NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 292. Early WR Rankings for 2025 NFL Draft

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

0:00 - Intro 6:50 - 20-16 rankings 22:05 - 14-11 rankings 42:35 - Jalen Royals, Utah State 46:20 - Jack Bech, TCU 52:15 - Isaiah Bond, Texas 1:00:35 - Jaylin Noel, Iowa State 1:02:35 - Eric Ayomanor, Stanford 1:07:25 - Jayden Higgins, Iowa State 1:14:20 - Xavier Restrepo, Miami 1:17:20 - Savion Williams, TCU 1:27:15 - Emeka Egbuka, Ohio State 1:34:40 - Travis Hunter, Colorado 1:40:05 - Luther Burden III, Missouri 1:45:25 - Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona

Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama, that is Connor Rogers joining you for a very exciting episode. We are kicking off early position rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft. Last time you officially heard from the two of us when it comes to ranking these prospects was summer scouting. So it's been a long time. We've got regular season film in the books. The college ball regular season is done for some guys. That's the last down that they're going to play in college. But for others, we'll have some bowl games and things like that. And so, you know, as we'll say at the very top of this, it's early position rankings. We're going to have the all-star circuit. We this, it's early position rankings. We're going to have the All-Star Circuit.

We're going to have the bowl games. We're going to have the combine, obviously. So things can certainly change. But Connor and I wanted to dig into 20 of these players that we have ranked here for you. Talk about some regular season film notes, our thoughts of them going into the offseason and sort of where we believe they will, or or who they could be i should say as pros connor i'm excited man how you doing i'm great this is one of our favorite shows of the year um because it just brings in so many communities it's the people that are into the draft it's

people that are into college football it's people that are into dynasty and fantasy. I think wide receiver has become such a focal point across the NFL for that variety of reasons. It is such a fantasy focused position. It is a premium position now in the NFL. I don't, I wouldn't say it always has been so. And what the biggest reason is we've been spoiled year after year with insane draft classes and it makes the stacking them a lot more difficult. Quite frankly, when you have that kind of depth at a position that is going to come off the board in giant waves in the top 100 of the draft. And this class is no different than those. I'm not going to say it's as good as the ones we've had in recent history, but obviously the sheer volume of it that will be drafted early. I don't think that will change too much.

So we're going to have a lot of fun today, especially since we went really deep on this group over the summer, which admittedly for me, Trevor really, really helped. It sets out such a nice foundation that I was, I felt like I was rewatching about 70% of the guys. And then I did get to a lot of new players and a handful of them, you know, find their way in the cluster of rankings that we're going to do today.

So this is just such a great exercise. Yeah, anybody that's been hanging out with us since summer scouting, when we take a deep dive during the summer, what we think these guys can be at the NFL with a full year, at least, of tape that's sort of coming up from them, that's the fun part, right?

Is you get these early strengths and weaknesses, and then here now doing early positional rankings, we go through all their regular season film, which, you know, can be 10, 11, 12, again, not that we're watching all of them, but there's so much film on these guys. And what we do now is we get to go back to their strengths and weaknesses that we had from the previous season. Say, okay, did we still see these strengths? If we did, great. It's good to know did we see new strengths from them did we see them mitigate their weaknesses a little bit more did more weaknesses show up and so that really helps like for everybody out there i understand like some people watching

and listening to this podcast y'all are sickos you care about the draft 365 like we do and we love you for it we really do anybody out there who sort of like dabbles in the nfl draft but really enjoys it but doesn't get into it until this point it's hard to go back and find the time to watch what they were last year combined with what they were this year to really round out the scouting report so when you get to break it up in different portions like we kind of do on this channel like we do on the show to me it paints the clearer picture so with that we're getting we're giving you 20 we're giving you our top 20s here early wide receiver rankings for the 2025 NFL draft as you guys can see my setting's a little bit different I'm at my parents house is a road game for me you know the the the the camera that I normally use to shoot this show uh one of the cords broke and so like

I can't even so we're going through adversity here we're playing through it we're working through it uh but we knew that we had to give you guys the wide receiver episode so um you moved back home because we don't do mock drafts anymore what'd you say you moved back home with your parents because we don't do mock drafts because we haven't been doing as many mock drafts yeah yeah yeah my times are tough my landlord uh evicted me yeah absolutely all right let's do it. We're going to go. So the format of this show,

we'll go a little bit quicker with the guys 20 through 11. And then I think we should spend a lot more time on those guys in the top 10 that we think could be highly impact NFL players. But we wanted to make sure that we gave you the depth too. Let's go 20 through 15, or actually it would be 20 through 16. Give me those five players for you maybe a nugget or a scouting point where you're watching these guys good or bad that you like to highlight

and then if there's some names on there we could have a little bit of a conversation we'll move into the next five and then we'll get into the top 10 right so what's so fascinating to my 22 11 is so many of them are all-star game guys that i'm not going to say i'm going to rip up an eval because they had a good day or bad day of practice but oh i will but i absolutely will no but but it just helps your process lad mcconkie cook your ass on a route get out of here you're done you're not draftable anymore say goodbye to your round three grade. It helps when they're all clustered together to go see those guys on a practice field in a football environment. And of course, as we always say, man, does testing matter so much for wide receivers? And I don't mean just testing at the combine, but also height, weight measurements, hand size, arm length.

It's it's not one little thing. It's everything built up together and what can give a prospect a little bit of a boost. But let's jump right into the early rankings here. And I'll start at 20 for me is Ty Felton from Maryland, a vertical speed threat that had his most productive season this year. At 19, I had Torrey Horton from Colorado State a very familiar name unfortunately for Torrey he had a season-ending injury this season that uh you know hurt his production after being one of the most productive receivers in college football the two previous years at 18 another Maryland guy and Caden Prather so that's Todd Belton's teammate can I call him actually am I allowed to call him your boy because you I don't know you shouted him out during summer scouting. Do you like him enough for me to call him your boy?

Yeah, sure. Why not? Yeah, I kind of stuff when a guy's 18th. But at summer scouting, I think he made my top 15. He definitely did. And he had less production this year than he did in previous years. But he's got size. We're going to talk about the Maryland offense a little bit

because I know you and I both watched each of these guys. He's an interesting prospect. At 17 for me was Savion Williams from TCU, who is, I mean, one of the most interesting watches you can have because he doesn't play just wide receiver. They also use him as like a legitimate running threat and i don't say running back because he'll take direct snaps he'll get they'll use an extension of the pass game as their run game with him he's a tackle breaker i saw jim nagy on um i think he might

have been responding to me he basically was like this is going to be a quarter l patterson kind of i love the comp me too The body types are so similar. The play style is so similar. Obviously, for Corderell, it took a while for an NFL coach to understand how to utilize him. But once they did, it extended his career. It felt like a bonus six years. Arthur Smith's favorite player, it feels like, at times. So he's somebody I'm really interested to watch throughout this process.

I wouldn't be surprised now that I have him at 17, if he ended up higher for me when all is said and done. 16 was Brew McCoy from Tennessee, who there's context needed with Brew, who is Horace Bruiser McCoy, by the way. Wait, his first name is Horace? That's what the internet tells me. It's like a Harry Potter character. Yeah, it's pretty cool honestly horace brew mccoy that's a harry potter character

you're lying this is a plan it's a six foot three 220 i don't know how many wizards in harry potter were six three two twenty um brew mccoy just beats the shit out of out of uh out of voldemort with his hands he's just holding up ron weasley with one finger they're casting spells on him and nothing's working like the final scene in harry potter where there's like the big battle he just walks up to voldemort and just grabs him by the throat and cain chokeslams him through the castle oh movie's over the movie saved you seven movies i was gonna say sorry jkling, you just lost seven books. What if Brew McCoy was in there?

Your net worth is in the tank. What if Brew McCoy was in there in the first movie when they're middle schoolers and he's still 6'5"? They're pipsqueaks. The sorting hat doesn't pick where Brew McCoy does. Brew McCoy picks where the sorting hat goes. 100%. Oh my god. Shout't know how he got there but horace bruiser mccoy he uh he had four surgeries on an ankle injury from 2023 so when you

look up the production this year and you're like wow it's you know for a wide receiver ranked and he got a senior bowl invite and he's going to be a 25 year old rookie. I believe you're like, I don't understand this, but when you watch the tape, you do get a better idea of the player team captain. I think one of the best run blocking, if not the best run blocking wide receiver in the draft, he's phenomenal after the catch. I actually, we're going to have a conversation about Rubico and maybe it's not today. If I was a scout slash coach in the NFL and was interviewing him, I would pick his brain on gaining 15 pounds and being a move tight end in a very, a scheme that likes to run outside zone, get their tight ends moving in the run game as blockers. I think he

can be an effective threat in that capacity rather than just being a perimeter wide receiver all the time, but it's a longer conversation. But yeah, that's where I landed on 20 through 16. I'm really fascinated how you stacked all these guys. Cause I could see ours being really different with just how I thought this group, like, yes, they're different in the wide receiver rankings, but when I ranked them on a big board, I don't think the gap would be very large for all of these guys, 20 to 11. Yeah. That's sort of what happens with wide receiver. I think it's just, it's, it's littered. We watched so many of these guys. It's just littered throughout a top 250, 300, whatever it is. There's just so many wide receivers, wide receivers, and DBs are the most drafted positions every single year. And so

you get a lot of these guys that you're right. It's not separated by too much. So brew was the one guy who you listed there, who I didn't get a full like early ranking of I had ranked him earlier in the season and I really do like him I like the athletic potential it's still there super highly sought after recruit when he was coming out of high school the injuries obviously suck but somebody that like you said I'm really looking forward to seeing what he's going to be able to do at the senior bowl because um you know it's going to be in an offense outside of Tennessee's offense and we've seen with some of the wide receivers that have come through Tennessee, you know, over the last couple of years. I don't want to say that it's a fake offense because that's that's that's not really giving it credit to what it's doing at the college level and what Josh Heupel is able to do.

But it's able to sometimes massive deficiencies and you're not as involved on every single play as some of these other wide receivers might be in other programs and other offenses. So you've got to play the slot is what you're saying like Jalen Hyatt got put in the slot and was unstoppable well yeah Jalen Hyatt got put in the slot because he couldn't get off press coverage and but it worked in the slot yes I mean it's basically like it's 20 yards between him and the nearest DB yes not to sound like the biggest hater or toot my own horn because this is there's no victory lap here yet, but that's why I thought Cedric Tillman was the better player, despite having less buzz and hype.

I know there's a lot of NFL left for both of them, but it goes back to your point about evaluating that offense and why Beru doesn't have the numbers you would expect from a wide receiver ranked. Just to touch on two of the guys that were within your top 50 who are just or sorry top 20 that are just outside slow down partner get to top 50 not quite yet uh i haven't spoken to my wife all week i am doing wide receiver rankings good not doing 50 good yeah uh i felt i have ranked 23rd um caden prather i havest. So I see it similarly to you where Ty Felton is way more productive in that offense. I mean, they prioritize Ty Felton way more than they did Caden Prather.

I think Caden Prather is the much easier projection to the pro level. I did not see a lot of difference making ability in Ty Felton's game. I'm going to be honest with you. And so I wonder if I watch a lot more of these prospects, if Felton ends game I'm gonna be honest with you and so I wonder if I watch a lot of more of these prospects if Felton ends up being one of these guys who hey maybe he's a late round gem for one of these teams very clearly he understands what it's like to be an emphasis in the offense but I was sort of looking for that difference making trait from him because he got over 1300 yards receiving this year and I didn't really find it with Prather at least he's

a little bit bigger he's even I think even Prather's got a little bit more nuance to him, especially when it comes to getting off of press coverage, when it comes to creating a little bit of separation when he's getting vertical. Yep. And he's a bigger body dude. He's just got a better catch radius, and he's stronger at the catch point.

