The Ringer NFL Show - Best Receiver Draft Picks in the Last 10 Years | Big Board

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

The Ringer Fantasy Football Show's Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly discuss the 10 best-value wide receiver draft picks in the last 10 years. Then they go through some receivers from this year's draft class who could be the next midround gems. Follow ‘The Ringer Fantasy Football Show.’ Check out The Ringer Draft Guide. Hosts: Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NBA season is heating up, and Kevin O'Connor and Chris Vernon have got you covered on the mismatch. They discuss all the news, the trends, and transactions happening around the league. They also offer their on-court analysis and occasionally get into heated debates. Check out the mismatch on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. My name is Danny Hyfitts, and I am joined by my co-host, Danny Kelly. What's up, D.K.? What's happening, man? How are you doing?

What's up, man? You may know us from the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, which we record every Wednesday. during the off season. But now we are also coming to you every Friday until the draft here on the ringer NFL show for the big board. We are ranking something involving the draft every Friday. And this week, it's going to be something. We're obsessed with ranking stuff.

We love ranking things. We love Fridays. It's like the two best things there is. So this week we are ranking the best receiver draft picks of the last 10 years. And let's just get this out of the way. Best doesn't mean best players. Like Julio Jones went like top 10. That doesn't count.

it's like the best value. We're talking about Michael Thomas in the second round, Devante Adams in the second round. Like that's what we mean when we say best picks. So we're going to rank the most valuable receiver picks. We're going to talk about just generally, why does so many good players fall outside the first and second round for receivers? And then we're going to see if we can take those lessons from the past

and apply it to this year's receiver group. It's a really deep pool. And we're going to see if we can find this year as Michael Thomas or this year's Devante Adams. How does that sound, D.K. That sounds amazing. and I'm excited. I'm really excited to see your list because we made our list separately. We haven't seen each other's lists.

So I think there's going to be some pretty big differences, but we'll see how it goes. I mean, there better be differences. Otherwise, it's probably going to be bad content. Terrible content. Yeah, let's try. Let's see. So let's just dive in.

We're going to start with just number one. So right off the bat, last 10 years, who's the best receiver draft pick last 10 years? We're counting for value. Who you got number one? My number one is Devante Adams. I think it was actually kind of a difficult to see. There's three guys here that I could have put at number one.

But I put Devante Adams. He was the 53rd overall pick in the class in the class. He was the second rounder. He was the ninth receiver off the board that year, which is kind of crazy. The class was absolutely absurdly good. Here's the guys that went in front of them in this class. And, you know, with a lot of these guys, you can't really blame the teams for picking them. Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham, Brandon Cooks, Kelvin Benjamin, Marquisley,

Jordan Matthews and Paul Richardson were all taken before Devante Adams that season. But Adams, in my mind, has gone on to be maybe the best receiver in the game right now as we go into 2021. Led the NFL in yards per game and total touchdowns this last season. He's a touchdown maker. So he hasn't racked up tons and tons of 1,000 yard seasons. In fact, he only has two 1,000 yard seasons, which I was very surprised to read when I was going through his stats. but he has four seasons with 10 plus touchdowns. So he's just a stud touchdown maker.

And I thought that was important. Four Pro Bowls, one first team all pro. He has 6,500 plus yards and 62 touchdowns in his career. So all things together, despite the fact that maybe he hasn't racked up the 100 plus catch, 100,000 yard seasons that some of these other guys have done, I think his touchdown scoring ability and just overall route running makes him the number one pick on this, on this list and the fact that it was the ninth receiver taken in his class. Yeah, I have Devante too for that reason.

It's crazy. He's the ninth receiver taken. He has 58 touchdowns in the last five years. No one else even has 48. And he's sitting there with 58. It's unbelievable. Are you serious? Wow.

Yeah. And so a lot of times touchdowns can be random. It's like you can pop off for 12 touchdowns one year and get three the following year. But Devante, it's not like that at all. Him and Rogers just have this connection. And it's just unbelievable to think again, ninth receiver taken in the draft. I can't get over that. Okay, so that's number one.

I'm going to come back here with number two. I feel like we're on the same page here. At least I feel like we have the same top three. These first few are probably, yeah, pretty similar. So my second, I got Michael Thomas, who's also second rounder. He's 2016. He has, since 2016, when he entered the league, he's the most catches in the NFL. And he was the six receiver taken in that draft.

You got Michael Thomas second? I do. And for the same reasons. Actually, Michael Thomas is one of those guys. It feels like he's been in the league for longer than he has been. he's been in the season, he's been in the NFL for five seasons.

