NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 149. Early Wide Receiver Position Rankings For 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their updated wide receiver position rankings for the 2023 NFL Draft. The two talk about their rankings in the preseason, things that have changed since then, and give each their new Top 8 rankings for the position

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we know you've been waiting a long time for this one we are giving you our early wide receiver rankings for the 2023 NFL draft everybody's got opinions on wide receivers us included so we can't wait to tell you what we think of this wide receiver class. And we would love to hear from you guys

as well, because there are so many wide receivers that get drafted every single year. We're expanding our top fives into a top eight. So we will give you our top eight pre-combined wide receiver rankings going all the way from eight to one to make sure that we keep the suspense for who our wide receiver one in this class is. And I'll just let you guys know, we got different answers this time. So this was a little all over the place, but it was a lot of fun. I'm Trevor Sycamore with me as always is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange exchange podcast i'm trevor sikama that is connor rogers joining you guys at the end of the week as promised to give you our wide receiver

rankings early wide receiver rankings had to make sure that i threw that out there to make sure that people knew that we're all gonna have a final wide receiver ranking after the combine after pro days after a lot of intel that we're gonna gather over the next month and a he has a level wide receiver. This is one of our favorite episodes that we get to do every single year because y'all got opinions and we want to hear. We want to give you ours, but we want to hear from you guys as well. The receiver position is always fresh off of takes. Connor, how are we doing today, my friend? I'm good, man. This is a different beast because just from Twitter posting, say you post a center or a DB or a linebacker or even a pass rusher, the draft fans and the NFL fans that like the draft, you know, react or this and that. When you post a clip of a wide receiver and the portal to dynasty Twitter opens up. Yes. You realize how much of a different beast evaluating running backs and wide

receivers and to an extent quarterbacks and tight ends. But this group, Trevor, they invited 50 wide receivers to the NFL combine 50. So when we were prepping for this show, the guys I didn't have in my doc from that 50 and there was plenty. And we watched all 50. We watched all 50 for this show. not um like you you you hammered home there will be a second show

of this because the combine changes things for this position time changes things for this position they're obviously guys you want to dig into background whether it's injury whether it's other things and the fact that um that you know obviously things can just change but i know you and i have watched a lot and we are really excited to go through this group because maybe it doesn't have you know the jamar chase but it makes it that much more difficult to stack this group to be honest yeah i mean there's there's so many different types of wide receivers and you put you put it perfectly when we talk wide receivers on the timeline on this show whenever it is you invite all of fantasy twitter to start to get into the conversation fantasy football twitter

dynasty twitter uh as well as nfl draft fans so welcome we're so glad that you tuned into this episode like and subscribe comment below yeah also shout out everybody who is subscribed to the podcast show already holy cow on youtube you guys are phenomenal we're almost at 2 000 subs already and we're one week into this thing i mean we have not even begun what i think is the fun part of draft season we're going to get into i know you guys really love the three round mock draft that we did for the teams that didn't pick in the first round but you know we're going to have multiple round mock drafts after the combine after free agency of course our final mocks that we're going to give out our final big boards our final rankings um still to be determined

what we're going to do with the guest mock draft series we're kind of kicking around some different ideas of how we want to give that to you guys if that's something that you want i know a lot of people have shouted out that they really enjoyed that series we just got to figure out a way to best do that with our time and on the new channel too so just wanted to give a massive shout out and if you guys are listening on audio only www.youtube.com backslash at nfl stock exchange we would appreciate it so much. If you have any sort of YouTube login, if you guys could just go to the channel and subscribe to it,

it would mean a ton to us. Plus we're having a lot of fun and you can see our terribly ugly faces as we continue to talk about this draft, the process. So with wide receivers, Connor mentioned it. There's so many in this class. So normally we give you guys a top five. We wanted to expand that to a top eight. You know, when we go over our final wide receiver rankings,

we'll be talking 12, 15, 18, maybe even into 20 wide receivers. But for now, we'll kind of give you guys a primer on the guys that we have really liked on tape before we get to the combine. Because the combine, look, I know people, you know, poo-poo in the combine a little bit but it does matter for an athletic position like wide receiver right that was a lot you want to see how these guys test because if they if if they're fast on tape you want to see them run fast if they're agile on tape you want to see them be agile like if they're strong on tape you want to see them display that as well they're agile on tape, you want to see them be agile. Like if they're strong on tape,

you want to see them display that as well. Even though look, the bench press isn't always the best way to, uh, to showcase that. But you guys know what I'm saying. If you see things on tape, you want to see it in athletic testing. And if there's things that show up in athletic testing that you didn't even see on tape, maybe that's a little bit of a bonus. And you go, hold on now. You ran how fast? Okay. Let me go back to the tape and see if

i see a little bit of that to where i believe you might be able to get more out of that when we get to the pro level so top eight you good with that my friend i love it i i really am excited to do it this way because this group is just it's too deep we talk about on the show all the time over 30 wide receivers get drafted every year 50 are invited to the combine you got to sift through the all-star list from senior to shrine to nflpa a lot a ton of the nflpa guys trevor got invited to the combine which is really a good sign for them so you got to do eight here because i was going to be honest if i didn't get to talk about here's the funny thing my six through eight i honestly am more excited to talk about than my five. Than your top five?

Probably because we've talked about the guys in the top five. Fatigue. Yeah, fatigue. Do you want me to just kick it off right there? Please just kick it off, my friend. It's a great transition. Who you got to hate? I did write down my summer rankings just to kind of kick things off here.

My top five from our summer show, which is on the PFF channel, if you are a lunatic and want to go watch that and see how things change my summer rankings were rakim jared at five jordan addison at four kashon butte at three quentin johnson at two jackson smith and jigba at one okay now my player at eight we did talk about over the summer and we've talked about this season and that's Josh downs from UNC. Okay. You got, I will say this once again, there is this day to clump of guys and Josh downs is absolutely in them

that are really good players. They are very specified role players in my eyes, but they are really good players. And that starts with Josh downs at eight. He's a true slot only guy in my eyes. You're going to hear a lot of this in this receiver class, a smaller player. He's about five, 10 and a quarter. I'm fascinated to see what he ultimately ends up weighing in at because I think he was playing at about 171, 174. He's a smaller guy. Let's start with what he

improved on Trevor. His drop rate went so far down this year in the best possible way one of my biggest concerns with him from the 2021 film over summer he dropped 10 balls and he was just attacking the ball this year in a mammoth mammoth season he had a three percent drop rate which was just a massive improvement I believe he only had three total drops it was a back-to-back thousand yard seasons for him this year he caught 94 passes on 116 targets for over a thousand yards he had 11 touchdowns he caught 54 first downs this is a short to intermediate chains mover once again slot only over 80 percent of his snaps were in the slot that's where he's going to live at the next level. He's not a downfield target.

His average depth of target was 8.8. That's pretty low for college. Still at 22 explosive plays. Here's the kicker. And when you go back to that drop rate improving, he caught 13 of 18 contested catch opportunities in 2021. He caught four of 13. He just made drastic improvements this year that things that were in his control what's

not in josh downs's control he wasn't going to grow from 510 to 63 he wasn't going to go from 170 to 205 right he's not a guy that i think is a 4-3 kind of guy those things are out of his control but the things that were in his control were focus catches because i already knew coming into the year that he's this good gadget-ish guy. I wrote electric off-screens, manufactured touches, and extended plays. He knows how to work back on extended plays. He's a former four-star recruit, a big triple jump and long jump guy during high school. So maybe he has really good success with the jumps of the combine.

But if you're looking for a slot receiver, Trevor, that you can design touches to, that you just want to get the ball in his hands, and somebody that knows how to get open on those key downs to keep your drives going. I think Josh Downs is that kind of player. Look, I love the way that you put it with him, controlling what you can control and getting better at what you can get better at, because you're right.

You look at Josh Downs, um a lot of the questions that you have with him are size-based uh usage-based and athleticism-based and you're just not really going to get better at a lot of those categories and so controlling what you can control is a really good way to talk about how j Downs has definitely improved in this class. I have him at number six, so I might as well just, I might as well just like have the conversation with you right now. Cause I was going to talk about him eventually. And this is probably just an easier way to go about the podcast, but I got him at number six because he is somebody who, and this is, this is kind of tricky because I think this is a, this is a little bit of a catch 22.