So I'm with you. I like Caden Prather a little bit more than I did Ty Felt for those two Maryland guys. Getting into my top 20, number 20, I've got Kyron Lacey from LSU okay this is somebody who I thought that I would be a lot higher on than somebody I thought you would be too he's not in my top 20 just to get that out of the way so the highs of Kyron Lacey especially at the beginning of the season you go when you watch that USC game you go oh we got something

here folks and he's got some fantastic catches but you watch the rest of the season and I just felt as though his game really lacked polish to me Kyron Lacey is one of those players where if you're playing a game a pickup you know uh the football on on on the playground he's somebody who it's just like the arm length some of the long speeds some of the some of the high point catch ability you absolutely love, but there's not a lot of polish to him. Doesn't really have a variety of releases to get off of press coverage. He struggles to do so because of that.

He's not a really nuanced route runner. He's basically just a, hey, I'm going to kind of get vertical on you. You're going to throw me the football and I'm going to high point a little bit, but he's not even good enough, in my opinion, consistently at high pointing the football. So Lacey is somebody who, his highs, like Lacey's 10 best plays, I feel like you could talk about with guys who are in my top 10.

There's just not enough consistency. And when you get to the NFL level, it's got to be more than just talent. You've got to have that polish to you. And I didn't think that he did. Juice Wells is, you want to hit on Kyron real quick? No, yeah, we don't have to go too long on these guys. I just, I echo a lot of what you said.

It was a consistency thing for me while he was just on the outside looking in. Yeah. Juice Wells from Ole Miss is number 19 for me. Another guy who, if you've been listening to the show for a couple of years, one shout out, we love you. I had Juice Wells borderline a top five receiver going into last year's draft in 2023

because of an incredible 2022 season he had with South Carolina. He's dealing with a foot injury basically all of 2023. Xavier Leguette kind of takes over as the top wide receiver in that group because Juice Wells missed so much time. And even when he was out there, he was clearly playing hurt. So he transfers over to Ole Miss this year. Connor, he's not the same player. And i don't even think it's injury related he looks so disinterested this season and it's such a bummer to me and i hate like calling out and so i don't want to say i know it's like effort or whatever like i hate to call people out in that

regard but this guy was a this guy looked like des bryant Light at times when he was at South Carolina. He was a monster at contested catch opportunities. He's built really well. He's got good explosiveness, good wiggle, good long speed for his size, and even when he wasn't able to win with speed, damn, he could win with contested catches when he was at South Carolina.

He didn't even look close to that player. Specifically, with scouting, I learned this from listening to a lot of guys who have been doing this a long time. Daniel Jeremiah is one of these guys who he'll say, hey, the big games matter for a lot of these guys. NFL teams want to see, what are you like when you play

in a rivalry game? What are you like when you're playing for a championship? Something like that. Juice Wells played South Carolina in South Carolina this year. And outside of one giant slant route that he took against cover three for like a 70 yard run, which he actually,

the ball fumbled out of his hands before the end zone. And it went into the end zone and didn't even get a touchdown. It ended up being a touchback. So outside of that play, Connor, I saw like no fire from this guy, nothing, no competitiveness, buddy, you're like no fire from this guy. Nothing. No competitiveness.

Buddy, you're playing your old team. And you kind of left in a way where you were spurning South Carolina a little bit when you were out the door. This was a moment for you. And I felt the same way when they played Mississippi State. He looks like a shell of the player that I saw in 2022. So I was disappointed in that. I'm not giving up on him.

I think the talent's in there. But, man, it's like you got to hit the reset button when you get to the NFL. So Juice Wells is 19 for me. Evan Stewart from Oregon. I have it 18. I'm still waiting for it forever, Evan Stewart, man. That's the name of the game, right?

I'm still waiting for it. And this should have been the year. You got Dylan Gabriel to throw you the football. You are the wide receiver one on this team. And he just, he was not dominant the way that you think. People talk about Evan Stewart for him to be dominant. I didn't even think he was the best speed option player on that team. We're going to get to a wide receiver who is his teammate a little bit higher in my rankings that I thought even held that role a little bit better. So Evan Stewart, I got at number 18. 17, I got Pat Bryant from Illinois,

a player who I do really like his game. I think he is a solid NFL player. I think he lacks a little bit of long speed, that ability to continuously threaten vertically, but man, he could block really well. He's a great rotational X option for you. I don't know if he'll ever be a consistent starter, but built like an NFL player, plays like an NFL player, even if he lacks a little bit of athleticism. And then the last guy for me here in this group, 16 is Kobe Hudson from UCF. I wanted to like this guy more, man. I just, I love the way that Kobe Hudson sets you up. I mean, he was a, I want to make sure that I get this right here. He was a state championship basketball player or at least he played basketball in high school at a very high level and you watch him run his

route it's like he's got a basketball in his hand it's like he is a point guard or a shooting guard and he is crossing you up he is moving his shoulders he is flashing his hands he's doing all sorts of stuff with his feet to make sure that he can set you up in a lot of ways i love the nuance in how he is able to run a lot of his routes. He just, to me, is a little bit limited athletically. And again, why he's a little bit lower on this list. He does a lot of the little nuanced things very, very well, but the top speed, to me, it was just something that held me back too much from him being higher on this list. A great list, a handful of those guys were just outside looking in for me. One guy that used, I think we see exactly the same.

We both like him a lot. You just kind of get lost in the shuffle. I think you had Pat Bryant at 17, right? I had him at 15. And you watch Pat Bryant and it's phenomenal the jump he made this year. There was more put on his plate to be a leader. I sat down with him at Big Ten Media. I hit a couple of guys on this list.

Ty Felton as well. I really like these guys. They are leaders. They are very focused. And that matters. That part matters when you get to watch these guys. It matters so much. And their coaches had nothing but great things to say about them.

And that's not just false words because they choose three guys to bring to Big Ten media. And that's representing your university on an entire college football roster. So it backs up the words. And I think I was just really impressed with not only the leadership role Pat Bryant took on this year, but how it transpired on the field. As a physical player, he plays inside and outside. He can run through people after the catch. He's very notable and very noticeable in the red zone. If he continues to

grow, he'll be a good pro. He just was a, not a late starter, but it's just, this was his breakout year. And I'm excited to see what he could do at the senior bowl, because I think he's a really all around solid player with size. It's kind of a jack of all trades guy rather than mastering one kind of skill. Although if I did kind of look at a skill that he has, I think he's a red zone threat and that matters in today's NFL. So I think we saw the same item as wide receiver 15. Oh,

go ahead. I was just going to say my early working comp for him is, is Tyler Johnson. Actually, I feel like they're built pretty similarly he's bigger though right he is he is he's a little bit tall he's taller he's a little bit taller he doesn't have as much mass because tyler johnson i think weighed in at like 205 206 to the combine right yeah brian's actually he plays bigger than this but he's only listed at 200 so right i think

he's got a little bit more height to him but But to me, that contested catch type of a wide receiver style was what I saw from Pat Bryant there. Wide receiver 14 for me was a guy I know you really like this summer, and I totally get it. Xavier Restrepo from Miami. You've named two players now. That you're way higher on? That I'm going to be a lot higher on.

Who was the one from last group oh sabian williams i mean i was gonna say you're gonna have to stick around to find out but yeah him no i i get that one like he was somebody i shout out right away i wouldn't shock me if i end up way higher on him right reshrepo i'll say this about sabian to give people a little you know you gotta you gotta listen to find out. I'll be shocked if I could be that much higher on him. So, wow. Okay. Wide receiver one. He's not wide receiver one. He's not wide receiver one. Uh, Restrepo is such a safety blanket for Cam Ward. He's a good route runner. He's quick. He's reliable. He does all the little things the right way.

He understands how to attack zone coverage. He's a fifth-year senior. I have him at 5'9 and 5'8, 199. They only play him in the slot, and he's only going to play in the slot at the NFL level. And I think something people will notice with me as they listen to more and more of this show, and this has changed for me a lot. The last two years, it wasn't like this for the first couple of years of me doing the draft. It is very hard for me, unless you

are special to be a top five wide receiver in a draft. If you are a small slot only player, and that's just because the success rate in NFL history won't be on your side. Now, I think Restrepo is absolutely an NFL player. I think there's a world where he is the starting wide receiver three on an NFL team and a really good possession threat. And this is someone that had 53 first downs in 2023 and another 53 in 2024. He is a consistent player that has really good hands. I think he's good through contact considering his size. He's 15 to 28 on contested catches the last two years. He's just a smaller guy that's going to live in the slot and you have to have that spot open in

your offense for him to succeed. But he is every bit of an NFL player because of his reliability. I thought he had average speed too. He, I didn't think he was an explosive slot. I thought he had average speed, too. I didn't think he was an explosive slot. I thought he was adequate NFL speed. Yes, I would agree with that part of it. Yeah. So wide receiver 14 for me. Wide receiver 13 for me is someone that I think did themselves a lot of favors this year,

and that's Tez Johnson of Oregon. Hell yeah, baby. I mean, this is a 4'3 guy. Hell yeah. This is who I was talking about let's be clear with tez at when you're 160 pounds you have to run a four three so that's okay because he does he's not a lot of guys this size and you're gonna hear a ton of tank dell and that elk with him you know are drafted are drafted very, very early. But transfer from Troy to Oregon, he can just stretch the field with vertical wheels.

He eats up single coverage. He's got sharp cuts. When he's isolated, it's very hard for one defender to match his movements in space. He is every bit of what Mike McDaniel dreams of in an offense that creates all that kind of space. He also is a great punt returner. He averaged almost 12 yards per punt return this year.

He brought one back to the house, which playing special teams is a huge bonus for a guy like this. He's just very slender, limited catch radius, probably a slot, I think a slot only. Has to be. Relatively simple route tree, but effective in what he's asked to do. And I think teams are just going to value his kind of game breaking speed right ahead of him at wide receiver.

12 is I want to make sure I had that right. Yeah. 12. Yep. Uh, is his teammate, Evan Stewart. And I think you nailed it.

Evan Stewart, man, who I was really high on this summer. I had him in the top 10. Like former five-star from A&M. Everything you want from a skill movement standpoint when you just watch him. But man, on a snap-by-snap basis,

he's almost the guy that the more you watch of him, you're like, why aren't you so much better yes and there's times where i think dylan gabriel and the oregon offense doesn't do a good enough job keeping him involved i'll admit that like i didn't think it was perfect and a and m had this problem with him too and he he's slender he's six feet, but I don't even know if he's 180 pounds. I had him listed 175 from our summer data. He's just so hot and cold, Trevor. Yep. He's so hot and cold. Listen to this.

I just think there's too much cold. Eight? You want to bet? Eight games this year. Eight. With less than 30 receiving yards. Can't be. Can't be, man.

There is absolutely something to guys being better pros than college players right there's absolutely something to that i understand that when we talk about this we're going to talk about this more here on today's show but it's got to be better than that you're in a you're in an offense that's tailored to throw the ball to you like you're in an offense that's tailored to throw the ball to you like you're in an offense that's tailored to get you involved so much more than you are now and so you know with with um evan stewart again i don't even think he was the best speed player on his team no i thought tez was better now yeah i tez tez a better route. He sets up people better after the catch.

Honestly, he's a better deep threat right now. Yeah. There's a reason why Tez Johnson was more productive than Evan Stewart at Oregon's offense. And it wasn't just because... I will complain about college offenses and college offense coordinators and how much they emphasize one person over the other. I'll complain about that all the time.

But in this offense, it should have been Evan Stewart, in my opinion. And I don't think Evan Stewart comes to Oregon if they're not talking to him, if Dan Lanning's not talking to him as if he's going to be the wide receiver one. And it just didn't play out like that. I get worried about him. I really do. I do too.

My counter would be, has already been in this offense and had plenty of success in this offense. So I think you saw that. No, and that's that's that's fair that's a fair counter i'll say this too evan stewart's a first percentile yards after catch receiver over the last two years first percentile and like that's not good you want to be folks you want to be 99 percentile which is weird which is really weird his athletic background as a sprinter triple jump and long jump guy is standout so i stay champion he's an enigma yeah he is like you watch him and he is literally the definition of polarizing enigma i'm sitting here and i'm like man i want

you to be so good and i think it's there. And I think there's moments of him. There was one game I watched. I want to pull it up right now. Just to make sure I get this right. Where if you want to like him and see why there's people that will be really high on him. I hope he goes back to school, by the way. Yeah, at this point, I do too. I don't want to draft him off of the tape that he's put out here over the last two years.