Four of his seasons, and the only four seasons where he was healthy. So his first four seasons, he had 1,000 yards seasons in each of those seasons. He had 32 touchdowns in those seasons combined. He's led the NFL and catches twice.

Three pro bowls, two first team all pros. And he was the sixth receiver taken in his class. He was the 47th overall pick in the second round. He is, if it's not Adams, I think Thomas is the,

the best receiver in the NFL. I think those two guys kind of like maybe switch off. Once he's healthy next year, maybe we'll remember how good he is. And obviously it's going to, you know, it's going to need some good quarterback play. The Drew Breeze thing is also a big factor here. But yeah, I mean, the guy is just, the production is absurd. So I was putting Tom, Devante over Thomas.

Is that recent bias? Are we just like, well, Michael Thomas got hurt and Drew Breeze was hurt? So like, whatever, we just forget Michael Thomas. Yeah. Oh, that's it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

I guess that is. All right. I think it is, Ristency Lius. That's all it is. The other thing that you have to kind of, it's stylistically, they're a little different.

I think, you know, Adams is like a jump ball winner. You know, he's really, really technical in terms of his ability to run routes and get guys turned around

and all that. Thomas is like a little bit different style. I'd say, you know, he's very good. People like make fun of them for being the slant boy or whatever, but the dude is absolutely

unstoppable on slants. Like, it's not, bad to be incredibly good, you know, at a certain thing. Like, that's his top skill. But he's also very, very good route runner, very precise, incredible hands, huge catch radius. You know, maybe not quite as physical as Adams, but I don't know. It's just, it's pick your flavor.

Like, which type of player do you like more, I guess? Like, people could have differing opinions on this. But I think production-wise, these two guys kind of stand out. Yeah. So the thing that I think stands out about Devante is his release off the line of scrimmage. Like those first two or three, four steps that a receiver takes is, everything. And Sean McVeigh,

when the Rams played the Packers and the playoffs, he compared Devante Adams as released to Alan Iverson's crossover. I thought that was a really cool comparison, but also very apt for the level of his footwork is at. Okay. Who's you got third on this list?

You got Adams first, Thomas second. I think I know who's your third guy. This one's tough because I was leaning in one way and then I went the other way. I went with Stefan Diggs, and this might be a little bit of recency bias, but in the NFL today,

Stefan Diggs does give Adams and Thomas, I think, a run for their money as the best all-around receiver. You know, he is coming off his best season. He led the NFL in catches and yards last season. He's an elite route runner, like known for his footwork, known for his ability to create separation. He has three straight 1,000-yard seasons. You mentioned the last five years. I looked at the last four seasons. He's eighth in the NFL in touchdowns in the last four seasons.

He has 31 touchdowns. I think he's only going to keep getting better. And the other thing that's just kind of separated him a little bit from my number four guy was he was the 20th receiver taken in his class, 20th, which is just kind of mind-boggling. 146 overall. So, like, if we're talking about value, this guy is potentially, you know, depending on who you ask, arguably the best receiver in the NFL right now. And he was the, he was a fifth rounder. So that's why he kind of got the edge for me here at number three. I have digs at three, too.

Look at it. We were just doing this. Look at us. same page for once. So yeah I mean 20th receiver take and it led the NFL in yards. They just, that's unbelievable. The only reason I didn't put him first is Adams and Thomas even though they were like three rounds

earlier than Diggs. I thought that the consistency they've shown over years. But still, Dix has been pretty good. So okay. Absolutely. Fourth. So you got at four. Yeah. I'm wondering if we split here if it's the same. I have Keenan Allen as the fourth one here. Okay. Same here. Do you? Oh my God. We're going to take a fork in the road at

some point, I believe. This is like two-factor authentication. Like, this is actually good. So Keenan Allen, this one, I'm shocked actually how late he fell. He was a third round pick. Pick 76. He was like the seventh receiver taking him that draft. People thought he was slow. Yeah. Well, he was kind of slow. But I mean, yeah.

He had four straight thousand yard seasons. He had 992. This year I'm counting. I don't care. That's a thousand yards. You're rounding up. It's 9.9. It's just really impressive. And I think that he had this label as like injury. prone very like in the early in his career also he's been in the league a long time him and michael thomas are like the same age he's like nine months older or whatever than michael thomas and he's been in the NFL like three more years so you've got he's already had like a full career yeah but you have

allan at four as well yes i have allan at four um i thought about putting him at three i like alan a lot i think he's again same sort of deal is um maybe the devante adams thing is he's so good off the line his footwork is so incredible. His route running, there's, you know, his, his highlight reel of just, you know, getting like sniping guys, like getting them to break their ankles or whatever, fall down, like when he cuts, you know, cuts in the short area. He's so, so good. Like you said, he struggled with injuries kind of early in his career, but he's ditched that.