What you see is what you get with Josh downs. And I think that that's a strength, but it's also a weakness when it comes to the draft, because I do feel as though there are some teams, some, some scouting staffs. And I will particularly say maybe some GMs, maybe some owners at the top that don't like the fact that they can see the

finished product. Like some very top decision makers like to talk about the what if, like, oh yeah, but this guy, he's just a ball of clay. Look at how high the ceiling is. Whereas probably a lot of coaching staff specifically, maybe scouting staffs as well would say, look, you got this football player,osh downs and he's just good like he's just straight up good is he is he going to turn into justin jefferson he's going to turn into davante adams is he going to turn into dk metcalf like all these no he's not going to but he can be a really solid football player for you and in this class if you are getting a really solid football player somewhere on day two, I think that's worth

it. So I'm very intrigued to see where he ends up going in this class. You highlighted him very well. He just, I think he's a really smooth mover. He's very savvy. He understands the slot position very, very well. His uncle is Dre Bly, the longtime NFL cornerback. And I believe his dad played college football and maybe even a little bit in the NFL as well. So, I mean, he's been around the game of football for a long, long time. And you could see that in his game with how he sets defensive backs up, how he understands how to attack the two-way goes when you're in space in the slot. And so like for a guy that you figure is only going to be a slot player, he gets it. He knows how to win from that position. So this is somebody who i think can come in right away and play well maybe not week one

because i do think that downs is a little bit limited athletically right a lot of the separation that he creates at least i think in his tape is based on savviness more than it is athleticism but at the same time like you give that guy a little bit of time i really feel like the second half of a rookie season he can really figure that out he could be a contributor for you super early on so really high floor player especially given the fact that he really helped himself out getting better at catching the football this past year but that's kind of the way that i view downs and i had him at number six in my rankings yeah i think we we seem exactly the same honestly and you know you look at long-term projection for me a number three

wide receiver in the nfl in a wide receiver core that has size on the outside that understands what downs is that isn't a quick passing game or if you go to an offense where you have a guy that can extend plays i do think like you said trevor you highlight his iq and his understanding how to create spacing or find that spacing and go get the ball so with that being said who'd you have who would you uh have at eight this is a funny way to start this podcast because i wonder if i'm way higher on him than you i have tanked l at eight no so you're not because i had him at nine okay okay okay okay so i was just i was gonna laugh hysterically if just because of how this wide receiver class shaked out you had him like seven or six or something that would have been great i had him at nine i had him at nine i did i did a

top 10 i had him at nine okay so i've got tank dell the wide receiver from houston at number eight so for people who are kind of watching this podcast, maybe haven't heard our thoughts on him before, because we have talked about him a lot. Five foot, 863 pounds, right? That's you look at the measurables and you go, Holy cow. Like that absolutely does not pass the eye test. I think that's zero with percentile for a wide receiver, zero percentile in height.

So he's an absolute outlier in that way. And why I have him still at number eight in my wide receiver rankings is because when you look at smaller players, you know, no matter what, whether it's a wide receiver, whether it's an edge rusher, whether it's a tight end, a running back, whatever, when you are smaller, you must show that with your smaller size, you are winning with speed. It doesn't always necessarily have to be long speed but you've got to be explosive you've got to have body control you've got to have agility you have got to physically show strengths that you cannot boast in other areas because you are smaller

tankdale does that and you don't want to you don't want to make a living in the nfl draft betting on outliers but if you're going to take a chance on a smaller wide receiver what doesn't this guy do is basically the way that I would put it to you because especially when you go to his Houston tape when you go to the senior bowl as well I mean he's cooking people off the line at release you know if they can't get hands on him right away because that's always the thought right oh all I've got to do is get hands on him I could could bully him. I could get him out of his route. I can get him off rhythm. But there are guys even at the senior bowl where they play close to the line of scrimmage and they'd go to try to get hands on him. And he would understand what defensive backs are doing.

He'd swipe the hands, he'd swim right by him. And all of a sudden the route is over. You have no chance to catch up to Tankdale after that. He's too quick. He's too fast. He's got too great of acceleration. And the thing that I love the most about his game is we always use the phrase start and stop ability, but we often overlook the stop part of that phrase. We love to talk about the acceleration, how fast he can get into his top speed, how fast he can maintain that speed in and out of his brakes. When he hits the brakes and flips the hips on a comeback route or a hitch or something, to his top speed how fast he can maintain that speed in and out of his brakes when he hit when he hits the brakes and flips the hips on a comeback route or a hitch or something it is instant we use

the phrase stop on a dime all the time this guy actually can stop on a dime he can actually put his feet in the ground chop his feet immediately turn the hips and he's around at the quarterback meanwhile the defense back is at least taken one or two yards to try to gather themselves and try to stay with. I love Tank Dell's speed profile. He gives you everything that you would want to see from a smaller wide receiver. He played on, he certainly, of course, he's going to play in the slot.

We know that just because of his size, but they put him at outside wide receiver sometimes at Houston because he was that dominant because he could wait off the line scrimmage that well so look he's not going to be for everybody right just like bryce young is not going to be for every team at the very top of the draft because of his size tank dell is not going to be for every kind of team that really has a size threshold for these players but for offensive coordinators that want to get creative with maybe smaller guys and get the most out of his speed he is an absolute dynamic weapon who I think could be a good wide receiver

three in the NFL. If he goes to a creative offensive coordinator who doesn't put him in bad situations and simply allows him to get the most out of his strength. So I had tank Dell at number eight here in these rankings. And that's what they did for him in that offense, right? When you watch him, when you look at what Dana Holgerson was able to do and and that staff with tank dell first off the rare fifth year junior such an interesting designation that's what we've gotten with status that's what i had him written down as for the for the for the covid

for the uh yeah yeah and i'm sure redshirt year i'm pretty sure tank i'm pulling up my notes right now um i thought he was a transfer from somewhere maybe he wasn't yeah no no he started at um oh man where was it okay as long as long as that was the case i can't remember where he started uh it might have been out i think it was alabama a and m he played there for a year and then he went to independence community college which was the school that was on hard not hard knocks um last chance you last chance you he wasn't on last chance you that the they already recorded the show so he was not on a season that appeared on netflix but he went to that college played there for a year and then he went to houston to play for two years so me and

you are after all of that discourse about the browns draft me and you are aligned on tank tell i had him at nine um i you know i think he he's such an interesting player because he had this mammoth year he had 108 catches the 1400 yards 71 first downs is just hilarious dude he yeah they they just used him so much so much i wrote that uh he was often put in motion to create catch and run opportunities like if you saw tank tell going in motion and you actually prep for the week as a defender you should be like all right well shift the defense like the ball is going to tankdale off of motion he caught a touchdown in each of the final 10

games of the season i i just love that stat for tankdale the consistency um i thought he was able to win down the field despite his size. Like you said, Trevor, I had 522 snaps in the slot and 304 out wide written down. That's not a crazy disparity. So, I mean, I think ball security is a little bit of an issue. Not only did he drop 10 passes, he fumbled three times. And when you're playing in the 160s or low 170s in the NFL and you get rocked, it's not going to get easier. So Tank Dell absolutely has an NFL shot, and he's going to get drafted, and he's a player that if he can get a little bit stronger

and maintain that creativity as an inside, mostly inside, but a little bit outside, motion, touch kind of player, jet motion kind of player, he's going to be exciting uh to keep an eye on they've got to get him up to like 170 like he's he does he's got he just has to get stronger like obviously there's only so much you could do like there's no point in you saying oh you got to get up close to 180 no at that point you're just not realistic it's just not realistic it's not the kind of way if you if you are envisioning that for him when you draft you're drafting him don't draft him you're not drafting you're not drafting the player that you

think you have to be okay with him being a smaller player but i do think he's got a game close to 5 to 10 pounds just from strength because you're right the drops and specifically the fumbles the ball security that's what you got to figure out and then of course like yeah he's five foot eight the the catch radius is small. Like it's just not what it's going to be for other wide receivers. So you better have a quarterback that's accurate, knows how to hit wide receivers who are fast in rhythm and knows how to hit a small window to be able to get the ball to him.

But look, when he gets the ball in his hands, man, he's an incredible playmaker. And I do think that he creates some pretty big throwing windows with his athleticism there. So of course course pros and cons to a player who is who is that size but i agree with you he's got an nfo shot absolutely so that brings me to number seven and that is tyler scott from cincinnati oh i didn't get to him yet a absolute blazer in terms of what this guy is going to run. I mean, he could legitimately go in the four twos at the combine low four threes. He finished 2022 at 55 catches on 88 targets,

904 yards and nine touchdowns. It doesn't do justice to the film. He's just the quarterback just miss. He's so fast that he's going to have these vertical chances where he gets missed. He dropped seven passes. So the hands are hands are OK. They're definitely fine. They're not bad. They're not elite, but they're completely adequate. High school track background as a sprinter in Ohio, elite play speed, just easy, full throttle acceleration off the line of scrimmage. It's jet fuel with this guy. I thought here here's the thing on the deep routes. When he knows he's going vertical, his head and shoulder fakes are, are very good when he's running short and intermediate routes. He doesn't sell the routes at all. So I think he's this guy that smells big play is comfortable running deep and the refinement in the short and intermediate area does need some

work now he's an underclassman declaration from this wide receiver class so there's not a ton of experience here where i think he can really work on that production i wrote production was held back once again at times from misthrows the catch and run ability needs to be used more because when they set him up with catch and run ability it's terrifying used more because when they set him up with catch and run ability it's terrifying he has the ball in his hands and he's a destroyer of angles there's plenty of plays where you just see him get up to speed and run away from guys in the dust and Cincinnati need to do more of that in my opinion so Tyler Scott is going to be it's going to be fascinating to watch this draft and see what teams are dying to pounce on Jalen Hyatt early.