I think he could be a first rounder in 2026 if he goes back to school. Because I think he was all SEC, or at least he was an all freshman when he was at Texas A&M that first season. The Ohio State game where he went 7 for 149. He has his best game. Which is a hell of a time. Yeah. 49 is his best game which is hell of a time yeah that's why it's easy to fall in and be like man he's he is a good player but he is not a consistent player and uh that's where i landed on him being at wide receiver 12 which i i didn't expect that he had 33 receiving snaps in the big 10

championship game you shut out he had one target, zero catches. One target, yeah. Again, I understand that there's a lot of things that wide receivers cannot control. I totally understand that. It's got to be better than that. I cannot help but wonder why with Evan Stewart. I wasn't super impressed. It's not like I saw a lot

of meat on the bone when I was watching the film. It's not like I was like, wow, Oregon's crazy for not getting this guy the ball. I get it. I understood it. Right. They had a few games where they're just blowing people out so they don't need to really pump up his numbers, but there's not every game like that where he had a bad game. I've been waiting for it for two years now with Evan Stewart, unfortunately.

Eleven is a guy I'm really torn on who I know people just absolutely love and we had the same conversation over the summer Trey Harris from I got in the same range he's tough that he's tough he is I mean he is he like this year's Keon Coleman Xavier Leggett type of not player, but like struggle to evaluate. That's how I was like, man, here we go again. Where, you know, and Trey had a, he had a groin injury this year. It cost him the last four or five games down the stretch.

He tried to play in the Florida game and then he re-injured. Yeah, it just didn't, it didn't work. But he missed four or five games, really five when you bring up like that he had over a thousand yards it's ridiculous no very clearly but it's it it does bother me that like a lot of his yards is at the beginning of the season against cupcakes just the sweetest of cupcakes yeah i mean he he he does what we all do in EACFB dynasty when you have a juicy matchup and you want your guy to win the Heisman. 100%.

You're playing Furman and it's like, okay, 17 catches, 321 yards, five touchdowns. Yeah, correct. And Trey Harris is a good player. I want to make this clear. No, he is. But there is some of that. I liked him more than I thought I was going to.

Me too. I'll be honest with you. So I'll tell you why more than I thought I was going to. Me too. I'll be honest with you. So I'll tell you why, and I'm curious if you agree. There's things he is special at. I think he is incredible at positioning himself. He makes some of the most unique catches, like finding ways to secure the ball when he had no business ever catching the ball

the way he positions himself he kind of like can duck and reach and all these weird movements to find a way to catch the ball he he does like he's out on the field and i think he is the least afraid player i've watched in this draft so far like he does not care if he's gonna get clotheslined speared anyone around him contact with the ball in his hands he wants to stiff arm you and just embarrass you but i think it's everything before the catch is where i have my worries yeah he's not really a great route runner uh he's he doesn't have a lot of different releases off the line of scrimmage against press number one um i can't remember um how much against press that he has faced but anyways when it comes to his uh his overall

routes um it's a lot of just vertical stuff it's nine routes it's comebacks it's posts it's and and that's about it they don't ask him to run a lot of different stuff you know he's not like an over the middle of the field type of like you know long crosser dagger concept player they just don't ask him to do it a lot so miss offense it's just the old miss offense and they know exactly what they need to do and they know exactly how to get it to one of their best receivers and so your trey harris does a very good job of doing what old miss wants him to. And those are the tough players to evaluate when you go, okay, you didn't really show me more here, but I know that this offense isn't asking you to do that.

So how would I ask you to do that in your film? And I think that's a very important part of evaluating Trey Harris and why it is difficult and why I love the way that you put that. This is the Keon Coleman, Xavier Leggett, like beauty is kind of in the eye of the beholder. There's going to be a lot of people who watch Trey Harris's film and go, this is a one dimensional type of player. Because last year when I watched him, that's what I thought. This year, I do actually think he's a little bit more nuanced. I do think his footwork has improved. I do think he's making an effort to create separation in more subtle ways, but there are certainly moments throughout his tape where I am visibly watching a player

whose main job it is is just to get open on a vertical plane, on a vertical stem. And so some people are going to see the size, speed, contested catch potential with him and fall in love with it. But this is, to me, Trey Harris is going to be the most high variance player that and fall in love with it. But this is to me, Trey Harris is going to be the most high variance player that anybody has in wide receiver rankings. I think, I think there'll be a lot of people that have them in their top five.

Honestly, I would be rich. Yeah. It'd be very rich. Top five would be very rich. Maybe top eight. Everybody's trying to get rich, but that'd be,

that'd be like Bill Gates, rich. It could also be aerotown international rich just waiting on patent pending to have governmental and civilian uses that's that's trey harris it just came across my desk it just came across and it's just trey harris is scouting report somebody's gonna run into the general manager's office and be like this just came across my desk it's awaiting like you get film in the mail patent approval uh okay let's get into my uh 15 through 11 before we get into the the top 10s obviously jaylen noel noel i actually is how you say his last name i have learned so already messed that up once here on the show told myself i wasn't

gonna do it we're just in the christmas spirit boy he did it yeah no that's just i'm just trying to be festive out here. Jalen Noel. I'm sticking with it for this episode. Just kidding. I'm not going to respect the man's family like that. Jalen Noel from Iowa State. Did you watch him?

I certainly did. I fucking love him. I absolutely love him. All right. So on initial watch, so obviously we will get into Jalen Knoll a little bit later when we're talking on this show, because I assume that he's going to be in your top 10 here. When I watched him for the first time,

I really liked him. I did. Compact build. What's his, what's his weight? Is it over 200? I think it's listed at 200. Yeah.

He's like five 11, 200, just like a compact build type of a dude. He's got a track background to him. High jumper, sprinter, had all that good stuff in high school. And you definitely see it. He's really explosive. I think that it's more than just Jaden Higgins,

who is a very popular name in that Iowa State offense that everybody gravitated towards. Like, wow, look at this passing offense from Jaden Higgins. Jalen always a big part of why they were successful as well you know when i watch him there is a ton to like athletically he's got the compact build he's got great contact balance i think he's really explosive in short areas i think he's a really good slot receiver type of a player he's limited probably to just a slot in the nfl because of his build and sort of his play style um the footwork is pretty precise coming off the line of scrimmage. You know, for him having a sprinter background, I thought he

would have a little bit better of long speed sustained. But as I watched, you know, not just his best plays, but all of his plays when we got into final film evaluations, I felt like I was underwhelmed a little bit by his long speed. So I have those concerns, but that's why I've got him at number 15. Obviously, we'll talk about him a little bit more when we get to your rankings, where he is. Tor Horton from Colorado State is at number 14 for me. Lots to like about this player. Really nuanced in how he plays.

I think that he's got great footwork. He's got the long arms. He's got just fantastic hands. I mean, super reliable hands, really high contested catch percentage, really good catchable pass percentage as well. So all of that looks good for him. Season ending knee injury this season sucks.

I thought he was going to come out of last year's draft. I really did. Me too. He plays a little bit bigger than what he actually is, which makes me a little bit nervous. You know, he's only six foot one and a half. He's slender. He's about a buck 87 is what they've got him listed at.

But for him, I just think he does a lot of the little things at the position very well. I love his competitiveness. I think he's a really competitive blocker despite having a little bit more of a slender build. But like I said, just a really reliable possession type of a receiver that knows how to get open, has decent separation scores, knows how to sit in between zone coverages. I think he's

just a really smart football player. Trey Harris, we already talked about a little bit. I have him at number 13, sort of exactly where you do. Don't exactly know what to do with him. So I've got him in between this 11 to 15 range. Maybe we're in the middle of people who might hate him a lot, might love him a lot. So I'm wondering what other people think about Trey Harris. If you got Trey Harris takes, let us know in the comments. I got Tez Johnson at number 12. Like you said, dude's just great at exactly what you want him to be. When I looked up his measurables and when I was watching him a little bit earlier this season, 5'10", 160 pounds. Zero percentile, man. Nobody plays the wide receiver position at 160 pounds.

And I think a lot of people would go like, well, what about, you know, Tank Dell? That's going to be it the whole time. Here's the thing, though. For every Tank Dell, there's 500 players that are built like Tank Dell who didn't make it in the NFL level. However, Tezson shows that competitive i don't think he's quite as short area explosive and nuanced as a route runner i don't think he's quite as stop on a dime as as tank dell was but still the precision the footwork the short area quickness the acceleration he's got good top speed to him

you mentioned him being like a 4-4 and below guy when it comes to the 40-yard dash he's a playmaker when it comes to after the catch stuff he does have a lot of that stop on a dime really great agility and body control stuff when you're looking at um after the catch dude he is in the 100th percentile in separation percentage the dude's just open all the time. He can't match his movements. 100%. Now, do we have NFL-style DBs that are getting right up in his face and press coverage all the time?

No. Oregon kind of hides that deficiency from him, so they don't put him in those situations. But still, man, he can create that separation even from closer single coverage. I think for a single coverage, he's like 95th percentile in separation he's phenomenal he's fantastic he's got a great he's got a great story of adversity too for anybody that doesn't know actually you know he grew up in alabama i think it was in birmingham first and he moved to pinson

alabama um his father committed suicide when he was it was he was infant so he's brought up by his mom who was just you just struggling paycheck to paycheck, kind of a situation, trying to provide for her kids, doing a great job trying to provide for her kids. And when Tez got into football, into high school, football is the way that he said, sort of channeled his passion, channeled his anger, gave him something to look forward to.

And his high school coach in Pinson, Alabama, was Bo Nix's dad. Yep. And his quarterback was Bo Nix's dad. Yep. And his quarterback was Bo Nix. And there came a situation where the Nix family did not like legally adopt Tez Johnson, but for all intents and purposes, I mean, he stayed at their house. He ended up living at their house.

He was an extension of their family. So when both of these guys graduated, I believe they won a state champion. Yeah, they won a state championship together when they were at Alabama. When both these guys graduated, bow obviously went to auburn tez went to troy as a three-star recruit they sort of met back up at oregon obviously got to play together last year which is really cool and i wondered if i'm not gonna lie like i wondered if the magic was just kind of where i'm gonna wear off this year you know no bow nicks bow nicks isn't throwing in the football anymore and it it's been the complete opposite. He has continued to be a fantastic wide receiver.

So he's got that competitiveness in him that goes back to just his roots and sort of how he got started in football and why he loves football. And this is a player who you never want to doubt. Dude, he's 160 pounds. And I'm going to be honest with you. He blocks better than Evan Stewart does. He's the better blocker of the wide receivers and he's fair and he's a buck 60 he is so feisty he is so competitive he'll give you

everything he's got uh i like i like tes johnson a lot more than i thought i would when i first looked at his measurables i'll be honest about that number 11 for me is jay jalen royals from utah state um i i i like a lot of what jaylen royals brings to the table it's just sort of a concern that i had with some of these other wide receivers you know like with kobe hudson uh with pat bryant with players like that and um even with oh who did we just who did we just mention that you like a lot um jaylen noel the i i just worry about the long speed a little bit here with i i could see that with with jaylen royals but other than that I think Jalen Royals is a good football player again strong hands of the catch point he's consistently arms extended to make the

catch I always love when guys attack the football in the air you go get it you don't let it just come to you you dictate exactly who's going to get hands on it first I think he's a nuanced route runner he's strong versus press coverage he reminds you a little bit in his build in his play style like a Jamar Chase now he's not Jamar chase i want to be very clear but he is that body type of that like more compact dense dude people talk about jamar's like oh he's kind of built like a running back jalen royal has got a little bit of that to him and i again i don't think he's quite to that level but he is somebody who loves contacts love the yards after contact he's good in contested catch situations,

but unfortunately to me, he's got a lot of practice with it because I don't think he separates super well when it comes to those vertical routes. So to me, just somebody who does a lot of those little things well, somebody I'm excited to see in the all-star circuit, but had a little bit of doubts of him athletically

when it comes to really stretching the field. And so I think he's going to be a good contested catch type of a receiver at the NFL level. I think he could be a really nice wide receiver three, potentially even wide receiver two in the NFL level, but we've just got to see him continue to maximize those tough catching situations, which is sort of tough to bet on as much as you have to with Jalen Royals.