I mean, that's just not really a factor anymore. He has 403 catches in the last four seasons, which is third among all players behind only Dandre Hopkins and Michael Thomas. 4,880 yards in last four seasons. That's six most. And I guess the only spot where he doesn't quite stand out as much as other guys is a touchdown. It's almost like a little bit of a Julio Jones thing. He has 26 touchdowns in the last four seasons.

And those are like the last four seasons he's been healthy, which is 12th among receivers. So, you know, I think overall size, route running, you know, just competitiveness with the ball in the air, all that stuff. Keenan Allen, elite receiver, elite production. than maybe like the touchdown area, which, you know, is very sort of a random stat. Question for you. How famous would Keenan Allen be if he played for the Cowboys? Yeah.

That is a really great question. I would say it would be better by the same time. Like, we had this discussion on the fantasy show the other day. Like, why are people so down on Amari Cooper? He's a cowboy. That's a good point, actually. That's a good point. Well, I'm saying, Keenan Allen is out here.

He's having thousand-yard seasons. He's good. He's got like the ball with the big. ear look, it's like intimidating. Like, he's playing for the Chargers, though. Like, should he, he just feels like he should be more famous considering, like, how good he's been? Yeah.

I mean, that's absolutely true. Like, Chargers are sort of one of those forgotten teams that, you know, they moved around. Their fan base is not as established the long term and all that. Like, it's just they're, they're that team. So, um, they definitely get like forgotten a little bit, but he's an awesome receiver. All right. All right. All right.

Hopefully we, we, we diverge here. I'm not sure now. Yeah, we better. Okay. So our top four, unanimous is we got Devante at one, Michael Thomas two, Stefan Diggs three, Keenan Allen four. Who's your five? I've got T.Y.

Hilton. Are you kidding me? Damn it. You have the same list? We really didn't talk about it. All right. Just read the T.Y. Hilton thing. God damn it.

Yeah, T.Y Hilton. He was a third round pick, 92nd overall. He was the 13th receiver taken in his class. And all he's done. And by the way, he was really good as a rookie. like he hit the ground running. He has five 1,000 yard seasons, four Pro Bowls, 50 touchdowns. Almost, he has 9,300 yards in his career, almost 10,000.

So I don't know, he might hit it if he keeps playing for a year or two more, which would be a nice sort of, you know, round number from his heyday. So like in Hilton's heyday, I would say he's a little bit like in the twilighter of his career. He's not like in his prime anymore. But from 2013 to 2018, a five-year period. period. He ranked fourth among all players in receiving yards, which is, I think like, I don't feel like he's ever gotten quite the notoriety that he deserves. You know what I mean? I completely agree. In a five year period, five year period. That's like a long time,

half a freaking decade. He was fourth in yards. He was eighth in receptions. And he had 33 touchdowns, which is the same number of touchdowns as Julio had in that same stretch, Julio Jones. So the guy's a baller. He's just been underrated. I mean, went to school in what, Florida International or whatever? I mean, yeah, he was definitely under the radar that year. I remember kind of like hearing some things about him, but it wasn't like, you know, he was definitely not a big name. I forgot he led the league in receiving in 2016, because I don't know if there's ever been a point in time

where you're like, oh, who's your top five receivers? And someone was like T.Y. Hilton, top five. But he has just been consistent. He's also a free agent right now. Do you think he still has juice? Or like, because he's old or he's speed guy at 32, but like Phil Rivers isn't going to take advantage of a speed guy? I don't think he's, I don't think he's,

I don't think he's done in the league. I don't think he's necessarily going to come back and be a thousand yard receiver. I don't know. I mean, I'm not going to like sell him short, but that might not be in the cards. I think he can come back, sort of like in the Emmanuel Sanders realm of like a good veteran guy

who can make big plays for you, if that makes any sense. So I can see him still playing a couple of years, but he's definitely, you know, on the downside of his career at this point. Okay. I'm starting to get the feeling where we have this, we might have this same list period.

We really did not do this together. We did not. No, this is crazy. All right. I think you got the same one next too. The next one I have is Alan Robinson. Do you have Alan Robinson? God damn it.

This is unbelievable. Maybe it's not that hard of an exercise. But Alan Robinson, he was the second round pick, 2014, that crazy 2014 draft. He actually went after Devante Adams. Devante Adams was the ninth receiver in that draft. And then Alan Robinson went 11th. But yeah, Alan Robinson, I mean, he's a free agent. So I feel like, well, he got franchise tagged by the Bears.