And what team goes, you know what, I'm good with Tyler Scott. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone. His best football is ahead of him. He's got this running back-ish kind of build. I know he's listed 185, but he's pretty stout. He has a good build. I think he can take on contact. I think he's going to be a really good yard after catch guy with the ball that you put him in the right situation and you get him

these creative touches. He's going to be able to get to the edge. He's going to be able to turn the corner. He's going to be able to run vertical. And when he garners that respect at the NFL level, he'll be given more room underneath. And that's when you need the quick throws to get him running. So he's a fascinating blazer in a class that honestly does not have a lot of speed. He's maybe got the best speed of everybody. Yeah, no, it's, it's a, a beautiful transition into who I have at number seven, but I, yeah, I agree with you completely. You know,

we're going through these wide receivers and I'm watching 12 or 13 of these guys for this show specifically, we're going to try to get to you know at least 20 of these players and you're i just think athleticism is going to be at a premium you know we talk about a player like jalen hyatt who um i'm about to get to in a second may have some incomplete parts of his game but he has the speed you know like he has that ultimate Trump card that not a lot of other wide receivers in this class are able to boast. So I think that he's going to, his draft stock is going to be boosted a little bit because of that.

So it sounds like Scott could be another guy. I didn't get to watch him, but he's somebody that I definitely want to watch before we get to our final wide receiver evals. I hinted at it right there. Yeah. This is a little bit of a surprise here. My number seven is jalen hyatt

from tennessee the balenikoff winner from this past season unbelievably productive uh in josh heupel's offense with hendon hooker as his quarterback comes in at six feet tall 185 pounds he is pure speed man he is i that is the entire profile that he brings to it now i mean jalen hyatt the background hey i'm gonna be i just didn't get used very much no it's for his first two seasons i mean this past year it was he was a complete breakout candidate but they're just there was not a lot of use before this past year um i can't remember if i have the, do I have the numbers in front of me? No, I don't. But Oh, going back to, so if you, if you look at him, he's a very slender guy. Like he's, he's just a super skinny. He's got long limbs. He's got long legs,

long arms, but he just like, he's got a very slender build to him. I read. So he was, he was a four-star wide receiver recruit from South Carolina. Didn't even get offers from either Clemson or South Carolina due to the fact that he was, I think, 153 pounds is what they had him listed at during his recruiting profile. He was just small. So I don't think either of these places thought that he could be a full-time wide receiver, but Tennessee very thankful that he kind of fell into their lap

and was able to be a deep threat for them. The 4'3 speed, the vertical ability, it's pretty unmatched in this class for any of the wide receivers that I have watched. If you get this guy a free release, if you get him going, if you can't get hands on him and disrupt his route, bump him, do something something he's gonna torch you i watched the alabama game i watched the south carolina game and i watched

the georgia game those are three of the most athletic defensive backs and the three most athletic defenses that he went up against and every single player who had to guard him one-on-one was 10 to 12 yards off the ball because they're like well this this guy is just gonna run straight by us and a lot of times he still did Tennessee did a really great job of scheming him up um and that's kind of where I have a little bit of concern about Jalen Hyatt is I feel like they did a great job of scheming him up and I wonder how much he would have really been able to do with just his own ability outside of being a motion wheel player up the sideline which i'm pretty sure i saw that route like 20 times when

i was watching the Tennessee offense is a sight to be they've got like four total plays Tennessee's i love it and they were one of the most highest scoring teams in all college football because they put their players in the right situation, which you love to see. I mean, he's the back man stack alignment. So he never has to go up against press. No. Like I said, he was the motion player.

So he would command communication for the defense, as well as often shifting to guys that did not have the speed to keep up with them. And then just straight up. Sometimes he'd line up in the slot and he'd be able to split the defenses. He knows how to win vertically. This guy absolutely knows how to win vertically. That was his one job really going into the season.

They fed him continuously. He won the Belenikoff award because of it. People are going to comp him the Will Fuller. And I don't. Okay. So, so he's a clone. You are,

man. I think Will Fuller is one, a better lateral athlete. I think he's more agile. I agree with that, but no comp is perfect. And I also think that Will Fuller had better ball skills than Jalen Hyatt did. I don't believe in Jalen Hyatt's ball skills. Maybe I'm crazy, but I went and I watched his drops, and I went and watched his contested catch opportunities,

and he just looks awkward coming to those passes. Here's the question. Does it matter? The guy's open by eight yards half the time. So, and that's... Cam Smith was afraid of him. He played nine yards off him half the time so and that's cam smith was afraid of him he played nine yards off him half the game i just i just don't think well cam smith i already had athletic concerns about so like that's your world's colliding right i think that i think that cam smith is not the most athletic corner who

probably went to the defensive coaching staff of south Carolina and said, I want that guy. Let me guard him. And they were like, okay, be 15 yards off the ball. It's the F around and find out chart, which I'm going to get to with my next guy. So I just, I'm not, I'm not as much of a believer in Jalen Hyatt as I think a lot of other people are. Now I said as a prerequisite or a precursor to his conversation that he has the long speed he's probably the top guy in this class when it comes to attacking vertically that might even get him a first round selection from some teams i could absolutely seeing that be the case because of how the rest of this class shapes up. But to me, you better be okay with him just running three total routes for you. He's running goes, he's running posts,

he's running wheels. Like that's, he's literally just running. And if you, if that player to you is worth a first round pick, maybe some team's gonna take the bait on it. But I'm not so sure this guy develops into the route runner that I even think Will Fuller became during his NFL career. I thought Will Fuller had better ball skills than he did.

I think Will Fuller had a better strength profile than he did. And so that's where that comp loses me. The successes, the highs, how Will Fuller won at notre dame how will fuller won in the nfl versus how jalen hyatt won in tennessee you're right a lot of it is very similar i went back and i watched will fuller tape from notre dame just for that reason and i agree that where he wins is kind of similar but i don't think he's the complete wide receiver that will fuller was i don't i don't even think he's as well-rounded as willful or wasn't. So that's why I have my doubts.

He's just, he is so streamlined as a vertical guy that I'm a little bit worried about what he could develop into how much better he can get, how much more well-rounded of a receiver he get, he can become. So there you go. The ironic thing is willful or went 21st. And I think,

I think ultimately that's going to be like hyatt's range i i think i do think that hyatt if if if i had to bet 100 on it right now i i'd tell you that hyatt's probably gonna get drafted in the 20s i think so too he he's not my top receiver i will wait to go on him but he's not my top receiver and i know because of his speed he probably will be valued as the top receiver by others and teams and it's it's a longer conversation i will i will get to jaylen hyatt i like what you had to say i don't necessarily disagree with you it's just what we what we value yeah and you might you might just believe in the because i have i have a category on my scouting sheet that is literally just trump cards.

And if a guy has something that they are true – like for pass rushers, it could be bend. It could be explosiveness. For wide receivers, it could just be deep speed. Like deep speed is a major trump card in a lot of ways. For quarterbacks, if you have a howitzer of an arm, that's a trump card. And sometimes those things are just worth betting on when i say trump card i mean like you truly win at an elite level at this trade and jalen hyatt does have the speed trade so maybe you just believe in it a little bit more than i do but

i'll let you talk about hyatt when we eventually get the hyatt in the rankings who you got a number six so number six obviously isn't my top receiver in the draft but he he might be my favorite receiver in the draft just kind of one of those players that you just watch him you gravitate towards this game you enjoy watching i'm not gonna lie there's days where we watch tape and you know not all players are equal when you get to day three guards it's not the same as watching a day two or day one wide receiver. Cedric Tillman, man, same offense. Let's take a look at Tennessee.

Nice. I loved watching Cedric Tillman. And he is a victim of being hurt this year. Because if he was able to replicate 2021, and for those that don't know, I'll just start with a clean slate. Cedric tillman is the redshirt senior wide receiver from tennessee uh usually not older because he's not old he'll be he'll turn 20 he'll be 23 as a rookie that's not old no it's not i wouldn't say it's not young it's not old um but a redshirt senior usually you top wide receivers and he's not a top wide

receiver i'm as wide receiver six though or underclassman kind of guys. Tillman in 2021 had a really, really good year. He destroyed Alabama and Georgia. He went for seven and 152 in a touchdown over Alabama. Georgia game, a little different story. That game got out of hand. So he did have 10 catches, 200 yards, and a touchdown. Georgia was blowing them out. But I think the touchdown was on keely ringo so this year he misses a lot of the

season because he's dealing with an ankle injury he might have even had surgery on the ankle and came back or he's a gamer he's the kind of guy that it was clear he came back to help his team that had a lot of injuries this year and i i'm not convinced that it was time for him to return. And I think that says a lot about his character. So he missed a lot of 2022. But Trevor, first off, amazing hands. He's had five drops on 145 targets the last two seasons. He plucks everything out of the air.

In a wide receiver class where it's a miracle. If somebody is over six feet tall, he's six foot three, 215 pounds. He's big. He's big. He's a big guy. He's a big guy. This year, Cam Smith followed him into the slot slot fade. Perfect throw, but he beat Cam Smith for a touchdown. Perfect adjustment to the ball. Perfect route. It was Tillman that got Cam Smith. I wrote down big-bodied, long-striding, outside target with excellent hands. He does have vertical build-up speed to win or threaten over the top.