So that is my 15 through 11 there. Any comments, any thoughts on any of those guys that I named there? I had Royals at nine. So I think we see him pretty closely. I really, really liked him this summer. I think I had him at 10 over the summer. He had a foot injury this year that I'm sure is going to come up during medical. So that's something to keep an eye on.

But he's somebody to me. And even you watch 2024, it's a lot of, know hitch routes and screens his production but i thought 2023 which was more productive there was even more there on tape of variety and just the way he adjusts and tracks the ball away from his body as you highlighted trevor it's it's such a pro kind of feel when you watch him i thought he definitely gained some weight going into this year when i watched his 2020 and like he got stronger not like got fat it's that wow in 2023 when i when i watched his eating good nil when i watched his 2023 i thought a lot of his adjustments to the ball was like davante smith where he's just got this unique ability

to grab the football and track it in and close quarters and away from the body so you know you know what my working comp for him is my early comp jermaine curse oh yeah i remember you know what i'm saying so like what you're talking about like those like acrobatic contesting catches kind of you know you're you're shifting your biggest guy or tallest guy but like just tough nails at the catch point full extension type of catches those contested catch opportunities i mean russell wilson would throw those deep balls to jermaine curse and he'd be on the other end of him he'd be fine away but he'd be coming down with him so i i i love the i love the the early jermaine curse comp that i found here that's a great one. And he does.

He consistently comes back to the ball. That's what he just, he understands how to help his quarterback all the time. And a well-earned senior bowl invite for Jalen Royals, who I hope he could practice all three days because I know that foot injury ended his season after week eight. I'm excited.

So he was nine. I'll go back here for a second. 10 for me is Jack Besch from TCU. Yeah, baby. Let's go. Is he ten for you? No, he's higher for me. Okay.

I mean, I get it. He's nine. Man, is Jack Besch good. Is that how you say his last name? Is it Besch? Yeah. Okay. That's at least how I threw on a couple highlights to hear how the announcers say it.

Smart. Veteran move. Veteran move. Yeah. i threw on a couple uh like highlights to hear how the announcers say it smart veteran move veteran yeah yeah i didn't i didn't want to say it any other way like jack like betch like i was gonna say jack beck but obviously or beck yeah it's that the one announcer i heard called him besh which makes a lot of sense um listen i'm gonna i'm not gonna lie to you here this was one of the last guys i got to and thank god i it's crazy to me when i went through this i'll explain how i went through this process the weirdest thing i did was i watched all the colorado guys first just because i just wanted to knock them all out and they had the most guys i felt like i had to watch i watched will shepherd jimmy horn lejonte lejonte wester and of course travis hunter so i'm like let me

just watch them all right now and then i kind of bounced around and then about halfway through i'm like okay let me watch all my top guys from summer and then we had the extra day and i'm like let me get through as many all-star guys as i could that I haven't seen yet. And Besh was in that category with Brew McCoy and Daquan Felton. The Virginia Tech guys, Jalen Lane as well. I wanted to get, those are the last four. Like, okay, they got all-star invites. I should watch them. Jack Besh is one of the most high floor receivers in the draft.

And it's, I'll break it down like he's 6'1 and 3 8's 218 pounds he comes he's a transfer from LSU he comes into this season kind of as an afterthought from the NFL he did not really have these these crazy summer grades but he has a breakout year for TCU he He had 62 catches over a thousand yards, nine touchdowns. Here's the two things with Jack Bish of why I think he's a high floor player and a pro ready player. He catches literally everything, everything. He catches everything over the middle of the field, outside the numbers. When he gets popped, he catches everything.

The second thing is when they use him as a blocker, whether it's out in front and screens or in the run game, he looks like a tight end. He genuinely looks like he wants to snatch your soul and wear it on a necklace back to the huddle. It was sort of up in the air whether he was going to play tight end or wide receiver, but he would have either been a small tight end

or a plus-size wide receiver. So he just worked on wide receiver, and now he's a full-time wide receiver. Yeah, so I loved him. I loved him. I i thought he just there was so much nuance in his game yep he caught everything at 218 pounds he runs well enough i'm not gonna sit here and tell you he's running a four three five or four four but he runs well enough at his weight so bash is gonna be a darling for the giraffe community soon. A pleasant surprise. So happy I got to watch him in time before we did this show. Cracks my top 10.

So he was 10. Royals was 9. Besh was great. I mean, can I just talk about Besh? Please. No, yeah. You might as well do it now. Yeah.

So he was 9 for me. And he was somebody who, when I turned on the tape, I was like, oh, wow. Okay. Thank God that I did because he is a lot of fun you mentioned he's he's 218 pounds so he's got really good size to him for a wide receiver again it would have been smaller for a tight end but instead it's it's it's bigger for a wide receiver especially one that can play all over the field like he can i mean they could put him in a wing back alignment he can be totally fine uh he can do the power slot roll shout out nate tice for that term and i think that he is fantastic at it because he moves well enough to where uh his size it's not just it's not even just like a pick your

poison it's like oh okay well he's he's too big for these guys to cover but it's it's a combination of it like he moves so well for for his size there we have a metric of pff anybody that's familiar with with baseball knows you know wins above wins above replacement. He had a very high 0.39 wins above replacement average. And I know for anybody out there that doesn't have a PFF subscription or knows PFF super well, you'll just have to trust me. 0.39 as a wide receiver is one of the better scores that we had this season for these wide receivers. So that's great to see. He's got an 82nd percentile separation percentage, 59th percentile against single coverage alone contested catch percentage 96th percentile uh and then regular uh catchable passes uh he was in the

high 90s as well so like you said very sure hands he's got a he's got a great soft spot for uh for where zone coverage is going to be um he's just a high iq football player that brings you plus size good athleticism the quickness the nuance in his routes also something i really liked about his background dude he won three basketball state championships yeah and two football state championships dude's just a god damn winner he really is that's like an insane amount of accolades from high school so i am i am also really excited to see this player i think that when we get to the senior bowl he is going to be one of the guys that's absolutely turning heads i think that he is going to be a big time one-on-one winner and he's going to be a big riser

throughout the process specifically once we get to that point in time. His teammate will be as well. I'll get to a little bit more later. Yeah, you like him more. Yeah, you had him at number 10. I had him at number 9. We like this player a lot. Yeah, wouldn't shock me if another guy, like I said about his teammate, Savion Williams,

if both of them are higher in my final rankings than my initial rankings because full transparency. This was the first time I got to see the TCU guys on tape. too so far this year during the season i didn't i didn't get to watch them um shout out to the senior bowl for inviting both of them yep because when those invites came through i had to get eyes on them right away eight for me one of the more perplexing evals and i'm my head is going to i'm going to smash it against the wall all the way to the final rankings over this one as i say i know who it is yeah yeah i knew i have him at 10. i have him at 10. i mean full transparency for everybody if you're just tuning in now i think i had bond at four over summer because i was like people don't move the way this cat moves. Yeah, I had him at 7, 8.

One of those two. I was lower on him than you were going into the summer, but obviously he moves incredibly well. But go ahead. I mean, this is a lot to unpack. I think we're going to see eye to eye on a lot of the issues. 5'11", 180, transfer from Alabama. Somebody that, you know, you're talking about Georgia state title kind of times

in the 100 meter or the 200 meter as a junior in high school. He tracks a deep ball. He can just get over the top of the defense so effortlessly that that's kind of work at the NFL level with the kind of wheels acceleration and the how agile he is with both of those things. The routes are smooth. He really doesn't lose like lose any speed while he's changing direction. No, they play him inside and outside. He makes so many explosive plays when they throw him the ball, but there are so many.

It's like the Evanan stewart conversation all over again to a higher degree i mean it's only 100 yard i want to make sure i have some of these notes updated like he lacks like a lot of those big games number one he runs himself into coverage a lot and just like if it's zone there's so many times where i'm like man if maybe he just needs to be coached up a little bit more but there's so many times where he he doesn't have the same awareness of spacing as some of the other guys in the class do right tempoing his speed yes go such a long way he would unlock it would maximize it now he he used to be a db i don't think he was a db when he was in college but i know he was a db and a wide receiver in high school. And I remember I read this quote, I can't exactly remember whether

it was when he got to Alabama, his first year at Alabama, or maybe it was, you know, when he was coming out in high school, but he basically was like, I spent more time at DB than I did wide receiver. So it makes sense why his game lacks a lot of polish even here and now at Texas, because he's only a couple years into being a full-time wide receiver now that's not to say that it's automatically going to get better for him you know sometimes i think that uh as scouts we think oh all he needs is time well no it's it's it's it's it's what you do with that time and so it just kind of depends for him but he is one of those guys where you'll hear us talk about this with running backs as well. Vision for

running backs. Sometimes running backs have a bad tendency to, okay, I got the ball in my gut. I'm just going to run straight forward. I'm a north to south runner. I'm not going to wait. I'm not going to wait for blocks to set up. I'm just trying to get north to south. This is what coaches want me to do. This is the kind of player that I'm going to be. For Isaiah Bond, it's like he's just zero to 100. There's no in between. And I think because of that, you see him overrun throwing windows versus zone. I think you watch him crash into off-coverage defensive backs when in reality he could absolutely put a move on him, slow things down a little bit, give himself a little skip and go type of a release

even when he gets to the break point, not even off the line of scrimmage. But to me, it's too much one speed for isaiah bond there is not enough nuance and there is not enough tempoed movements in what he does and that is always the biggest challenge for wide receivers that have elite athleticism because their entire football life to this point is just, I am faster than you. Yep. And it takes so much more than that to win at the sec level consistently, which he found out sort of the hard way over the last couple of years.

Certainly this year, it's been a struggle for him consistency, but that's how it's going to be at the NFL level as well. He's just got to be way more nuanced with it. Absolutely. And what I meant to say before his only 100 yard game this year was against utsa so it's um you know not that that means everything but that was his big performance in week three and then a lot of inconsistencies and what jumps

out to me and i'll try to get more clarity like is he hurt something going on the last three weeks of the season trevor last three games kentucky two for 27 and i watched the film of these games so this isn't me box score scouting like it's i'm like what am i missing here strictly on film just nothing's happening have you have you seen have you seen those tweets when people do that i think yeah i think i'm gonna i think i'm gonna start this bit you're gonna you're gonna be that guy when people go when people go strictly off film comma and it's like you're not allowed to disagree with them because they're saying like strictly off film yeah you didn't watch the tape i did or so or or even like well what you know whatever numbers you're gonna throw

at me like it doesn't matter like i'm just talking strictly off film i'm gonna start doing that with like other stuff like strictly off film the smoked brisket from chipotle is not nearly as good as the regular steak like i'm gonna say nobody can tell you you're wrong of 100 yeah i'm gonna start i'm gonna start that bit i'm gonna start it it reminds me of when somebody made a like an off-brand drill account and it was rocky's drill, like the Colorado Rockies. And I have a tweet saved from it that says, the stats, hell, I'm looking at the stats right now. It's like, it's an all timer that is so underutilized online.

I've always, I've always, it's literally at, it's at Rocky's underscore drill i've looked at the stats hell i'm looking at the stats right now that's what i'm gonna that's what i'm gonna start that's actually what we need to start doing i've i've been had this one in my pocket for a long time a long time i'm a very sick man um i've got to wait my pocket for a long time. A long time. I'm a very sick man. I've got it in my pocket. You've got to wait for the right moment. I am.