I feel like there's been a lot of Alvinanth. and Robinson talk lately. People get it. He's really good. Yeah. So I had I had Robinson sixth also. He was the like he said, the 11th, 11th receiver taken. He has three 1,000 yard seasons on his, on his resume. He led the NFL and receiving touchdowns in 2015 with 14. He had two straight thousand yard seasons with Mitchell Trebisky. Like that's really all you need to say, I think, is the fact that he went over a thousand yards twice with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback. And basically, yeah, Like the thing that you have to take into account here is Robinson's list of quarterbacks in his career is atrocious. And, you know, a lot of these guys, we have Devante Adams, Michael Thomas in the top two, very connected to the fact that they're playing with Aaron Rogers and Drew Breeze, you know, for a big part of their career.

So and Keenan Allen has this midmeld connection with Phil Rivers. Now he's got Herbert. So quarterback obviously matters a bit, you know, big time. And so, you know, I think Alan, you know, we kind of make the joke. like he might be the best receiver in the NFL and we just don't know it because he's been playing with terrible quarterbacks this whole career so um i definitely had him there i'm afraid of what you have at number seven i yeah i was going to who do you have at seven this is the pivot i got hopkins oh okay okay i don't have de andre hopkins there okay okay cool i thought i was

going to have hopkins lower than you and and the reason i have hopkins this low and and he is among the top tier. Like he's definitely in the top tier of receivers. He might be the best receiver in the NFL. The only reason I don't have him higher is he was the second receiver picked in his class. And he was the first rounder. He was the 27th overall pick.

It's, I will say though, however, it's crazy to think that he was the 27th pick. Like, how did he fall to 27? You know what I mean? And so I think there's a little bit of that, like 26 teams passed over this guy and he has 430 catches, 5,200 yards, 5,500 yards in last four seasons. Both of those rank first.

So in the last four years, he has the most catches and most yards. Five Pro Bowls, three first team all pros, six 1,000 yard seasons. Another one with 950 yards. So basically seven 1,000 yards seasons. He has 10,000 plus yards in his career, 60 touchdowns, huge hands, like, just massive, like, baseball. I think he told your friend Mina Kimes that he used to catch fly. when he was a kid. Like he literally,

like Mr. Miyagi. Oh, like Miyagi. With the, yeah. And he just reached for the chopsticks. Yeah.

His logic was if I can catch a fly, I can, I can catch anything. And he just got really good to catch him flies. Catch a wrench. Um, I love the,

by the way, I love origin stories like this where, you know, superstar players in any, in any league. I remember hearing a story about how Steve Nash used to walk around dribbling a tennis ball at all times. You know,

like just wherever he went, like, in college and high school and stuff. And that's why he had such good handles and stuff. Like those are the types of stories. Didn't Pete Marevich have to like dribble a basketball? Like you follow his dad's car or something. And then.

Yeah. Also, Odell Beckham in high school would like, you're like, oh, how does O'Dell catch the football like three fingers? Well, in high school he would just sit there all day with rubber bands and just flex the rubber band.

Just like strong hands. Instead of a fidget spinner. He's just flexing his finger muscles since he was like 12. I love that stuff. It's not an accident. That's the point. It's like with Diadja Hopkins. It just goes up and grabs a football from 60 yards away from Kyler Murray.

It's like it's not like just luck. It's like he's been working at it his whole life. High Fitz, what are our origin stories as podcasters? When I was little, I used to listen to the radio. Oh, that's quite,

I used to just talk. And then they started recording it. You know what? I think you're good because you have brothers. I think that's a big part of this. And I've talked to your dad. Your dad is a good conversationalist. So you guys,

you guys have lots of arguments in your family. I'm willing to guess. Yeah, yeah, you could argue that. All right. Anyway, so who do you have at 7 then if you don't have Hopkins? I have A.J. Brown. Because he was like the 53rd pick. I like this.

And A.J. Brown with the Titans. So he says two thousand yards seasons and two seasons. A.J. Brown was told after week two that he had a season ending injury. And he was like, nope, I'm going to keep playing. And then that was like 1100 yards this year. Did you see the Instagram live that he went on when he was. He was like doped up in the hospital after the surgery. And he was like still on the anesthesia.

He was like pretty messed up. And he's like talking to the surgeon and he's like explaining that like, yeah, we had a tube down your throat. He's like, what? And then he's like, the doctor walks out. And he's like, yeah, they told me after week two I was out for the season. And I was like, nope, I'm going to keep playing. I was going to say, he's like happy Gilmore when he gets hit by a car.