I'm not going to say it's not Hyatt. You mentioned the offense. The offense does a good job putting guys in position to succeed um i don't think he'll run a four four at you know combine 40 but i think 20 to 40 yards for him is much faster than that he builds up speed with these long long strides and he has this frame that he uses to shield defenders in the short and intermediate area. And when he catches the ball, DBs fly off of him all of the time. All the time they try to tackle him, and he's just bigger and stronger than them. So I loved watching this player. He's not this vertical, home run kind of guy all the time.

He can catch the deep ball. He can win deep. He's a tough guy. He does the dirty work. If he hits a ceiling, he's a bona fide, really good number two wide receiver that can play on the outside, play on the inside, run block, eat up the short intermediate area, and threaten enough to challenge safeties when needed. And you get into the red area, and you could throw the ball up to him, and he can go get it.

So Cedric Tillman, once again, if he didn't get hurt this year and he got to go through the senior bowl and everything went his way, I think he would get the same, maybe the same conversation as a Quinton Johnston. I'm not saying the same caliber of ranking, but maybe some kind of attention that way, especially when Hendon Hooker was healthy. So I loved watching this dude and I hope he can stay healthy and really develop into

that number two wide receiver uh that an offense can rely on to move the chains man you got me hyped about him he was he was such a pleasant surprise he was the next guy on my list and then i had something come up where i was not able to watch the next guy i wanted to get the 13 guys and i i was not able to watch him so he's literally to get the 13 guys and i i was not able to watch him so he's literally he was literally the next guy on my list i filled out his bio and everything and i was about to start the film and i had to get to something else so now i gotta now now i get to wait for he's gonna he's gonna run right i don't know where he's at health wise i don't know if he's gonna run um and i even that i don't know if we'll be some kind of combine warrior but this

dude could just he could flat out play yeah but i Yeah, but I'd like to at least get an athletic baseline if we can before I go back to the tape. Yeah, and I thought he looked good on film. When he gets going downfield, he can move. So, yeah, it's, this dude, you really got to go back to 2021, besides that game against Cam Smith, and you're like, oh, like this guy has been completely written off for no reason. Okay. I mean, those are the dudes that we're trying to find that I absolutely love.

That's great stuff. I already mentioned my number six is Josh down. So I guess I'll just go to number five. My number five sounds a lot like Cedric Tillman does, it's Stanford's wide receiver, Michael Wilson. I love Michael Wilson, man. I love Michael Wilson. Now, we will get to why he might be a little bit lower on your rankings. Or maybe you just don't like him. Maybe you're a hater.

I don't know. I don't know. But I love Michael Wilson. Stanford's wide receiver, redshirt senior. 28 starts out of 39 games that he played. I forgot to list those off for the other players that we had there, but I've got the information, so I might as well give it to the people. Six foot one, measuring at six foot one and a half, 216 pounds at the senior bowl.

So we've got an official measurement there. He is somebody who has been starting at Stanford since his true freshman season in 2018, I think. He had his true freshman season in 2018, and he was a part-time starter then. And he was a full-time starter his sophomore season in 2019. Had a leg injury in 2020, which carried over, I believe he re-injured it going into 2021. And then in 2022, he had a foot injury that caused him to have a season-ending injury this past year. But before he got hurt, he was once again Stanford's leading wide receiver. So for the last five years, this has been Stanford's wide receiver one. Well, I can't say five.

Four, I should probably say, to be fair. Going into his sophomore season, this has been Stanford's wide receiver one. He's just had some really bad injuries. Now, from the reports that we have, all of those injuries to his leg, obviously re-injuring the same injury, and then the foot all in the same leg, which not ideal i am very curious to hear the reports back that we get from the combine medically because why i waited uh he's obviously played at the senior bowl but he was out there he was out there for all three days looked absolutely

great so i don't know if they're to look at something in the leg or the foot and be like, yeah, this dude's toast. I sure hope not because I love to tape, man. He moves so well for a player who is 6'1 1⁄2", 215 pounds. And again, going back to this class, there's just not a lot of guys to love that check those NFL size boxes. It's a lot of smaller players. It's so hard.

It's so hard. And so for Michael Wilson, so nuanced in his releases, understands that that is absolutely where every single route begins and where you can win is off releases. Because there's a lot of wide receivers that I think just go, okay, I'm going to win this route once I get into it and how I put my foot in the ground and change direction. No, no, no.

You start winning the route by how you get off the line of scrimmage, how you go up against a defensive back that's either right in front of you or a little bit in front of you if they're playing in off coverage, how you get off your release, whether it's quickness and eating up that cushion, getting straight into their body, or maybe they're playing press on you. You're chopping the feet. You're chopping the hands. You wait for them to swipe, and boom, you're ready for it.

You counter. You get by them. Maybe you set them up one way, get to go another. Whatever it is, wide receivers start their win on a rep at the release, and Michael Wilson absolutely realizes that. He is somebody who you could tell has worked so much on his footwork, understands that point of his game. I'm not saying he's Devontae Adams,

but that's what everybody points to with Devontae Adams, why he is so unguardable is because of how consistently and how impactfully he wins with his releases. Michael Wilson gets that part of his game. It's something I think is definitely to boast going into the pros. Once he gets into his routes, I think that he can turn i think he could stop i think he cut really well for a player who is over six feet shoot i felt like he did that better than some of the guys that are under six feet some of the players that were just slot guys that we're going

to mention throughout this class i feel like he was able to do that a little bit better like the hands he had a couple of drops that were disappointing but i like the hands from him i don't know if he has the athleticism to totally threaten vertically all the time but he understands route concepts he understands how to attack defensive backs in their blind spots get him to turn their shoulders and their hips the wrong way to get him totally turned around to win against separation that way so i still think he can win vertically with savviness maybe not totally with athleticism. But I really love this dude's profile overall. I thought that he was a fantastic wide receiver.

And if the medicals check out, I think this is a potential wide receiver, too, at the next level. I really do. I think he brings total all-around ability, understands how to win, and I think he can be reliable in so many different situations in the nfl so all depends on what we get the word that we get from the medicals but if we get good news he's going to remain one of my favorite wide receivers in this class because he is one of the few that i think can step up and be a wide receiver too because of his size because of his strength because of his build along with some uh good athleticism that comes with it so i i really did like michael wilson

man i'm glad that the senior bowl was able to shine a light on him and uh yeah he made my top five at number five talent wise i'm with you i've i've held off on even having him in the top 10 because i just have no idea where this dude is at. And the combine will tell us one way or the other. I mean, the reality with Michael Wilson is right now, he's only played, he's only made it to 350 snaps in a season once out of those five. He, 2020, 2021 were a wash. This year he got hurt again.

He's a talent. He's a big guy that is smooth that finds the football and like you said trevor you nailed it he gets off the line of scrimmage and we we loved him at the senior bowl i just i don't have the confidence yet to rank him because i just don't know if he can stay healthy when things get harder at the next level and he couldn't stay healthy in college obviously you know medical red flags for teams can sometimes remove a guy off a board altogether right so if they just if they don't think you're gonna last if they think it's inevitable that you get hurt again or if that you're injury prone in one way or another teams

are just gonna really stay away from you so as of right now i think he's a top five player in this class for me talent wise tape wise i still think that he's probably like a fourth-round pick. Yeah, I would agree. Maybe a third-round pick. Yeah. But that's where I kind of see him right now because of the injury history. So number five for me is Zay Flowers, who, I mean, great film. No surprise there.

Zay Flowers, to me, it was like watching elijah moore at all this all over again it really felt like the same exact player same exact size same exact usage uh just so electric off the line of scrimmage i wrote lightning quick in his routes and with the ball in his hands i i wrote down very hard player for DBs to mirror. I mean, with the footwork, with the shoulder work, his body is very well in sync. His feet and his shoulders and his hips are very synced up in his route cells. Mammoth year, finished 2022 with 78 catches, over 1,000 yards,

12 touchdowns, some drops. He had nine drops, 9.9 drop rate i mean it's i don't think he has bad hands i don't think he has great hands either he's just another guy that's small he's 5 foot 10 um he came in at shrine at 182 so here's my question with these five i think he's five foot nine five foot nine five foot nine you're right five foot nine 182 i don't understand and this is no insult to anybody but wouldn't you want to see zay flowers against all those solid corners that were in mobile i just it's a little part of the process that i i have not been able to wrap my head around personally when i go back to zay flowers this is a dude when you watch the tape and he's a top five wide receiver for me I mean despite being this small he's just that

electric of a player and the go-to of this offense I just it's confusing part of the process to me that I don't personally understand and I think it really would have helped him you go out there and you I didn't think anybody was great at the senior role wide receiver. I thought a lot of people were good. I thought Michael Wilson was good. I thought, um, read from Michigan state was good.

It was plenty of guys that were good at the senior bowl. I think say flowers could have been great. So that's one part of the equation. I'm not, that didn't factor into my grade. Let me make that very clear. I didn't make say flowers five instead of three because he didn't go to the senior bowl. I don't care.

I'm just saying, I think it would have been an interesting opportunity against some pretty good corner talent because his tape is that good. It just goes back and we keep having this conversation. We had it with Josh downs and have it with tanked out. Like these guys are slot guys. I think they can play on the outside 20%, 25% because he's so fast. I don't want him playing on the outside.