It needs to bang. It can't be like, it can't be. No, you can't waste it. You can't waste it. It can't be Isaiah Bond against Texas A&M where he was shut out. And against Georgia, one for 22. That was the last three games of the season. I just watched the tape and I'm like, if games of the season it just i just watched the

tape and i'm like if he's hurt it's one different thing and we don't know that i'll tell you right now trevor he is a liability out there for the run and screen game he there's nothing no involvement when things get physical none oh sure yeah yeah and a lot of coaches of the nfl just won't look like that changes who you are i mean okay so you're gonna be the third one you're gonna be our third wide receiver and 11 personnel and you're gonna stretch the field verse i might take you in the top 40 and i want you to be on the field at all times right right because yeah so the physical aspect of the games concern me uh but hey i mean yeah, all after all that being said, I have him as the eighth wide receiver because he is so physically gifted from a movement speed standpoint.

Yeah, I got him. I got him at 10. And I'll be honest, like. Tez Johnson's a better version of what Isaiah Bond is supposed to be. That's right. But Isaiah's got 20 pounds more on him. And because of that, he just has more potential to kind of hold up in the NFL.

But I would not be shocked if there is a world where my final wide receiver rankings have Tez Johnson above Isaiah Bond because Isaiah Bond and Tez Johnson, both of these guys, really big games coming up, right? Both of these teams are in the college football playoff. They could have a really extended season here with a couple of games. They could mean a lot because, like we said,

a lot of the biggest games mean a lot to these scouting reports. And so just to sort of like give people an idea of sort of like where we're at with these players, Tez Johnson's a better version of what you would want out of Isaiah Bond right now. He is. He just unfortunately comes at 160 pounds. If he came at 100, if the weight was exactly the same for both of these players, I'd have Tez Johnson above Isaiah Bond easy.

So that was eight for me. Seven was Jalen Knoll from Iowa State. Nice. I mean, I agree with everything you said. I actually think his speed's okay. Maybe not perfect for somebody his size, but man, at Iowa State, Iowa State had some kind of year with these two receivers.

I was just very shocked at how much, like I thought his speed was going to show up a lot more on a regular basis for me. And maybe I'm just a little like, maybe I'm overreacting a little bit to it because i really i do like this player when i watched both of them when i watched higgins and then i watched noel i actually initially liked noel better when i was watching a couple of their early games and then i've watched a little bit more and i i think higgins wins in more translatable ways and i get a little bit worried about noel because so much of his game to me that i like has to do with that build and that explosiveness.

And I really wanted to see that, that final gear from him be a little bit higher. So look, you know, if he, there are moments when I felt like I saw it, which is why I was a lot higher on him. And if he comes into the combine and I mean, he just, if he, you know, is a blazer, then I'm going to have to say to myself, like, all right, it's there for him you know it's it's it's not like it's not but we just need to see it a little bit more regularly but i got a little bit worried in that regard with him so uh that's why i was um lower on jail and all because i think i had him when i'm 15 and you have um six seven seven okay all right all right so you i definitely think the change of direction is better than the straight line speed like i thought the change of direction short area quickness was borderline elite.

I was like, whoa, when he puts a move on a corner in man coverage, they are they don't really have an answer for this guy. They really, really don't. If the ball is there. It's he's going to create space. So no. And another thing about Noel, he averaged over 15 yards per punt return this year. He has tons of experience as a return man. He is a very reliable, good punt returner. I was a big fan of his game. I just think his lateral agility allowed him to create

separation on a consistent basis. Then six for me was Alec Io Manor from Stanford, who he'll be another fascinating one. I think there's just so much to like about him, even when you go through some of the faults. He's only a redshirt sophomore. He's 6'10". He's 210 pounds. This is a player that, you know, 2022, we've talked about.

He had the torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus. So that was a big injury he came back from. But he is a physical outside wide receiver. What do you can do on the perimeter? Like he could just out muscle smaller coverage. Uh, I think this offense doesn't just put production on a platter for him. As I've said before, he has to really go earn it. We have the game from two years ago against Travis Hunter, where you saw what he did in the top matchup against him. He, he got the best of him. Honestly, he's a very, very physical run blocker and he plays a physical brand of football through the

whistle over and over again. I think as a redshirt sophomore coming off a serious injury two years ago, I think this guy's going to get bigger and stronger over the next two years, which is a scary, scary thought. I just, I want to see more consistency with his hands. He's still learning how to kind of position himself and catch the ball cleanly all the time there's just too many routine drops on the film from the last two years that he's got to clean up to be a number one wide receiver type he's not the most you're not going to get a ton of lateral quickness with his size and play style um he's not going to run away from coverage consistently as well he's going to make plays over the coverage but i mean i'll manner if you're looking for a perimeter wide receiver that plays a physical brand of football,

he's got the goods. Hell of a blocker. He's got the long speed with the track background. I think already as somebody who is still a young football player, he's so smart in how he approaches the game. I mean, he very clearly is aware of winning off the line of scrimmage, winning with your feet,

winning with your releases winning with you know veering your routes attacking blind spots you know the tempo in which like i talked about with isaiah bond you know accelerating decelerating exactly when you need to there is so much of his game that i really do love the biggest issue to me is he's not a big time separator it's just not his game he's got the he's got that long speed if you say hey hit a go route on this dude on press coverage he'll be able to either give you a speed release or he can give you sort of like a like a skip and go he can give you a diamond release to get to the outside whatever it is he can get even and pretty clean with a corner and i think he's got the the giddy up to get all the

way down the field and create some separation but he won't be a big separation guy from you in his breaks yeah zero to twelve with that being the case he's got to be a little bit better in contested catch situations he dropped the football a little bit more than I was comfortable with this past year and I think you hear a lot of really smart people who talk about this. Matt Harmon is one of them who loved Matt's work, not only for what he does covering NFL draft prospects, but covering guys from a fantasy football angle and certainly just from a pro football angle as well.

And he talks about, hey, you can live with drops. Drops are very much an up-and-down thing. Even at PFF, we categorize drops as an unstable metric, meaning it's not a guarantee that if you see a lot of drops one year, you'll see a lot of drops the next year. Or even if you don't see a lot of drops one year, that you don't see a lot of drops the next year. It's just sort of, that's one of those metrics

and one of those things where a lot of it is sort of bang bang plays very quick plays but some guys are able to separate themselves and really stand out in that category I wish Io Maynard had that a little bit more on his scouting report but I have him at number five I believe in this wide receiver a lot he reminds me a lot of James Jones and how James Jones played where Jones was sort of a bigger type of wide receiver. They're very similar builds because Io Maynard is listed at like 6'2", 210 pounds. Both of them can block for you. Both of them give you that added agility, foot speed,

some of that nuance that you want to see from those bigger wide receivers. James Jones could block pretty damn well. And at his best, he was a good contested catch receiver, and that's what the I.O. Maynard needs to be as well. So I saw his game similarly to sort of how we saw James Jones when he was doing his thing for the Packers. So who do you have? 10 to 6. All right.

10 to 6. 10, I have Isaiah Bond, who we kind of already talked about here. Yeah, we did a lot on him. The inconsistency is really sort of getting in the way of Bond being a lot higher. Jack Besch. Besch is how you say his last name, correct? Besch? But I've heard.

All right, so Jack Besch, I have at number nine, a player who I do like a lot. Do you... Do you have Jaden Higgins in your top five? Yeah. Okay, all right, okay, all right. Damn, Skippy, okay. All right, we got Jaden Higgins at number top five yeah okay all right okay all right damn skippy okay uh all right we got we got jayden higgins at number eight here because i was five if you want to talk about him

now well i mean yeah we uh all right we we can have the conversation because he's gonna kick off my rankings i'm not like burying him in the top three yeah this is the first like new name that we have here um because we already talked about bash and isaiah bond so this is the first like new name that we've got so you got him at five i got him at eight you were making me worried there because we're running out of like names that we could be different and i i was i was really worried that you were like yeah i got higgins at 21 i'm just gonna be like 21 what was i watching what am i watching the wrong guy i just got like the wrong numbers mixed up i'm watching some like true freshman who's got no idea what he's doing.

Has no idea the difference between his hands and his feet. So Higgins at Iowa State. He is the more productive player, I think, of the two. We talked about Jalen Noel already. But senior, just a six foot three and a half. Actually, I think he's a little over. I think he's almost six foot four where we've got his official measurements. Yeah, got him six, three and a half actually i think he's a little over i think he's almost six foot four where we've got him his official measurements yeah got him six three and three quarters okay

six three and three quarters official measurements and then uh 210 pounds so he is 86th percentile in height 70th percentile in weight so he's got really nice size to him connor's a really good football player sort of like i talked you know, he's not too far from Alec Iomainer. I think Iomainer with the track background has him a little bit when it comes to the long speed. You know, I think that he can stretch the field

a little bit more vertically better than Jaden Higgins can. But both of them win with really great footwork for big men. And when you are an outside wide receiver and you take pride in your craft to be great off the line of scrimmage and win with footwork and releases and nuance really well and consistently, I'm going to take notice of that. Because it's harder to do when you've got more body to move, right? I mean, that's just, that's it. Sometimes you can boil it down to sort of the physical limitations right i mean i want you guys

to think of this if you're sort of new to scouting you're thinking about evaluating wide receivers in a certain way something you always think about it's like okay well you can't you can't evaluate guys in a vacuum because all different sizes of wide receivers have to operate differently bigger wide receivers they come with pros and cons. The cons are often they have a lack of flexibility to them. They're a little bit more heavy footed. They have to move more weight. So it's tough for them to be more agile. It's tough for them to flip the hips with comeback routes and things like that. It's tough for them to really put their foot in the ground and have sharp cuts on their brakes because they have more body to move. When you were a smaller

wide receiver, you have less body to move. So it is easier for you and your muscles to do it. Jaden Higgins is one of those wide receivers where he's not quite a rare type of a prospect, but he is somebody who gives you that extra wiggle for a big man for an outside X type of a wide receiver. So I love that for him. I think he's got those smooth hips to be able to change direction pretty well for his size.

I think he's somebody who can run the whole route tree because of what I've been talking about here. So there's a lot of route versatility. There's a lot of scheme versatility. You can play him as an X on the line of scrimmage. I think you play him off the line of scrimmage as a flanker as well. If you want to give him that advantage to not face as many hands in press coverage. Although I do think that he can attack that pretty well.

I think he's got the active hands and he knows how to get off of press coverage when those guys want to get those early hands on him. He's very quick, just like an edge rusher. He's very quick to just disengage those hands, get around, whether it's just a chop to clear him or a two-handed swipe or a swim move or whatever it is. He knows how to keep himself pretty clean. I think because of that lack of separation

and that lack of vertical speed, you see him push off a little bit when we get to those 20, 25, 30, 40 yard throws deeper down the field. And I think that's just sort of like a combination of lacking a little bit of that top speed. And I just don't think he's going to be a big yak guy for you, right? And so if you're looking for a big yards after catch type of a player, again, this is all sort of in the same bucket of why I'm a little bit lower on him than you are just i think because i'm i've got a little bit of of concerns about the the long speed but there's so much that he does that you love and he's got the production he knows how to be a go-to player in this this

passing offense they go to him in really big situations he's got the sheer hands so um really cool journey to zero star recruit out of uh out of high school so yeah um started eastern kentucky before he got over to iowa state and man he's just had an incredibly productive career since he has been in am so uh jayden higgins number eight for me here that man really good football player the reason i had him one spot above io manor is i just think he he catches the ball better. He does. I will give you that.

He's got better hands. I think Io Manor is a better athlete, but Higgins definitely catches the ball better right now. I mean, two drops in 2023, two drops in 2024. And this guy is peppered. Should have been zeroed. What a bum. Peppered. Yeah. Pump the numbers down.

87 catches, almost 1,200 yards, nine touchdowns this year. Off a season where he had 53 catches, 983 yards, and six touchdowns. Plays inside and outside. Excellent at positioning. He is a master of the slant route. Knows how to shield defenders. Great red zone threat. I thought he was shiftier after the catch than I expected with his size.

There was a lot of aspects of his game including his size down to a t where he there's drake london in this game like no joke i'm like man it's it's not one for one because drake london was a pretty unique prospect but higgins is the best parts of his game is what you loved about drake london and uh i was i love his the brand of football this guy plays i just think that you can move him all around the formation i think that he impacts the game so much not just in between the 20s but in the red and i think he he plays like a guy that no surprise you know eastern kentucky to iowa state it's um you know it's not all sunshine and rainbows football.