He's like, we're going to have to take you to the hospital. He's like, hell no, I'm going to play. He's like, what would I know? I'm just a doctor. He's just like. going to go play anyway. Yeah, I think AJ Brown's something. Anyway.

So I, this is great because I did not include A.J. Brown in my rankings only because he's been in the league twice, two years now. And I would have had him pretty high if I would have thought. So like, I basically like separated A.J. Brown and T.K. Metcalf, spoiler alert. Because I put D.K. Metcalf after him. So it's the same thing. I have D.K. after AJ Brown.

And I didn't have Hopkins. Yeah. Because he was a first rounder. And it felt redundant. And there's, there's, this is like, yeah, it's like a little bit of an arbitrary cutoff, but like two years in the league, maybe just like, I just didn't include them. I put them as honorable mentions. I think they're going to get there.

And probably if we have this conversation at this time next year, they're like top five or whatever. But I just left them off. That's good because now we have some differences. I got at number eight, I have Jarvis Landry, which I think is a little bit controversial because. I love Jarvis off because he's boring. honestly he's good and he probably deserves the respect but like no one's favorite receiver is Jarvis Landry he catches a lot of passes he called all the passes Miami

it's like catch it yeah for the people listen to the fantasy football show they know that I don't I think catches are a dumb stat it's like yards are the point of football it's like catches are like carries like that's the point of the job like you're supposed to get yards and Jarvis is just I don't know he's not that exciting to me so I left him off this is yeah so this is exactly and I even wrote this down I put in my notes, people give him shit

because he's sort of the poster child for PPR. And when I say people give him shit, I was just thinking of you, High Fitz. Yeah, I give him shit. So anyways, but regardless,

he was a second round pick, 63rd overall. He was the 13th receiver taken in his class and he's produced three 1,000 yard seasons. 72 catches is his career low so far. He has 80 plus catches,

80 plus catches in six of his seven seasons. He's gone over 100 catches twice, five pro bowls. He has 7,000 yards in his career already. 35 touchdowns. That's pretty damn good. Like the guy is good. He's a baller. I just think he's underrated because he earned this reputation as like a checkdown guy in his first

couple of seasons in Miami. And then he's just never going to outlive that. You know what I mean? He might still have that role. But I think he's a better player than people give him credit for. Yeah. I just, it's boring. I mean, you're not wrong.

He's just, he's not exciting. Here's the problem. If I'm like, what's the most exciting play I've ever seen Jarvis Landry make? I think the first two are just both throws. Like he's a better quarterback. He's a more exciting quarterback than he's a receiver.

He's a lefty, right? He's a lefty. And he rolls out and he like throws to O'Dell. And I'm like, yeah, there we go, Jarvis lefty. Okay. My next one, I got, I got D.K. Metcalfe back to back with AJ Brown.

Just the Ole Miss duo. Dekin McCaff is like the poster boy for this whole exercise, right? Like, just this shizzled guy coming out of Ole Miss, actually like a known commodity. And there were reasons he felt. Like he had a broken neck, not just related to like he was Derek Zoolander and like couldn't turn like he was a battleship.

But right. At the end of the day, he's really freaking good. He's unbelievable. I mean, he's just like Jarvis Landry's best plays are like throws. D.K. McKaffes,

I do think his career highlight will be the rundown of Buda Baker. But regardless, like every team wishes they had, DK Metcalf. Every team had the opportunity to get DK. Metcalf. I think every team is that they don't.

So he was the ninth receiver taken in that class. That's unreal. That's unbelievable. And again, the Eagles, once again, the theme through the thread through all this is the Eagles whiffing on all these guys. Like they could, they could have had D.J.R. thing or white side. Like, two picks before D.K. Metcalf for like, you know, a big body in the red zone.

And they ignored D.K. Metcalfe. Okay. And then nine, I got Chris Godwin, who's very good at football. Ooh, I like this. I like this. This is not who I have. So pitch me on this. I mean, he's unreal.

Like, he's just, I think he's, you could argue. He's like, I don't know. Is he the best number two receiver in football? I don't know. but like it's in the conversation. Like he's unreal. He's not probably better than Mike Evans, but skills wise,

he's great, he's very refined route. And he's also young. He's like, I don't know, he's 24, 25, he's already accomplished a lot,

never mind the Super Bowl. And then I just think every team in the NFL needs a Chris Godwin. And also like off the field, like as a personality, like just beloved. Like,

like just very like, yeah, all Robert Mays wrote for the athletic. Like there's just, people don't really talk about players. Like they talk about Chris God when it's such a young age. Like a lot of leadership material. It's just very,

very humble guy. So whole package. I tweeted this the other day, or not the other day, like during the playoffs at some point. He, he's such an interesting player. He could honestly be like a running back and do pretty well. He'd be like a weirdly bodied running back, but he's so physical, so explosive. I just really like him too, man. He's like physically speaking, he's a special, he's a special receiver.