So that's where the conversation constantly comes back to. But out of a class that is loaded with slot talent, just loaded with it, he's one of the best ones. And that's a pretty high-end compliment yeah i agree with you he's number four for me so this is okay this is an easy transition he's five for you he's four for me i think that we see him exactly the same uh just lightning quickness the separation ability because of how well he's able to put his foot in the ground and really change direction i i think was getting under reported feel like for a while now i think everybody's kind of like catching up to it and

they understand how good zay flowers and it is in this class i still think he's a fringe first round pick i don't think it's a lock that zay flowers is a first round pick um feels like a top 50 top 60 for sure but i don't think he's a first round pick okay how many how many times do it does a guy that's uh okay the cut this is where the combine can change he has to run in the four threes to be a first round pick and i'm serious probably probably i think he's a really good player really i think he said he was gonna run in the four threes obviously everyone says i think i think i'm gonna run the four threes right i don't you't, you know, I don't think I'm going to run. Oh, I do.

I just make that abundantly clear. No. Well, I do because I'm never going to have to prove it. You know, I'm always very fair. So you can confidently say that. Like, even if we ever went through like you and I did one of those fun like combine challenges, I would just say to myself, like, no, no, no. But, you know, that like if I lace it up in Indy, like it'd be different. You know, it'd be it's the turf.

Right. I mean, yeah, the turf makes a little bit faster, you know, so it'd be a. You know, it'd be, it's the turf, right? I mean, yeah, the turf makes it a little bit faster, you know? So I'd, it'd be a, you know, I'd be a four, three guy for sure. No, I, I, I do see a lot of people put him in first round mocks though. You know, we've had him in first round mocks, but I think that that comes down to there is such a need every single year, desire hunger, if you will will for teams wanting to get more dynamic with their passing weapons and say flowers is that you know does the flowers go in the first round if he's in last year's draft class no absolutely not but could in this year's class

yeah you got the guys who are going to get to at the top and then how many other teams are going to need wide receivers after those guys are off the board? You mentioned how we normally get anywhere from low 30s to mid 30s wide receivers that come off the board every year. And that's just because there's so many teams that are desperate for a wide receiver. Now we've heard reports the teams might be much more comfortable waiting until rounds two and round

three to pick up wide receivers this year as opposed to other years but i don't know a little part of me is like i'll believe it when i see it just because i know this this league wants dynamic guys and like you said of the slot players even even the shorter smaller wide receivers that you have to choose from zay flowers and tank dell right you know josh downs yeah but josh downs in the athlete that no no no no no no but that's that that's what that's what i'm saying like if you want a slot guy who gives you better athleticism how many guys are we talking about that are in that same category and maybe yeah and maybe there are a handful of them as we get to our final wide receivers and watch a little bit more of these guys and go okay but i don't know that's kind of what i'm saying is that if you're going to get a wide receiver can't teach speed right can't teach separation can't teach that body control in the

way that he's able to uh change direction on people and because of it he was a really good yards after the catch wide receiver right how many yards have to catch you zay flowers had 1077 receiving yards this year 503 that's we are significant anytime you're you're almost at 50 of your yards coming after the catch that is really nice that is a impressive percentage to be at so i uh we see zay flowers the same um i just had him at number four you had him at number five clearly because you have jalen hyatt higher so he's bumping him up and he's bumping zay flowers down but it really sounds like we see him in a similar category absolutely really good football player um in a wide receiver class that i think has a lot of variance

i was pretty comfortable with who he is where i would go okay i'm finally trapped what i mean by that is that i think there's plenty of bus potential in this class and i just i don't see that would say flowers outside of health yeah i was i was well it kind of takes me number four well i was i was about to say i don't know about bust potential more of just like maybe not being the impactful players that you want but now that i'm thinking about it i mean that's that is that i do think that you're kind of right i think that you're right with the phrasing there so who do you have a number four quentin johnston this one hurt and i meant wide receiver four and i'm saying it hurts that goes to show you trevor we loved him over the summer we were so excited i guess some of us still are still kind of do here's the lowdown with quentin johnson yeah massive 6-4-2-12 he has moments of brilliance he had

60 catches for over a thousand yards and six touchdowns um eight drops this year here's okay so i thought he flashed against uh julius brents he got him deep on a really nice play yes you love this You love to see guys play well against NFL talent. And I think Brents is an NFL talent. I wrote his splash plays are excellent with size, physicality and build up vertical speed. And then my summer notes were kind of similar. Big alpha male outside wide receiver, huge strides, plus tracking, plus ball skills will rip the ball away from DBs. Here's the other side of Quentin Johnson. 11 of his 14 games, he was held to less than five catches, and he only eclipsed the 100-yard mark in four of his 14 games. He is not a natural pass

catcher and struggles to adjust to the ball in the air. Unless it's like a back pylon fade where he can hang in the air, i'm talking more middle of the field turn your body back or or torque your body a certain way sideline it's not very natural he's fighting the ball he disappears a lot he disappears a lot and guess what george is a really good football team. Every NFL secondary is better than Georgia's secondary. So man, did you really think he was that bad against Georgia? I didn't bad. I didn't think he was.

I have a wide receiver for, I didn't think he was, this guy is bonafide. Number one, alpha male take over the game because I don't i don't think he's that fast i don't think he's slow but you are a guy that needs to physically take over games and i think it comes and goes a lot more than i would like a lot more than i would like and it's hard when that part of it comes and goes when when you also mix in not being a natural,

natural pass catcher, because that adds another layer to problems. I think his highlights are as good as anybody's in this draft. Anybody is probably the last couple of drafts. Honestly, Quentin Johnson needs to find consistency. And if he does, you have found a number one wide receiver,

which is very hard in this draft, which is why I have him as a top five guy. I have him as wide receiver four. I'm working on a top 50 right now, and I have him 30th overall. That's a really nice ranking for a player. Sure. But there is significant risk with Quentin Johnson where I watched him over summer, and I don't think he got better on really anything to be honest with you.

I think, I think quarterback play held him back a lot. Sure. I he's just, so he's two for me. I'll say that Quinn Johnson, Quinn, Quinn Johnson is wide receiver two for me. And I think the quarterback position at TCU, for as much as I want to give all due respect for what Max Duggan was able to do this year, because he came out of nowhere.

He wasn't even the starter to start the year. He came in like he was the starter previously, lost a starting job, came back in. Obviously TCU had an incredible season, but we've joked on this podcast. He's a gutsy guy. We've joked on this podcast. He's gutsy. He's a gutsy guy. We've joked on this podcast before that, okay, TCU probably shouldn't have been in the college football playoff anyways. Again, it feels like I'm taking things away from them,

but I felt like Quentin Johnson was NFL open a lot in his tape. I really do. And I feel like either the quarterback just wasn't looking his way when they were throwing the ball. It was just – right. They did. I agree with you on that. They did not give him the ball.

If you put Quentin Johnston – here's my problem. If you put Quentin Johnston on Alabama, if you give Bryce Young Quentin Johnston, I mean, does Quentin Johnston win the Belenikoff award because Alabama was just starving for literally any wide receiver that it felt like they could depend on and I just think I obviously you could do this with a lot of players so I think people are rolling their eyes listening to this podcast like oh yeah if you put them on Alabama they're gonna be good but that's just to quantify I think if you would have given him a quarterback and an offense that would have

emphasized him a little bit more it's just i got question marks for sure with quinn johnson the first one is is why was he not more of the focal point of the offense strange he was i mean he he kind of was though i just think the passing offense was not potent. Yeah, his wide receiver usage percentage, Connor, was almost 30%. He was targeted on 29.2% of his routes that he ran. So they were getting this guy the ball. They just... After watching his tape, I just don't have a lot of... I didn't have a lot of, I didn't have a lot of, uh,

our respect seems so harsh. I didn't love what I saw from TCU's passing game after watching Quentin Johnson. I felt like he was NFL open a lot more than he was getting the attention for, and that he was even getting the ball for, you know, you talk about those high point opportunities and I felt like he was able to shine in that regard in a handful of ways. There are times that you're right. He looks a little bit clunky when he's, when he's catching's catching it i wish he looked a little bit more natural as a wide receiver and that's ultimately why i have a number two as opposed to number one but maybe i've got the faith in the athleticism in the build more than anything else just because i feel like that combination

doesn't really exist in this class outside of him and i'm trying to bet on the bigger faster stronger wide receiver who could play at a variety of different in a variety of different alignments he's one of the guys that gives you that wide receiver one ability and like you said there's just not a lot of player there's just not a lot of wide receivers in this class who do so i i feel like i had to lock him at least into my top three because of that even though I don't love the fact that he is a little bit unnatural at times but then man you mentioned the highlights there are times where they'll throw him a goal ball I remember oh what game was this it was early on in the season I was watching one of his games

they throw him a goal ball at the sideline and it wasn't even dug in who threw it to him it was the other quarterback i believe and he goes up and absolutely skyscraper mosses whoever this defensive back is and he comes down with a beautiful deep ball pass and the ball's out of bounds like he didn't even have a chance to get his feet in bounds but he just goes up turns his hips sky balls at high points it as beautiful and picture perfect as can be balls out of bounds didn't even count no he remembers it so i i've got more faith in the tape that he has out there even when he doesn't get the targets than i do necessarily the lack of production. So I don't know. I might, maybe I'll get bit for it,

but in this class, man, I think I'm all right. Betting on it, betting on the lower production, betting on him, not getting the ball. I had,

I had him at number two because of everything that Quentin Johnson can do that. I feel like so many other wide receivers in this class cannot. Would you have him as a top 20 player draft? I don't know. I haven't, I don't even i don't even want to commit to that yet because we're just now getting to the point of i would feel comfortable putting a big board together because we got what four positions left that we really haven't gone over um before we kind of round things out for like early rankings so this is about the time

that i kind of start to formulate the board we don't have quarterback uh we don't have offensive tackle we don't have safety oh and interior offensive line so those would be the four that we that we don't have but other than those i i i don't know i don't know where he's gonna end up for me in this class so i had flowers at five quentin johnson at four did you have flowers at four i had flowers at four quentinentin Johnson at four. Did you have Flowers at four? I had Flowers at four. Quentin Johnson at two. Yes. I think that brings us both to three.