This guy's had a road where, I talk about this with Cam Ward a lot, right? Where you didn't get the treatment as a five-star recruit. You weren't this hot commodity even when you transferred. And you kind of have to go out and earn every little speck of dust out there. And I think he plays that way. So big, big fan um i think a player that everybody is gonna really warm up to when they dive into the film that he built off of already really good 2023 film yep and i you know i was talking about how uh 0.39 really good wins above

replacement number for um oh who was i talking talking about that? Beck, I was just talking about. Or Besch, I was just talking about that for him. Jaden Higgins, even better, 0.43. And he's been consistent right about that number the last two seasons. So not only has it been one season where he's had a really high wins above replacement, he's got two seasons of it. So really good work there from Higgins. Really cool story for him to get to this point to be a highly regarded NFL player.

I got Xavier Estrepo at number seven. Hello. just think dude I just think he knows how to win I just get open I just think he knows how to get open man he reminds me of of Sterling Shepard sort of very similar builds and you know I think that Sterling Shepard's been I think they tried him a little bit more as an outside receiver when he got to the NFL level. But, you know, man, when I was watching him at Oklahoma, I always felt like the short area quickness, the body control, the contested catchability, you know, how he was able to set you up with those routes, how he was able to find those soft spots in the zone. Like, man, to me, it's so similar to the way that Sterling Shepard was able to win.

And Shepard ended up getting taken in the second round and obviously hasn't quite lived up to that, but he's playing well in Tampa right now, back with Baker Mayfield. And so I see a lot of similarities between those two guys. You know, I think that you highlighted him pretty well. The thing that stands out for you for Reschrepo, 93rd percentile in separation overall,

and then 88th percentile in terms of separation against single coverage. He just gets it. He knows how to attack different leverages. He knows how to put cornerbacks in hell, despite not having the best type of athleticism. And you know, I know that you talked about some athletic limitations with him. I think that the long speed, not being able to threaten as much over the top, I think that goes into it. Also, it affects his yards after catch ability. And when you talk about him being a slot type of a player, you want guys that

will give you that yak ability. He has it, but there's some limitations there, especially with him being a little bit smaller of a player, having a little bit shorter of stride length and just covering a little bit less ground. I think that goes into it. But overall, I think he's a very overall all-around athlete. Excuse me, I should say. Great blend of strength, quickness, body control.

I think he's pretty strong for his size. He is a precise route runner. He's got those strong, reliable hands. So, you know, he's a little bit limited when it comes to his experience versus press coverage because Miami just didn't ask him to do it a lot. They let him to play in the slot and absolutely eat. And hey, guess what? He did. I think he's a workhorse type of a player. I think his numbers are great in so many different categories. In high school, he, shoot, he played which, what, all these positions. He played receiver.

He played defensive back. I think he played linebacker or safety for a little bit. He even had over 500 yard passing in high school. I mean, that just goes to show you the type of all around athlete that this dude was. So he had a lot of the big boys after him when it came to his recruiting and he ends up going to Miami. He's been playing very, very well. So to me, he is one of my favorite wide receivers in this class.

What you see is what you get with Xavier Estrepo in the best way, and I think he presents a high floor and somebody who can be a productive NFL player. So I have him at number seven. Yeah, somebody that, you know, can he be like Khalil Shakur at the next level great comp the way Buffalo's used him that's that's the road to success for him and that's that'd be a hell of a hell of a start for Restrepo who Restrepo has a floor and that matters a lot in this class where you can't say that about all these guys just put his route polish six, Savion Williams from TCU. Yeah, I'm excited to hear this one.

Dude. I mean, you talk about players that got into this exercise at the buzzer. I mean, he accepts a Senior Bowl invite. I go, okay, well, I got to watch the TCUs, guys. I watched Besh and I go, wow, where they've been hiding this guy. Right.

You know what I mean? Like, this is fantastic. He's got great film. Absolutely love him. And then the senior bowl adds this other TCU ice here. And I go, okay. There was some buzz when he, when he accepted. I was like, I have not watched a lot of TCU this year.

I have not heard a lot about Savion Williams. I remember watching a player, you know, opposite Quentin Johnston, you know, when he was there. And so like, I remember seeing him a little bit, but never really studied him. Brother, the potential that this kid has is stupid. Six foot three and a half, 228 pounds. He's massive.

We're talking 87th percentile in height, 95th percentile in weight. I mean, this is a big boy. This is a NFL-built wide receiver. Now, you say, okay, he's a redshirt senior. He's a former four-star. You know, why did it take so long? Why are we talking about him now? Why aren't we talking about him before? So, he started his career at TCU mainly as a kick returner. When he was there his freshman year, he got on the field. He was a kick returner there for him. Played in seven games the next year.

Started every game the next year. Started every game the next year. Started every game this year as well. So he has a ton of experience under his belt at this point, which you love to see. He's also a Feldman freak. He was on the Feldman freaks list, both for 2023 and 2024. Bruce Feldman said

that he has a 10 foot, six inch broad jump and a 40 inch vertical jump, which he is above six foot three and 228 pounds. Holy shit. That is some incredible weight adjusted explosiveness. So he played quarterback his last year when he was in high school. And Feldman notes, because his coach said this at TCU,

I believe it was his coach at TCU who said this, because they were just, you know, like messing around in practice one day. It's like, oh yeah, after practice, hey Savion, you played quarterback in high school, why don't you throw this football? He said he threw it 80 yards in the air. I believe it. And he's like, it's just God-given talent. The explosiveness, the power that this dude has. He squats over 600 pounds.

He benches 335. He can power clean 350. What I'm trying to say is, the man can host the pod. I know he's not quite 240, but we'll let him sub in. We have an official can host the pod wide receiver, and we don't get many of these around. No, it really don't. The things that so explosiveness and athleticism stand out right away.

Long speed absolutely has it. You talk about those jumps, the broad jump, the vertical jump. They'll tell you how powerful that first step is for him. Now his game needs a little bit more cleaned up. You know, I think that there's some false steps that we've seen from him now his game needs a little bit more cleaned up you know i think that there's some false steps that we've seen from him out of his releases you know i think that when he's he's fighting deep down the field for those longer passes he extends his hands a little bit too much and i think he's going to get in trouble with opi at the nfl level but

opi is not the worst thing as benjamin solek would say hey always commit opi because uh a lot of times they do not call it shout out to ben solek Shout out to Ben Solak for that. And I do believe it. And I think Savion Williams could be a favorite of Ben's maybe because of this. But when it comes to what he does do well, it's so many things. He is an elite contested catch wide receiver. Some of the catches through contact. Connor, over the last two years, this man has a 100th percentile contested catch percentage. 72.2% of his contested catches were caught.

So he's got crazy vice grips for hands. He's got pretty good separation numbers as well. 83rd percentile regular separation, 42nd in single coverage situations. He is an extremely impressive athlete throughout. Really strong upper body for, for, uh, blocking assignments. And then my favorite part about him. And the reason why you talked about Jim Nagy saying the quarter L Patterson comp makes sense for him is because he is used all over in so many ways. I told you he was a kid. I said that he was a kick returner

his first year when he was at TCU, they've used him as a wide receiver. They've used him at the X. They've used him as a flanker. They've used him as a move wide receiver before the snap. They use him in the slot, although not a ton. They use him as a true running back out of the backfield, and they use him as a wildcat quarterback in certain situations. This dude's an athletic freak. He's going to blow up the combine. It's going to be incredible to watch him at the senior bowl. I cannot wait for it. But simply put, they don't make many a Savion Williams. They really don't. And that's why I've got him at number six,

because the potential for this dude is through the roof. Now, for every DK Metcalf, there's a Chase Claypool, if you will. Right? Sure. For every Corderell Patterson, there's a LaVisca Chanel. So there are guys who make it and guys who don't. But as coaches and scouts will tell you, big people beat up little people. Yep.

And the NFL is a big people league. Savion Williams gives you the type of player that you covet in the top 50. This is the type of player that you draft and you go, we got to figure it out with this dude, because if we can't, that's on us as coaches. So everything that Savion brings to the table, is it quite perfect? No. Could he use a little bit more nuance? Yes. But man, there's already like some building blocks of i watch him in his footwork and i watch him off press coverage and he does little things i've seen some split releases from him i've seen a little skip and go from him and i go okay

you're lord you're you're learning the releases if i get a if i get a diverse release package from a player that has this sort of contact balance, strength, ability to get off of coverage in his breaks, the vertical ability, the yards after catch ability, the vision, the playmaker mentality, the blocking ability, everything. If you give me all these little things and even just that willingness to want to be better at the nuanced parts of the position,

yep, give me this player. I would be shocked if he is not in my top 50 when it's all said and done. So my concerns with him are that he drops too many layups and the route tree is a gigantic work in progress where when he gets to a camp, you almost have to kind of have that Malachi Corley plan for him where it's like, okay, we better have the creative stuff

to keep you involved while we're working on the other stuff. But the difference is where it's like, okay, we better have the creative stuff to keep you involved while we're working on the other stuff. But the difference is, like you said, Trevor, he's six foot four, almost, he's almost 230 pounds. When they get the ball in his hands, the contact balance is phenomenal. Like guys just fly off of him. He's already been used on jet sweeps. Like you said, when they use him as a running back, they throw swing passes to him. He's already been used on jet sweeps. Like you said, when they use him as a running back, they throw swing passes to him. 60 catches this year, 51 rush attempts. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry. He would be the guy to me that like, as the Niners get ready to eventually move on from Debo, I'd be stashing this guy and use him like that. Get him ready for that kind of role. Maybe not as much on the receiver plate. Debo didn't get enough credit

for how much he does as a receiver, but all the other stuff while he polishes the receiving game aspects of his actual skill set. I don't totally disagree with you. I think he's a little bit further along as a route runner, but again, it's not like he's good to go right now.

He does still need to improve, but again, it's hard for he's good to go right now. He does still need to improve. But again, it's hard for me to watch this guy's film and think like, yeah, I'm going to talk myself out of this guy. In fact, it's the other way around for me. I've got to find reasons to talk me out of a player like this with this type of potential. So that brings us to our top fives before we get into it, though. New Year's is coming around.

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All investing is subject to risk. Learn more at meatfabric.com. Samuel Williams might be a leader in the clubhouse for the 2025 meat fabric award. I mean, he's up there going to be honest with you. So number five for you is wide receiver. Definitely.

He's a nominee. Five for you was Jaden Higgins, right? Right. Who is four for you? Mecca Abuka from Ohio state. Damn right. He is brother.

It's just like, I've watched him. Mecca Abuka. I feel like for four different shows now, every It's just like, I've watched Emeka Ibuka, I feel like, for four different shows now. Every time, you're like, man, Emeka Ibuka is on this show. Oh, this show. Okay, all right. Because think about it.

We did. But he had another draft show on me. No, come on now. Never. Summer scouting the first time, and then thinking he was going to declare for the draft, and he didn't. And then summer scouting again. Right? And now the rankings again. Yep. And he the good thing about a Mecca book is this is the same player every

time like Polish route runner. Very reliable inside and outside I think he's a he's a good athlete at about 612 104 pounds well built. He just has such a good understanding of how to change gears throughout his routes to create space and separation. All the things we talked about that are problematic with Isaiah Bond as a route runner, picture Ibuka as the opposite. He just has such a great understanding and control of his speed. He really is a route technician inside and outside. He caught 37 first downs in 2024. He caught nine of his 15 contested catch opportunities. He's got great concentration to make difficult grabs.

