collins this past season.