It does bring us both to three. Okay. Who you got at three? Three, I have Jalen Hyatt. Okay. And I would tier three, four, and five together and separate one and two. Okay. So when we get there, I viewed one and two in a different light than this kind of tier player.

I agree with your concerns about Jalen Hyatt, but this dude is just a jetpack. His speed is, it's altering in a sense that it's going to threaten and help your run game. I don't think safeties can really cheat down in the box when Hyatt is on the field. I think the game has changed a lot where it's you can find ways to get this guy free all i don't worry about that as much as i once would and i just think that

he he everybody is aware of the speed threat he has and when you see it with a guy like cam smith lined up against him this dude can he he really can outrun anybody and he can do it cleanly so and i thought he got really confident this year in terms of that was what jumped out to me totally there's moments where he's not a natural but overall he caught the football and he caught the football, and he caught the football confidently. And I wrote one weird thing. He's a very upright runner with the ball in his hands. You kind of hinted at it with him being very long and thin. Yeah. He's high-waisted.

He's got long legs, and he's got long arms. I think he plays exactly like will fuller it's actually very funny how these things just come full circle around is he the talent fuller is i don't know because full transparency when i've been building this board i had two wide receivers in the top 20 and then i had hyatt and quentin johnson outside the top 25 so i saw a fall off where like they're gonna probably be drafted earlier than that but this wide receiver class is okay but once again there are concerns there are reasons why you guys aren't bona fide top 20 selections necessarily so you worry what a guy running upright like that like is if he's is he gonna get hurt is he gonna take hits like that is he gonna work the middle of the field i

think he's just is what he is i think you're gonna use him uh as this true third middle of the field. I think he just is what he is. I think you're going to use him as this true third level of the field kind of player. Zayda was 14.1. I mean, what Tennessee did with him, honestly, is what he needs to do at the NFL level. And there's a lot of offenses that will be able to get him

the ball down the field. I mean, honestly, I look at Hyatt and I go, that's the number three that the Chargers have been missing for Justin Herbert and why there's such a horizontal offense. You can have Mike Williams, you can have Keenan Allen. I don't know what the long-term future is for Keenan Allen there, but that's the kind of guy the Chargers have been missing or all the high profile. Yeah, sure. Sure. Like I think Hyatt has a lot of value in this league,

and that's why I had him at wide receiver three, because he's not just a guy that's going to get on the track and run fast. He's a guy that plays extremely, extremely fast, and he's grown confident tracking the football down the field, and I don't think he's going to play in a lot of high-traffic contested catch situations. I just don't think that'll be his situation. So I think, I think that's where, that's where we differ is I don't think now,

obviously they went up against Georgia and they went up against Alabama. And like, those are, those are the teams that you want to see him go up against. And he did fair well against those teams. So I want to cloud Alabama. I want to, I want to make,

I want to make that clear, but in those games scheme absolutely helped him clown those players for sure. And I'm not saying he won't win that way in the NFL. I just think it's a lot fewer of chances to win that way. Maybe his speed is – I am not counting it enough. And if that's the case, I'll come back on this podcast next year, two years from now, whenever it is. And I'll be like, you know what?

I just did not credit Jalen Hyatt's Trump card even as much as I should have. But when I watch him, I think he's stiff. Like I think, especially when it comes to like changing direction, like again, you've got him just on a vertical plane. I don't know how, I don't feel like he's super reliable when it comes to like changing direction like again you've got him just on a vertical plane i don't know how i don't feel like he's super reliable when it comes to stopping and starting to being able to put his foot in the ground and really change direction and when i say change direction i don't just mean turning a vertical route into a skinny post i mean like you know comeback hitches yep and um like a double move big route something like that well double move

you're kind of getting vertical anyways but these these hard cut moves, I just feel like he's kind of stiff and he's not going to be able to do that just because of the wide receiver that he is. And I don't know if I – oh, you know what else goes into that? He had 67 catches this year. He only had eight missed tackles forced. We're talking about him. Nobody's near him. Well, I know, but we're talking –

I don't think he's a great runner with the ball in his hand that's what i'm that's what i'm saying it's that's what worries me it just worries me i don't i don't know how much of a i don't actually know how much of a national athlete jalen hyatt is i just think he's a sprinter 100 meter dash say the word go and i'm gonna go player and perhaps i'm not taking into account how valuable that is, but I just feel like in the NFL, defensive coordinators are too good and defensive backs are too good for that to be manipulated as,

as much as it was and as effectively as it was in college. So did you have a number three? That's where we're at. Number three, I have Jackson Smith and Jigba. Okay. The Ohio State wide receiver. Smith and Jigba, I mean, I don't think there's a better example

of what you see is what you get. And I don't mean that as an insult at all. Jackson Smith and Jigba is a, he is, let me make sure I get the height and as an insult at all. Jack Smith and Jigba is a, he is, let me make sure I get the height and the weight completely right here. He is not six foot four, 215 pounds. That would be Quinn Johnson. He's six foot tall, 195 pounds.

He's a slot only player. He's lived in the entire, he's lived in the slot his entire career when he was at OSU. That's probably good. He probably would have played on the outside a little bit more this year year just because he was the veteran amongst the group and they probably would have got carolson and chris alave went on one one offensive rookie of the year the other should have been the runner-up for offensive right right and i think that wasn't there he would have played on the outside a little bit more even with um marvin harrison jr and um oh man what's aguna is that is that his name i cannot remember the other wide receiver, who is also very, very good.

I'm so tunnel vision right now on this class. When any time a college football fan goes like, oh, what about this guy next year? I'm like, I don't, nothing. If it's not Marvin Harrison Jr. or Trotter on Clemson, I don't know anything. Nothing. So Jackson Smith and Jigba is a super savvy, very smart wide receiver who can truly manipulate

defensive backs when he's in the slot. When you present him in space with multiple ways to beat a defensive back, he leaves them guessing often. He also really understands zone coverages. He knows where linebackers are going to be. He understands where safeties are going to be. And he finds those spots. He finds those soft spots just about as well as any receiver possibly could

coming from the slot position. Here's the thing, though. I just don't think he's a great athlete. You mentioned Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave. Those two first-round wide receiver type of players, you pop on the sophomore tape of Jackson Smith and Jigba, and to me, it's very clear that those two players are more athletic than Jackson Smith and Jigba is, at least from a twitched-up perspective, certainly.

From a twitched-up perspective and even a long-speed perspective. You put all three of those guys on the field at the same time, sure, Smith and Jigba was more productive because he was getting the ball a lot more. He was finding those underneath spots. He's the guy that they used on mesh routes, all that kinds of stuff. But when it came to just sheer athleticism he is not those other two wide receivers ultimately this is a very reliable player if you need a slot guy if you need a target machine if you got i need a guy who's going to continually get open to move the

chains for you on second third down which what team doesn't right you're going to prioritize this guy and you're going to want him on your football team i think he's a very good player shoot i even uh i even have a comp on here i don't mind the i'm on ross st brown comp for him right i've seen that yep and i'm on ross st brown has gone off for the detroit lions a great player so there is a world that exists where okay maybe he's not going to test because let me look up i looked it up previously but uh i'm gonna look up his his combine profile saint brown's so saint brown's combine profile you ready for this let's do it five foot eleven and a half 197 pounds basically what jackson smith and jayba is listed

as 40 yard dash oh i think this is at his pro day i don't think this is at the combine but anyways uh 40 years 40 yard dash 4.61 okay that's probably where jayba's gonna run i think this is at his pro day i don't think this is at the combine but anyways uh 40 years 40 yard dash 4.61 okay that's probably where in jay was gonna run i think vertical leap 38 and a half could be around the i think maybe jack smith the jay but might be a little bit lower broad i think his jumps are gonna be good yeah yeah 127 inches maybe a little bit lower than that but i i three cone yeah somewhere in the six nines short shuttle four two six oh wow saint brown put up 20 reps on a bench press he's pretty yoked oh wait his father's a bodybuilder really jay brown yeah you know this no i didn't know that yeah yeah i think their father is is like this like incredible bodybuilder so we knew that he was gonna know how to uh he was lifting probably his whole life that you know how to bench so anyways oh wow dude his dad was a mr universe