He's very productive over the middle of the field. And we've seen that for two years in a row. Now, uh, really good run blocking wide receiver again, by the way, the Michigan state film to me was a clinic of run blocking. There's times where they,

they line them up tight to the formation, almost like you would do with a move tight end and have them lead the way. I was like, Oh my God, that is, that is says something a little different about the DNA of this guy. So yeah, I don't think he's got like this crazy high end acceleration with him without

the ball that kind of maybe separates him from being this bonafide typical number one wide receiver prospect or a top guy in the class but man he is so steady eddie and everything that he does and he doesn't ever have to come off the field there's a lot of guys in this classroom like he can't do this he can't do that or he's not built for this emeka abuka is in every personal personnel package that you're going to trot out there. And that matters a lot in today's game. So I've always liked Mecca Abuka, Trevor, even after the down year in 2023 that I never thought was his fault. But it was really nice to see him. It's not bounce back because I don't think the player ever changed.

But the film this year, it's all there for you at the simplest form. I am not going to let Prospect get a making right we will we will me personally and it sounds like you as well because we both have him at number four um we'll not be doing that here on this podcast this is to me a high-end wide receiver two low-end wide receiver one potential player at the NFL level he he has a lot of different types of comps to him you know i've seen people you know robert woods is one that i do like like pre-injury robert woods makes a lot of sense obviously the blocking and what robert woods was able to use a blocker i think that makes sense it is hard for me and i i try

not to be hyperbolic with these comps i really don't it's hard for me to not see a monroe say brown with him he he just i get it and like if st brown's not on the lions he's probably not quite what he is today sure that's an important part to remember but both of these dudes just offer you so much they are so smart they understand how to create throwing windows. They have such great chemistry with their quarterbacks. He's been coached up. He is just, it's everything about his game is just so damn solid, man. And whether you like the Robert Woods comp or you like the Amon Ross St. Brown comp or somewhere in between, he's that.

To me, it would be so hard for this guy to be worse than those two comps which are some damn good football players and i think people forget about how good robert woods was certainly when it was at usc and then pre-injuries when he's had in the nfl so i you you mentioned it the the the blocking ability is great he's such a high iq player he knows how to attack different coverages he knows how to attack leverages um he's great with his hands he's good with releases he's nuanced in his routes his routes could maybe be i mean if you're if you're watching him and you're like if you watch him after you watch say like tez johnson or something like that yeah okay the routes aren't as stopping on a dime and as sharp but it's when you watch it

a little bit more i think that you can appreciate where Emeka Igbuka's routes are more rounded than maybe some other players. They're often more rounded not mainly because he can't turn, but more of because he is trying to do speed outs or in a mesh route over the middle or something like that. It's an up and out or it's an out and up, but he's trying to make sure that it's as smooth as can be.

And so it's a little bit less of, to me, it's less showcasing limitations and more nuance of knowing who he is as a player, knowing the timing that he has with his quarterbacks, and knowing how to stay clean off of defensive backs. So I love Ibuka a ton. I think that he is a fantastic prospect. I think he's going to be in my top 25, top 20 when it's all said and done, because I gave him a very high score. And that just goes to show you how much I like the other guys in this class as well. You know, last year's wide receiver class was really good. And I'll get into this more in a second. But if you exclude Travis Hunter, because Travis Hunter obviously is a unique prospect with

the cornerback ability as well. I really do think that these last couple of guys that we're talking about here, I wouldn't have ranked them above malik neighbors and and marvin harrison jr but they would be in the conversation like with romo dunze in my opinion i don't i don't think it's that much of a drop off especially for the two guys no i'm gonna list above this yeah i agree i agree i don't think it's that crazy either like brian thomas jr who i really liked a lot right i like i think i like him better but it's it's different you don't hey you don't have to agree with me in that regard that's just i didn't i haven't thought of it yet people always like well what is this class like compared to last class the two the two guys that i have that aren't named travis hunter that we're

going to get to in a second like i genuinely like them enough where I would have talked about them with Brian Thomas Jr., with Robert Dunzay. They would have been right there. Yeah. I totally agree on that. I thought we were talking about strictly Ibuka. So Ibuka, I think I would have, versus last year, I think I would have had Ibuka above Brian Thomas Jr.

Because you were higher on Brian Thomas Jr. than I was. And I think I would have had him slightly above BTJ. Which, BTJ's been awesome. I mean, he's been even better than I thought that he was going to be, certainly early on at the NFL level. So I'll certainly admit that. But that's what I'm talking about with these dudes. I like these dudes that are top of this wide receiver class a lot.

Yeah, me too. I'm curious if we have the same top four. So Ib was four for me three was luther burden from missouri two was travis hunter from colorado and one was tet mcmillan from arizona so i have travis at three i have luther at two and i have ted at one okay yeah so pretty close you want to talk about travis first yeah we could do that. Do you still think he's wide receiver over corner? If I had to pick? Yes.

No. Okay. I've changed my mind on that. I just am fascinated on what he's going to want to do, which is a combo that's like not worth having because we don't know. But over summer, I thought he was a much better wide receiver than corner and i think he has taken so many strides at corner this year and the value and uniqueness of corner that i'd rather him i'd rather draft him as a corner that's what i i'm i'm a save way like yeah so i think he is taking insane strides at corner this year where I love him at corner. Now I had some questions over the summer wide receiver over the summer. I didn't night him as a top five guy, a quick explosive athlete, a change of direction skills, stop and start speed to threaten vertically body control to stay in bounds is just just brilliant i had said over the summer and i kept this note in

after the catch he he runs like garrett wilson where it's just so sharp man his stop and start and slip that slender body that slips through defenders the kid plays a fearless brand of football over the middle of the field i should ever put him in some bad spots the last two years i'll say that watching film like like contested catch spot like hospital balls he gets clobbered a couple times where i'm like i give him a lot of credit to try to make a play so he's a couple of them are scary so he's obviously slender right he's six foot one 185 pounds which is 48th percentile for height 15th percentile for weight so he's he i mean he is a slender wide receiver dude he is a 66.7 contested catch percentage over the last two years oh that's that's 99th percentile

i put a plus ball skills a plus yes because the way he plucks the ball out of the air and the focus is is phenomenal yeah you're right he's he is a great contested catch player for not a strong guy. Did not expect that. Did not expect he like, this isn't going to be the pile on Shadera pod because Shadera is going to go in the first round, the top 10, top five, number one, who knows? It's not the point here. When you watch Travis Hunter at wide receiver though, the plays he makes for any quarterback and Shadera made a lot of good throws away from Travis Hunter to the other guys. But I'm just saying what Travis Hunter could do for a quarterback is you're like, wow. Yeah. Well, that's why he was number two to me. He's just, he's such an explosive athlete, but even when there's dedicated coverage to him, that he's going to be playing in

tight quarters or going into a dangerous area of the field he finds a way to make something happen i think it'd be crazy if now i well i understand that like quarterback is a different conversation but like i think it's crazy if this guy's not not the number one pick in the draft i i agree i don't he is it might not be close. He is such a rare athlete. And I don't just, I, when I say that he is a rare athlete athletically, but I'm actually meaning that as a playmaker mentality type of, yes, like see ball, get ball at every time he's on the field. Every time he's on the field, he is, he is a takeover player. Every single time he steps on the football field, no matter what position he is playing. Now as a wide receiver,

as you would expect, like the negatives of him and the why, the reason why I have him as like wide receiver three, just strictly as a wide receiver is the lean frame can get thrown around a little bit, right? When he's up against press coverage, he's still feisty,

but he can get pushed around a little bit. He get pushed around at the catch point, even though he's got a great contest catch percentage, just because he's got such damn good ball skills and great hands, but he can still get sort of bodied when it comes to the catch point that only gets harder at the NFL level, the footwork and the fundamentals to get off a press coverage. I mean, it's not as diverse as it could be. And if he was a full-time wide receiver, I've got faith that it could certainly develop and get even better. But like, if you're just judging him as a wide receiver right now, you know, if he's getting

drafted to be a corner and then you're moving him over to wide receiver that's sort of the umbrella there the the lens in which i'm viewing him and so he could get he could get uh he'd get a little bit more precise i think in his routes and how he's getting off the line of scrimmage you know when he's fighting off of defenders down the field he can get bumped a little bit you know when he's playing defenders who are in off coverage when he gets to that break point and they get hands on him yeah it can be a little bit more difficult for him to get free and get clean and sometimes you see a little bit more of those contested catch situations but dude super long arms fully maximizes the catch radius oh yeah

like ball skills are just like you said a plus they're unbelievable and then, again, the playmaker mentality. Travis Hunter just gets it. He is the best version of the best player on the playground, but he just does it at a super high college football and NFL level. And I think that's really impressive. It almost breaks your confidence going against him. Oh, dude. we just we don't have an answer for this i don't know what you you've all been there out in the playground you're like there's that one guy that it's he's just so much different than everyone else no matter what

sport you're playing whether it's pickup basketball football you go play beer pong with him and he's the dude hitting like seven shots in a row. Well, hold on now. Hold on. Just saying. You either got it. I don't get intimidated against anybody. Why don't you start us off with Luther Burden? Because you haven't met two. I haven't met three. Yeah. So Luther Burden, I'll be honest with you. Missouri's wide receiver. Absolute stud.

Five-star wide receiver. He's a St. Louis kid. Ends up committing to Missouri. Sort of dream school, getting to go to Missouri. Absolutely loves it. Freshman year, he was a standout player. Sophomore year, he was an incredible player last year. This year, a little bit more quiet for him. And I wondered if I was going to watch the film and be like, ah, man, did Burton fall off a little bit here?

I'm here to tell you no. He did not. And though the year was not what Missouri wanted, though the passing attack at Missouri was not what they wanted, I did not see a player that gave up on film. I did not see a player that mailed it in. I did not see a player that was not the same sort of playmaker we saw the year before. I genuinely believe that Luther Burden's lack of production this year

simply came from the fact that Missouri's passing offense was not nearly as good as it was the year before. So 5'11", 208 pounds. Love the overall size. I mean, he's below six feet, so you got to be all right with that. But 208 pounds is 65th percentile. You absolutely love it. And that's a great way to start just who he is as a wide receiver.

He's a fantastic all-around athlete. He's been that even all through high school when he earned that five-star recruiting label. He was a state championship player in basketball. And I think that you see that sort of not just multi-sport background, incredibly successful multi-sport background. He averaged 18 points a game as a basketball player in high school. It's not like this guy was like, oh, he's a good athlete. Let's put him in the other sports too. No, no, no. This dude was great. He was a fantastic basketball player. And I got to think that he actually probably could have played college basketball as well, but he's a five-star

wide receiver. We love him for that on this podcast because we get to talk about him here. He's a true natural playmaker when the ball gets in his hands. You go back to Travis Hunter and what we said about Travis Hunter, how this is just a playground type of a player who, when you get the ball in his hands, it feels like he's going to score the football. You really feel that way with Luther Burton, and I think that that shows. He's got really high yards after catch scores. His yards after catch, 87th percentile over the last two years.

His yards per route run, 88th percentile, so he's getting used in a ton of different ways. 94th percentile in regular separation, 64th percentile in separation versus single coverage, really high athletic score scores. We've got in-game athletic scores or a gas as, as Sam Monson would call it here at PFF. And those scores were consistently in the nineties for him for the last

three years that, that he was playing at Missouri really good balance. I mean, he it's, it's hard to not see Debo Samuel with him. You know, again, a very high lofty comp here, but the body types, a little bit smaller, a little bit more compact of a build,

the ability to bounce off a contact, the ability to create those yards after catch, being a major screen player, somebody who you could give the ball to him in jet sweeps and out of the backfield as a running back again. Like, this is the type of player that we're talking about here.

And he's got that similar build. And he can get pushed around a little bit in the blocking game. I think the blocking game could be a little bit better for him. I think he could take a little bit more pride in that. And the other thing with Luther Burden is, I think he's got great hands, I do.

I wish he would attack the football a little bit more in the air. I wish that he would not let it come to him nearly as much. I wish he would go up and attack the football in the air because there is a player that we're going to talk here at number one, where that is never an issue. Never. And that's a quality that I love in a wide receiver, especially with a wide receiver that has that all-around ability that Luther Burden does. I wish we could see a little bit more of it. So I think he's a really sharp route runner.