He's, he kind of fit into the same category for me as AJ Brown and T.K. McHaff and just he hasn't done it long enough. to warrant being on this list. I think I tilted, and you'll see this with my next pick. You're not going to like this next one, but I tilted experience, consistency, and, like, length of doing it over...

Yeah, that's fair. Excitement. You know what I mean? Like, exciting players. Like, I love Aegee Brown at DKMECF. If I hadn't excluded them by that little technicality, they would have been much higher. But I went with Marvin Jones.

Because... You're right. I don't like... I mean, you're right. He's been a league a long time, I'm buying whatever. Let me pitch this to you because I was actually a little surprised I went with this, too. But when you look at his stats, it's kind of surprising how well he's played in the last, like in his entire career.

So he was a fifth round pick. He was 166th overall. The 23rd receiver taken in his class, yet he's had a really good career. He has three 900 plus yard seasons. He only has one 1,000 plus yard seasons, but three over 900. And he has four seasons with nine plus. touchdown. So not like the great round numbers necessarily, but

a consistent producer. And overall, over the last four years, he's just like kind of gotten better and better. This one I think will surprise you hyphids. In the last four seasons, Marvin Jones ranked seventh among all past catchers and touchdowns.

32. What? Okay, I didn't know that. That's crazy. 32 touchdowns. The only guys he's behind in that category, Devanti Adams, Cyrie Kill, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans, Travis Kelsey, and Adam Thielen. And by the way, speaking of Tiger Kill, I think we just have to kind of acknowledge that we excluded him because he fell in the draft for a very good reason. And we just basically took that into account, excluded him from this exercise.

But the bottom line is Marvin Jones, the 23rd receiver picked in the class. Like, he's had a damn good career for that. So I'm just going with the value angle here. And I'm not saying that he's like a superstar, but he was a damn good pick. and he's been a really good pro. So I was actually very surprised to see that. 32 touchdowns the last four seasons. Okay, so who do you got, so that's ninth?

Who do you got 10th? I got Tyler Lockett, who is in the same vein as Marvin Jones, who I don't think anyone would ever consider him like an elite number one receiver, but he's quietly been a consistent producer year over year over year. He has, this one is kind of shocked me too.

He has as many 1,000 yard and 10 touchdown seasons as Devante Adams. Both he and Devante Adams have had 1,000, yards seasons and or 10 touchdown seasons twice. And again, he's not like the same vein as these other guys, but consistent production, consistently gets open, big plays. He's ninth in receiving touchdowns over the last four seasons. He has 30 touchdowns in last four seasons. So he was the 10th receiver taken in his class.

He was 69th overall pick, 37 touchdowns in his career, almost 5,000 yards in his career. I'm just again I think the last like four of these guys on my list are just like man these we should talk about these guys more I feel like it's just one of those things where they're underrated good picks you see a X fan very good value no because if I would have had well I would have had DK McHoff over Lockett if I would have not like mentally excluded Lockett or sorry DK McCaf from this list it has nothing to do with that fact I'm a CX fan I just think locket's good easily he's underrated so I think you're right I mean I actually had Lockett as my honorable mention at like 11, but

you're probably right, honestly, and I'm probably wrong to be, valuing longevity in the NFL is just better because it's hard to play for a long time in the NFL. But I threw in Justin Jefferson, which is kind of bullshit, because he's a rookie and like he probably just shouldn't be on this list. But, and he's the first rounder.

But he was the fifth receiver taken, but he was the fifth receiver taken in the draft, and he just had like one of the best rookie seasons ever for a receiver. Like it's up there with Odell Beckham. It's up there. I mean, he broke the records for like Randy Moss. That's insane.

And he's the fifth receiver taken. So even though he's the first rounder and technically went earlier than Hopkins, I'm looking at as he went later because Hopkins was the second receiver taken and the NFL he had the fifth receiver taken. That blows my mind. But really with that, I kind of just want to zoom out from this exercise for a second. We just went through a lot of really good freaking players. And the thread line, the through line through all of this is these guys were like really

undervalued. And like the NFL just did not properly foresee their talent. And we're not talking about one-offs here. We just made two lists at 10. We have like 15, 16 players on this list in total. We're talking about the majority of the best receivers in the NFL. And not just, I mean, we're talking about in an era of football when receiving is more important than running backs. These guys theoretically are some of the most important players in a football team.