wow i out here simply calling him a bodybuilder like yeah yeah put some oh my god like you and like you and i call ourselves when we go to the gym are you are you kidding me yeah yeah his dad likes to go do curls technically i wasn't wrong john brown if you search john brown mr universe or bodybuilder so he won mr universe in 1981 and 1982 and mr world three times this dude is like could he post the pod he would take the pod from us like he would be in full command of the podcast dude a picture of him that comes up with a monorod and it looks like a monorod is in like college at this point yeah his shirt is the first picture i've seen of him that he's not bodybuilding this is like him now he has a shirt that says powered by cane protein from the city

of compton just incredible great legend so anyways there is certainly a world in which jackson smith and jigba could once again be a major target player for an nfl team especially if he tests similarly to amanra saint brown saint Brown. St. Brown knows how to get open. Jacksonville-Jaywood knows how to get open. But there's also a lot of players who I think tested similarly to Amon Ross St. Brown who did not pan out the same way that he did. When you look at a lot of these measurables, 28th percentile in height, 39th percentile in weight, 17th percentile in 40-yard dash, 63rd percentile in three-cone, 42nd percentile in 20-yard shuttle.

Very short arms. Oh, yeah, the arm length, 30 and 3-8ths. I don't know what Njigba's going to be. He'll be better than that. Yeah, but that's like the 12th percentile. Broad jump and vertical jump, so you like to twitch there. Those are in the 80th percentile. But all that to say, there's a reason why those are lower tier numbers so i i'm saying a lot of words to say i like jackson smith the

jig ball a lot he's just limited athletically if you're cool with that if you if you know you could plug him in and just let him be a slot machine for your team great i think he'll be very productive for you but don't expect him to be this burner elite athlete your massive yards after the catch player because even though he got a lot of yards after the catch at ohio state they're schemed up yards after the catch right they're they're mesh routes they're digs they're things that are completely getting him open where there's not a defender within five ten yards of him and he's off to the races getting to the sideline or the end zone. So that's my view on Jackson Smith and Jigba, who I think is a really solid football player.

I'm with you. I think he's more than solid, honestly. I do agree that he's probably not going to be this great tester. I don't know if we've gone full circle enough yet where maybe he's a better tester than everybody thinks now because we've heard so much about him he's a better tester than everybody thinks now because maybe we've heard so much about him not being a good tester that you're like uh so this stuff really doesn't always equate very well i have his high school recruiting profile his vert was 34.4 so you would think he

he's going to be probably close to that 38 i think he gets to 37 i think 37 38 that's what i would guess he really just needs to run a four or five in my opinion um listen i i guess i'll go now and then we'll get back to so he was number three for you he was my number one wide receiver and him and my number two are paired together strictly off floor with, I just see no universe where Jackson Smith and Jigba is not a good NFL player. I don't know if we'll ever be a great one. I agree with you. It's fair.

I think in this class that can be the top guy. It really can. You go back to 2021, his production, he's a former five star. Yes. He was out of the slot slot he's a dominant possession target he has i thought he has really good short area quickness to consistently separate like he constantly gets open with short area quickness there is so much polish in his game he's a high iq player he understands every single area and spacing of the field he understands how to beat zone he understands how to use fakes and off the line of scrimmage against man he always works back to his quarterback when the play breaks down his adjustments to the ball in

the air are better than anybody in this class honestly they really are I mean him and Cedric Tillman I thought were the best adjusters and and my number two and I thought the build enough build up speed was enough it's enough where he can play at the NFL level and I think he's just so much better mentally and from a refinement standpoint than a lot of other guys that there's just no way he's not a good NFL wide receiver even if that's a number two and a possession number two but not every class has this bona fide guaranteed to be this number one freak show athlete and i'm just comfortable making smith and jig but my number one because of all those things and it goes hand in hand with the same statement about my number two he has a super high floor there's

there's no doubt about it like i started right away right away yeah yeah yeah the this is this is what you see is what you get and in the best way for for for a wide receiver i think i think so too so he's so he's one for you so then the only other player that we haven't named because i had so i had michael wilson at five i had zay flowers at four i had jack smith at jigba three. I had Quentin Johnson at two. And then my last guy is number one. So then your guy is two, right? He's two, and

I put him, he's right next to Smith and Jigba. I loved him. I love Jordan Addison. So it's Jordan Addison. Jordan Addison. Will you both just talk about him right here? He's your number one, so you start us off. He is my number one and it comes with a little bit of worry but i'll get that in a second he has started 32 out of the

35 games that he has played in in college football going back to pit which is really impressive and i think speaks to just how good of a wide receiver that he really is. Won the Belenikoff Award the previous season with Kenny Pickett as his quarterback at Pittsburgh. Ends up transferring over to USC. The numbers weren't as good, but he is still as effective as a wide receiver. He just did not get the target load that he got with Kenny Pickett in that Pittsburgh offense.

This is somebody who I think can play inside and out for sure, but just be an emphasis player in an offense. I think that the fact that he went from Pittsburgh and was the number one guy to then going to USC and was still the number one guy, I think speaks to his talent and and the desire to get him involved i don't know if there's a better i don't know if there's a better route runner in this class when you talk when you bring top speed into it like i think charlie jones is a great route runner i would say no you know i think that jack smith the jigba is a great route runner i think that josh Jones is a great route runner. I would say no. You know, I think that Jackson Smith at Jigba is a great route runner.

I think that Josh Downs is a great route runner. For the speed in which Jordan Addison runs his routes, I think he's probably the best route runner in this class. I agree. The way that he separates, the knowledge that he has about how to win in so many different ways in a route tree, whether it's coming back to the ball, whether it's breaking inside or out, whether it's continuing to get vertical,

he just understands how to win. You watch him and you just go, that is a natural wide receiver. That is a guy who knows how to win at the position with athleticism, with smarts, with technique, with everything, man. And I just think that his ability overall gives you a potential...

You know, I was about to say a potential wide receiver one but let's just let's just get into the elephant in the room he weighs 175 pounds that's it it's it's gotta be it's the davante smith thing all over again i struggled so much with who to put at wide receiver one between jackson smith and jayba quinn johnson and jordan addison because there are glaring things within their scouting reports that I don't like being there. Jordan Addison's 175 pounds. Am I really about to bet on that again? Devante Smith,

everybody can point to Devante Smith, but again, you don't want to make a living betting on outliers. Quinn Johnson's not as much of a natural as maybe I would want at the position. And I don't like betting on guys that aren't super naturals at the position. And then Jackson with the Jigba lacks the athleticism. It's an athletic league.

You got to be big. You got to be fast. You got to be strong. That's how you win in the NFL. So I have my concerns there too. But overall, I liked Addison's tape the most. I love the way that he attacked the ball in the air. He was a consistent

hands catcher with it. Like I said, the routes were something that I continually watched and really loved what I saw from him. He was an artist of a wide receiver. I thought really understood how to win at the position, understood his craft very, very well. You could tell that he has made the most out of the volume that he has gotten in the emphasis that he's gotten at both schools, which I think is important in his scouting report and something that should be noted as a positive, how well he was able to play at both Pittsburgh and at USC. So Jordan Addison is a wide receiver that I think I like the most on tape,

and that's why I ended up having him number one. And I hope I am very pleasantly surprised with how he weighs in and then tests in Indianianapolis because if he is sub 180 then that's something that i've just got to revisit and be comfortable with with wherever i rank him but the rest of his scouting report it's awesome and that's why i got him at one no disagreement there and to even build on it because i had him in my top five over summer one area he got better he just became such a more comfortable catcher of the football i mean two drops this past year he only had two drops three points

he had double digit drops 11 last year 11 2021 now to be fair he had he had 11 drops i think he had 156 targets so it's insane the percentage the drop percentage isn't as ugly as like going from eleven to two. But still, he definitely got better in that area this year. No doubt about it. He's just an assassin in the intermediate and deep areas of the field. Yes, assassin. Twenty three explosive catches, tracks the ball, sits versus zone. He just turned twenty one in January.

He's a really young player, so maybe he can get bigger and stronger. That's why I teared him with Jackson Smith and Jake, but I loved watching him. I mean, you do really like, even if you want to play the whole, well, he was with Lincoln and Caleb.

It's like, well, he came from pit where he was the most dominant receiver in the country. So this dude, I mean, he's answered every question besides that weight and the weight won't matter really when running his routes he's

going to get hands on him more at the line of scrimmage but it goes back to what i talked about hyatt it's not as drastic as you worry about he's just he is an absolute assassin uh maybe at all three levels of the field i thought his best work was intermediate to deep but i'm with you trevor he he has a significantly high floor if he can come in at 180 plus. Because the list of guys that play in the 170s or came in at the combine in 170s and had all this success, like you said, you don't want to make a living betting on them. But Addison's really, really good. And he's going to be a certified first-round pick.