I think he's a precise route runner. I think he knows how to find those soft spots in the zone. Like there's just so much to love about this player. My little bottom line, if you will, scouting report that I wrote for him, Burden's a five- five tool, multi-sport ideal athlete for the receiver position at the NFL level. His potential is as well-rounded as they come as a first round talent who could succeed at any receiver position in an offense. I believe in this guy a ton with him having such a down year this year. I really did wonder if I

was going to watch Burden and be like, ah, you know, just don't love him as much as I did over the summer. I still love this guy a lot. I think he's going to be one hell of a bro. I think so too. It's, it's one of those that you need a ton of context when turned on the Luther Burden tape and just kind of see what happened to him in this offense this year. And it's not that it was a disaster because if it was a disaster, we wouldn't talk about Luther Burden as a top 15 pick. there would be some more serious ramifications but he's an exceptional playmaker he's a tough player the pound for pound strength is so good he's got the body control he can high point I I think he has absolutely mastered the

slot fade when you watch him run a slot fade it's just a thing of perfection. All the ability to create yards after the catch. It's kind of got that lookout when they get him in any kind of space. The final note I wrote is just that he's just got such a bigger ceiling in the right NFL offense. And I think a lot of NFL teams are going to outline that. Honestly, I think they're going to see that with him. And some of it, you know, the quarterback at times, the yards per reception dropped to three full yards this year, which is alarming. It went from 14.1 to 11.1. But you watch some of the missed opportunities

from the play under center, and it doesn't really shock you. Yep. All right. So then I introed Luther Burton, who I added number two, but we have the same player at number one. I'll let you intro Tetero McMillan, the wide receiver from Arizona here at the top of the list. Yeah, Teterow McMillan,

somebody that over summer I compared to Cortland Sutton, 6'5", 210 pounds. I mean, this is a dude that just, he is a big bodied perimeter target. It's, I mean, massive, massive size. And you look at the production now over the last two years in 2023 had 90 catches over 1400 yards he averaged 15.6 yards per catch in 2024 and one less game he has 84 catches over 1300 yards and 15.7 yards per catch this guy has caught now 26 touchdowns over

the last three years just a totally different monster when it comes to finishing drives he is the man when you want to convert a drive not into a field goal but into a touchdown we talked about this over summer he played with quarterback Noah Fafita since high school so there was a familiarity there that really kind of heated up this connection big strong hands like catcher mitt kind of meat hook hands that just when he when the he gets around the football it looks like he's t hook yes yeah yeah i mean m-e-a-t not m-e-e-t here um the contested catch rate has gone up over the years you know going back to 2022 how much it improved the following next two years after it in 2022 yeah

he's open when he's covered whether it's down the sideline in the red zone he can climb the ladder the one-handed grab to him i talked about the big hands the one hand it grabs routine it's routine i mean the strides these long strides with that six foot five frame chew up more turf where why it doesn't it might not look like he's moving faster than a tez johnson but when you have those kind of strides the build up speed vertically down the field to get over the top of the safety it's it's natural to him and you just look at you know i'm going to pull up some advanced stats here as well just the production in every aspect of the game, like key areas of winning a football game and sustaining offense. This guy

just checks the box in every single aspect of it. And he really, really does 63 first downs in 2023. And then you look at 2024 where you're like, man, it's naturally, he has to have a drop off, right? And he had 55 first downs. I would say the only, only thing is he, he dropped, he has to have a drop off, right? And he had 55 first downs. I would say the only thing is he dropped. He had more drops this year than the previous year. I don't think Fafita played as well this year. No, no. Which was a massive problem in this offense. Fafita took a step back.

And I don't think Ted fell victim to that because he was still awesome. He was awesome. And like the thing with Ted is at that size, you just could just play him wherever you want. He can be the type of catalyst. I don't think he's this player yet, but he can be the type of catalyst for an NFL offense that Nico Collins is for the Texans where you look around and you go, the quarterback looks at that outside perimeter target and he trusts him

when he's open and when he's not yeah and when we need to finish a drive i know where i'm going and if he's one-on-one coverage i'm throwing it i don't care and the kind of confidence that builds for a young quarterback is out of this world that's the kind of player tet is and i thought travis hunter gave him a hell of a hell of a run this year like i at least went into this with an open mind, but I watched Tett McMillan again after having wide receiver one this summer. No, I think

I had burden wide receiver one this summer. I had burden wide receiver one this summer. I had burden wide receiver one this summer, but Tett was... I felt really good about Tett at two, where I was like, this can go a couple ways this year, and it went the way that Tett McMillan is the best wide receiver in the draft. He's open when he's covered is a great way to sort of encapsulate who Tet McMillan is.

You talk about some advanced PFF stats that point to how good this guy is. I love this one that I found. He had a 45.2 threat percentage on opening drives, fourth most in the FBS. So when Arizona was opening games, when they were setting the tone, their first possession of the game, Ted McMillan was getting the football. It didn't matter who they were playing. It didn't matter which day. It didn't matter what time. They were throwing this dude the football. It didn't matter who they were playing. It didn't matter which day. It didn't matter at what time. They were throwing this dude the football on the opening drives because he was their go-to weapon. And I love that sort of faith. And it just goes to show how emphasized this player is. Again, fourth highest threat percentage on opening drives

in the FBS this season was Ted McMillan. So you did a great job sort of highlighting everything that he did well. I can't remember if you said it or not, but six foot five, 210 pounds. I mean, so that's just the length, the catch radius, everything's so fantastic. The strengths that I have written down, the height absolutely stands out on tape. Even before the first snap, those long strides, they are smooth and they build up to a pretty decent top speed. The hips flip much faster than you would expect given his size. Impressive acceleration. Rare to see any sort of false steps coming out of his releases. He's very comfortable maximizing that huge catch radius

like you mentioned for the one-handed catches or even the two-handed catches. He is actually, you know, he's going to naturally get a lot of the Mike Evans comps, but here's the thing. I'm not saying he's better than Mike Evans. He is different than Mike Evans, but an area where he is different than Mike Evans in a good way is Mike doesn't give you a lot of yak. He sort of did when he was at Texas A&M, just really hasn't at the NFL. It's not his game. Tet will give you yak. When Tet catches the football, he is looking to get yards after the catch. He moves a little different at that size. He wants to become a playmaker. He is looking for those extra yards. So I think that he does not,

the thing that I love about him too here that gives me so much faith that he's going to be a great NFL player is there are a lot of guys that rely on their physical gifts. Going all the way back to the beginning of the show, which is shit, almost like two hours now at this point.

When we talked about Kyron Lacey, Kyron Lacey just relies on his physical abilities to win as a wide receiver. Tet, of anybody in this group, he's in tier one, maybe not number one, but he's in the top group of guys who could simply rely on their physical gifts athletically or-wise, to win. He doesn't. He wants more. He has high IQ moments that you see in his game. He runs routes about as well as you could ask a big man to run his routes. My bottom line scouting report for him, McMillan brings all pro potential in length, athleticism, and IQ.

He is a smooth criminal of a wide receiver who is the focal point of arizona's offense with great return on investment he is a unique talent who deserves to be considered in the top 10 so there we go that's tet mcmillan number one overall for us on both of our lists you mind reading your 20 to uh to one really quick to to recap the show hell yeah. So 20 all the way down to one. Ty Felton from Maryland at 20. Tori Horton from Colorado State at 19. Caden Prather from Maryland at 18.

At 17, Savion Williams from TCU. 16 was Brew McCoy from Tennessee. 15 was Pat Bryant from Illinois. 14 was Xavier Restrepo, the slot receiver out of Miami. 13 was Tez Johnson, the speedster out of Oregon. His teammate at 12 was Evan Stewart. 11 was Trey Harris from Ole Miss. 10 was Jack Besch from TCU. 9 was Jalen Royals from Utah State. 8 was Isaiah bond out of Texas. Seven was Jalen Noel from Iowa state.

And then down to six was Alec IO manner from Stanford. Five was Jaden Higgins from Iowa state. Four was a Mecca Buka from Ohio state. Three was Luther burden from Missouri. Two was Travis Hunter from Colorado. Number one was Teteroa McMillan out of Arizona. And then for me, 20 is LSU is Kyron Lacey.

19, Ole Miss wide receiver Antoine Wells, Juice Wells. 18 for me was Evan Stewart from Oregon. 17, Pat Bryant from Illinois. 16, Kobe Hudson from UCF. 15, Jalen Knoll from Iowa State. 14, Torrey Horton from Colorado State. 13, Trey Harris from Ole Miss. 12, Tez Johnson from Oregon. 11, Jalen Royorton from Colorado State. 13, Trey Harris from Ole Miss. 12, Tez Johnson from Oregon.

11, Jalen Royals from Utah State. 10, Isaiah Bond from Texas. 9, Jack Besch from TCU. 8, Jaden Higgins from Iowa State. 7, Xavier Restrepo from Miami. 6, Savion Williams from TCU. 5, Elikai O'Meanor from Stanford. 4, Emeka Igbuka from Ohio State.

3, Travis Hunter from Colorado. O'Meanor from Stanford, four, Emeka Igbuka from Ohio State, three, Travis Hunter from Colorado, two, Luther Burton from Missouri. And number one was Tetra O. McMillan. We would love to hear from you guys. We know you got takes on wide receivers, whether you are an NFL draft head, whether you are somebody whose team needs a wide receiver, whether you are a fantasy football devvy person

who's watching this like a true sicko, and we love you for it, way in advance for whenever your rookie drafts are going to be. We'd love to hear from you. If you got an initial wide receiver ranking list again, wide receiver, we know that it's an easier position for people to have opinions on.

We would love to see as many wide receiver rankings as possible from the people. It starts a lot of cool conversations. It's a cool way to go back and forth and everybody's got their flavor of guys. As you can see on the show with two hosts who have two very different lists on a lot of the same names, we would love to hear from you. And now we hate each other.

And now we do. This is the last episode of the pod. Merry Christmas. Never doing this again. So best way to do that, youtube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. If you're audio only, Twitter, Instagram, at Tampa Bay Trey, at Conjure Rogers, that's the best way to get in on the show. We're going to be doing a lot more of these.

I think over the last next month, month and a half, the episode timing of when they're going to drop might change a little bit just because it is a lot of film to drop, but we're going to give you as many positions as we can before All-Star Weekend rolls around with East West Shrine Bowl and the Senior Bowl as well. Before we get to that,

we do have one more Fix Your Fr fixture franchise episode that we are getting to next week. It will be the Carolina Panthers. I know a lot of people out there are, we're suggesting some other teams. We're sorry if we didn't get to you this year, but we try to do as many as possible next year. We really want to,

well, we don't want, we don't want to be, you can always suck next year. Yeah. Come on. Don't say that to the people. We want to get to as position reports as we possibly can.

So we're doing one more. We're doing the Carolina Panthers on Monday. Connor, anything else before we get out of here? No. Marathon, ton of fun. Man, I feel like Forrest Gump after running across the country right now. I'm tired. Going to take a day off from watching tape.

And then whatever position group is next, full throttle. We're back in it for next week. I love this was so much fun, man back really diving back into the tape i hope you guys enjoyed these episodes yes i'm gonna read real quick the other guys i watched just so people i know the comments are always like yeah sure yeah yeah you can uh okay so i watched you watch a couple more guys than i did you think you're're better than me. No, not really. Yeah, no, you think you're better than me. It's fine. It's not that crazy of a list.

Taquan Felton and Jalen Lane from Virginia Tech. Theo Weiss Jr. from Missouri. I said the three Colorado guys. And I also watched a little bit of Ricky White from UNLV. But there are a lot more receivers I know I need to watch. And I appreciate all the names you guys tweeted us. I promise for the final rankings, we will get to the— I mean, if we did 20-something for this show today,

we're going to be watching almost 50 wide receivers. Yeah, we're going to be close. It's going to be an extensive list this year, so make sure you slam that subscribe button because we're going to go deeper on this draft class than we ever have for any other draft class, and I'm excited for it. For Connor Rogers, I'm Trevor Sycamore saying thank you guys so much for watching and listening

to the nfl stock exchange podcast we'll see you next time.