And the NFL just seems to be completely whiffing on this position. So like, how is that possible? It is, yeah, that's a good question. And I don't think they're necessarily, so I would say there's a couple of factors. And before I get into this, actually, before I answer this question, I want to say,

for the guys that we kind of cut off in this list, like Randall Cobb, Chris got, well, you had Chris Godwin, Randall Cobb, Alshon Jeffrey, Robert Woods, Juju Smith-Schuster, we didn't even mention, Kenny Gulladay, Cortland Sutton, DJ, Char, all these guys were like second, third-round picks or later,

all great players. And the other ones I wanted to bring up, technical omissions, they got omitted because they weren't draft picks, Adam Thielen and Doug Baldwin. They deserve to be thrown out. Yeah. Yeah.

So. Thielen actually deserves a spot. Totally. The bottom line is like the NFL, for whatever reason, in their talent evaluation, miss on a lot of receivers. Like they go much further down the run than they probably should. And there's a lot of receiver busts, I feel like. It's one of those things where, you know,

getting, being a first round pick is not necessarily like a guarantee that you're going to be really good. we've seen that time and time again. Now, I will say there are more receivers. I feel like receivers and corners are taken in more volume than other position. Maybe you throw in like offensive linemen too. And the fact that there's just like a lot of numbers, a lot of volume, you're going to have hits and misses just based on, you know, like the math of it all. And I think that over the years, we've seen receivers have a hard time transitioning from

college game to the pros. In the pros, like, just for an instance, just for an example, like, you go from the college game where it's spread out. And this is sort of, you know, an older philosophy. This isn't happening quite as much. I'll get to that. But like in the older days, you go from the spread out college game to the pros where you have to be in the right spot at the exact right second, at the exact right depth.

And sometimes you have to make the choice, like you have to do like an option route where you're reading the defense and you have to be on the exact same. page as the quarterback who's also reading the defense. There's no communication here. If you see a certain coverage, you have to adjust your route. And the quarterback has to see the exact same coverage and adjust his throw. So it's like the technical jump from being in the college game where you're just like go run down the field.

This is a gross oversimplification. But from the college game to the pros, like that technical aspect of it can be very difficult and it depends on the team you go to. But now I think that the gulf between the pro game and the college game is like, shrinking. There's so many different, there's so much overlap now. And these guys are playing seven on seven from the time they're like six years old. You know what I mean? Like they're running way more routes. Development of receivers is improved over the years. You're getting, not to mention you have like better strength training, better offseason training programs,

all this stuff. Like I think we're going to continue to see really good receiving classes like year in, year out. Like there's going to be a glut of really good receivers in the NFL. Yeah, it's kind of like receivers used to come into the league and have to drive stick shift. And now they can come in and is drive automatic. And maybe the ones who drive stick shifts now, like the Devante Adams and Michael Thomas drive stick shift, it's probably more rewarding experience. But the bar of competency is way lower. Like it's easier to just be competent fast. Yeah, yeah.

And I think, you know, more teams are acknowledging the benefits of having sort of spread looks like it's not like NFL teams are running air raids necessarily or like, exactly the same style of college games. But, you know, coaches are, I think, a little more open now to, I guess, like, embracing the weaknesses of their young players and, like, still, like, so, like, D.K. McCaff is a perfect example of this. When he was coming out of college, he was, you know, there was a whole three cone thing where he's, like, really slow three cone,

really slow short shuttle. But the other, like, on tape thing was he doesn't, he didn't have a very, you know, like, established wide route tree. And so he the Seahawks, what they did was they basically gave him training wheels early on in his career. And if you if you go back and look at some of his route treat like route like, you know, the next gen stats like tracks guys routes. It's all like first five games.

It's all just go routes of the left side. That's like all they asked him to do. Just go do what you do, man. Like you're fast. Go beat this corner and whatever. And then later on as his career progressed, they started adding in things like slam. and they moved him around.

They put him on the right side of the field. And slowly but surely, he became like a much more complete receiver. And last year, you know, he was running like a full, not maybe not a full route tree, but like a much more diverse route tree. And so I think teams are becoming more open to that

and like allowing guys kind of like do what they do best and not trying to fit a round peg into a square hole type of thing. So I think that's a big part of it too. Well, what's like the most basic Bill Walsh edict of scouting is don't tell me what someone can't do. Tell me what they can do. Yeah.