I would actually feel pretty comfortable saying Addison will go in the top 20, 22 picks. So what do we, do we think he's 175? I think he surprises us and comes in at 180 for the combine. Okay. So he's not sure. He's not sure. So, all right. Significant wide receivers that were less than.

I already looked at this. 180. Tavon Austin's one of the biggest misses. Deshaun Jackson was in the 160s. He's a success story. John Dotson was. John Dotson was light. Darnell Mooney was really light.

Yeah, I mean, there's a handful. Didn't realize that Jalen Waddle was 180. Jalen Waddle. Jalen Waddell was 180 Jalen Waddell Jalen Waddell was 180 but what did he run well he didn't run remember he didn't run that's right he was hurt Jalen Waddell measured in at 5 foot 9 and a half 180

yeah what well you thought he was heavier yeah I mean he's just he looks like a dense dude Yeah. What? Well, you thought he was heavier? Yeah, I mean, he's just, he looks like a dense dude. Because he is. He was hurt. Couldn't lift.

No. Yeah, that might be anyway. Because Jamison Williams is also 6'1.5", 179. Yeah, but that's who Jamison Williams is. Jalen Waddell, I think is certifiably like a real hunt. What is he? What is, what is my, is listed five,

10, one 82. I, he doesn't look one 82 to me. Does Miami have one 82. That's what pro football reference has him as, uh, let's see what Miami has him.

Yeah. Five, 10, one 82. When, when he gets hit, it's not like you're hitting a one 80 dude. It doesn't look like it.

Not that I've ever hit, you know, not that I've ever tried to tackle. But Addison's probably taller, right? I bet Addison's like six foot, six foot and a half. Yeah, it's significantly taller. Oh, no, that's a good point. That's a good point. I think he can get to 180. Like I said, really young guy, just turned 21 in January. I think that really helps i think i think

he'll have um you know an ability to put masks on that he just hasn't carried throughout a football season wandale robinson elijah moore those guys are really short aj hamler really short all these guys are really short it's really like davanteae Smith and Deshaun Jackson, I think. Oh, Deshaun. Yeah, Deshaun was 5'10". Paul Richardson. Paul Richardson was 6' tall, 175. And what happened to Paul Richardson?

Don't talk to me. Don't ever talk to me again. DeeDee Westbrook, 6'1", 178. Yeah. Oh, no. We might have to delete the pod. Yeah, the pod might be going. The new channel lasted two weeks.

Yeah, Devontae Smith, 6'4", 170 pounds. Jordan will be heavier than that. Not much, though. I need it to be a little bit taller. So there you have it. There you have it. Top eight wide receivers. Sorry, now I'm like looking, trying to find somebody.

We totally lost you. We totally lost you. I still like Jordan Addison. I love Jordan Addison. I know, I know. I know you do, but I'm just saying. Any other wide receivers that we did not note in our top eight that you wanted to note for any specific reason?

Nine, I had Tank Dell. Ten, I had Marvin Mims. I really like Marvin Mims. I didn't get to him yet either. Yeah, productive for three years, inside-outside guy, can make big plays, can go up and get the ball for a smaller guy. Really like Marvin Mims, excited to see what he could do with the combine. Then there's the guys that I just have no idea what to do with right now,

and I will openly admit that until the combine is over, and that includes Michael Wilson and Kayshaun Boutte for very different reasons. Right, right. Somebody who I have just outside of my top 10 of wide receivers, and I watched 13 of these guys, Rasheed Rice from SMU. I've got to him. I don't really know what to do with Rasheed Rice right now because SMU, I think that we've gone over this on this pod,

like SMU listed him at 6'2", 205, and he came in at the senior bowl and was six feet flat 200 pounds now you might say like okay six two six feet you know he's they're lying on a dating profile who cares it's fine it matters for rishi rice specifically because he is a contested catch x strength high point possession, wide receiver. Like he is a bully type of wide receiver on the line of scrimmage player. And there's a big difference between you being a six foot two possession, wide receiver as a sideline guy and you being six feet tall. And unfortunately the best competition that he played, I would argue was Cincinnati. And that was his worst game.

I wonder if something, I wonder what say if something else was on his mind, though. Like, that tape was so much worse than the rest of his tape. He had two drops in that game. He couldn't get off press in that game. I almost got to the point where I finished that Cincinnati evaluation, and I almost was like, I kind of just want to throw this tape out. Me too. But I can't.

It was that bad. But you can't. He doesn't get a lot of games against the Cincinnati's of the world. Right, right, right. Because I watched the Tulane game. I watched the UCF game. I mean, he's going up against guys that aren't going to play in the league. And he's whooping them.

He's kicking their ass. And it's easy to be confident when you know you're about to win about to win against somebody so i don't know i know a lot of people love rishi rice his numbers are crazy good i think he's got back-to-back 1300 yard season so extremely productive football player but um worried that he's gonna get lost and lost in the shuffle a little bit especially for how i think he's gonna test in indianapolis maybe i could totally change my tune there um if he ends up being a better athlete than I thought, but that's kind of where I'm at. I'm at a Rishi rice.

I had Parker Washington at number nine. Glad you mentioned him. I still like Parker Washington. I really do. He just, uh, beefy slot. He's a beefy slot.

It's weird, dude. He's the cheesy Gordita crunch of, uh, of slot wide receivers. No, but he's look, I've gotten the, the sparkes kind of summary version for him.

Smaller slot build, but a big catch radius because of how much he is a hands catcher. And I think how long his arms are, at least what it appears to be on tape. Unique strength also for that kind of position. He's got reliable hands. He's got a determined attitude after the catch, which I absolutely loved.

And I noted in my scouting report, but he's just not, he's just not the best athlete. He's just not going to be somebody who really wins for you as an athlete, even with his yards after the catch ability. And so I think that he's got wide receiver three potential in the NFL, but we'll see. I'll have to see how he tested the combine.

Somebody who I still really like a lot, who if he surprised me athletically in Indianapolis, I might have to move him up that board a little bit because I love the determination I love how he's a consistent hands catcher um the contested catch percentage over 70 percent over 90 percent on catchable passes that were brought in so liked a lot of that stuff and then I also watched A.T. Perry again my wide receiver one going into the season who I've definitely cooled off on a little bit I still like Perry he's still you know six foot five 210 pounds he's still got a really big long catch radius he's still got that unique build and I still think he is a guy who can

threaten vertically it's just that I didn't really see this during the summer and I kind of see it now a lot of the times when he separates it's not because he's really able to cut on a dime or really be able to be a burner vertically and get even and beyond guys. A lot of times it's because of that separation. And he's got the longer wingspan, which when he makes contact with corners and he extends his arms to separate, that's a lot of separation that you can gain. And you just kind of see that and you pick up on that as the tape goes on. So not the athlete that I maybe thought he was during the summer,

but still a really nice wide receiver who I think could be a wide receiver for a wide receiver three at the next level, depending on how consistent he can be as a catcher. Yeah, we have a lot left to get through when we do the full episode. Senior bowl guys like Xavier Hutchinson, Andre Josevas, Jaden Reed, Jonathan Mingo. I'm looking forward to figuring out what happened to Rakim Jarrett's season at Maryland this year. I know his numbers were down. I loved him over the summer.

I had him as a top five wide receiver over summer. So maybe it's just a, it could be injury, could be scheme related. Who knows? I loved what i saw of him as a talent and a former five star so a lot to go through but i think this is a really good baseline man there we go uh probably our longest pod to date almost a two-hour review the wide receiver class wide receivers look we started the podcast saying that we know that you guys got takes and we want to hear from you guys as well hit us up in the comment section once again youtube.com backslash at nfl stock exchange that's where

you can find us on the new channel we would love for you to subscribe like the video and get in on the comments too let us know what you guys think of this wide receiver class tell us what you think of our takes and give us your own organic takes as well we'll even take wide receiver rankings if you guys got them if you guys are already starting to formulate this stuff, throw it in there, man. It creates some great discussion amongst a lot of really great draft people in this draft community when we get the comments popping. So we'd love to see that from you guys there.

You can also hit us up on Twitter, at Tampa Bay Trey, at Connor J. Rogers. Hit us up on Instagram as well with the same handles. My friend, do you have anything before we get out of here? i think we covered it this was a long one appreciate everybody uh waiting the extra day sometimes all good things you know you got to wait for them so and keep you know if you haven't just subscribed to the channel everything is going to be there you're going to get it first for the maniacs that watch in the middle of the night we love you we truly do we truly we truly love you some of you might be watching this late at night and we do love it. Oh, a little announcement about

next week's videos. We are going to have two videos for you next week, but full transparency. I'm going on a little vacation with me and my fiance. We're getting a little bit of a break before the combine rolls around. And before we are just, we are just straight up locking ourselves in the room, going full tape grind, full draft grind all the way until April. So I'm doing a little bit of a getaway next week. And so we're going to pre-record two podcasts for you. So it's going to be two instead of three.

It's going to be some fun topics, though. So looking forward to seeing what you guys think of that, seeing your comments on all that, and so much more. Appreciate everybody listening to the show I'm Trevor Sikama that is Connor Rogers thank you so much for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast we'll see you guys next time Thank you.