And we all got so caught up with D.K. Metcalfe being chiseled like he was like a Greek god. It was like he also is chiseled and runs like a four three. Which is speed. That's valuable. He has drag racer acceleration.

Yeah. The other. And honestly like A.J. Brown's another good example of this. I remember writing this in my report about him coming out. And by the way, they were teammates, which is absurd.

Why are all the elite legendary teammate receivers is not good in college. Like Jarvis and Odell combined for like 1,200 receiving yards in LSU and then each individually surpassed that in the NFL. And then A.J. Brown and D.K. McH.Bough was the same. Like, they just weren't statistically good at Ole Miss. How was that possible? The quarterback, the quarterback watching of that, those guys' tape was like painful, Danny.

It was painful to watch their tape. So how do you, but you're, you're the ringer draft expert. You spend more time than either of us would care to admit watching all these guys. guys, how do you scout someone like a receiver who has a bad quarterback? Like, how do you apply that to the NFL? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the challenge. And I think what I was, you know, the point I was getting to with AJ Brown is he was

almost like exclusively a slot receiver at last season at Ole Miss. And so there was these questions. And same with Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson was almost exclusively a slot receiver at LSU his final season. Now, he had run a lot of routes on the outside, you know, the season prior. And so like, you could look at that and be like, okay, I think he can make this transition just fine. And in fact, he did. AJ Brown, he's definitely not a slot receiver.

Like, you wouldn't think of him as slot receiver. But I remember writing in my report, he was a slot receiver because that was like what he did at Ole Miss that year. And I think it's like, it's not easy to, you know, project what these guys are going to be able to do. But at the same time, like, I think teams overthinking a little bit. It's like he ran routes out of the slot, but look at him. Like, he can do stuff on the outside.

Like, he can get. Get off press. He's big. He's fast. He's like incredible after the catch. We can work with this. You know what I mean? And so I think that's kind of, you know, where it gets interesting. It's like projecting guys to do things that they're not doing in the college game in the pros. And, you know, that's where it gets fogging. That's where you got teams missing. You know, that's why Justin Jefferson was a fifth receiver taking in this class instead of the first. So on that note, let's look at this year's draft class because this year's draft class is supposed to be really, really good. last year was too.

Maybe it's just, this is just the future because cornerbacks are getting bad and receivers are getting good. But this year there's like a clear top three, right, in terms of the receivers that are probably going to be drafted. It's Jamar Chase from LSU,

who's an all-star. There's Devante Smith, who, I mean, just won the freaking Heisman. And then there's Jalen Waddle at Alabama. And then there's like this drop-off. And it's kind of who, what you start thinking around the 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 tier is really what you think about the class.

And so I'm curious, those three guys are going to go in the first round. But I, I want to hear from you who are the guys that probably might go late first, early second, third, whatever it is that we look back on the same way we just did with this list and we're like,

how the hell did we not draft these guys early? So let's just skip the part where the first round guys are busts and let's just get to the guys who'll be good in the second round. Yeah. So I'm going to go, I'm going to give you a couple of guys that I think are going to be like second rounders

and then I'll give you a few that are going to be like a little bit later, potentially. First off, Rashad Bateman from Minnesota, I think is a very, very interesting prospect. He's big, he's tall.

I actually comped him to Michael Thomas. I just think, you know, their skill set isn't exactly the same, but length, ability to get off the line, really quick footwork, big catch radius to me, like very similar in,

you know, skill set in the way they move. Bateman had, you know, a huge, huge season in 2019, playing mostly on the outside. He had 60, touch, 60 receptions, 1,200 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 13 games. So he played on the outside and dominated.

This past season was weird with COVID. He opted out, then opted back in. And I think ended up opting out again. So he had, but he had 36 catches, 472 yards, two touchdowns and five games. And in their offense was like just not very good this year. And so he, he, I think, has lost a little bit of steam in terms of his hype and all that. And he played mostly in the slot, I think, this last season. instead of playing on the outside.

So, but what I think we saw from like his overall tape is he's, he's very versatile. He can play inside, outside, good size, good after the catch. He's kind of a glider, but he can pick up yards after the catch. Ball tracking skills. There's just a lot to like about him. And I think he's going to be one of those guys where, you know, in two years we're just going be saying like, man, maybe we overthought this a little bit. And he's just really good.

So Bateman, I think, is one of my favorites as like a second. probably he'll probably end up being a second round pick got a chance what do you think will be overthought do you think it's that it's that the slot play or do you think that he only played five games because of the pandemic and that just throws scouting off yeah a little bit a little bit of both but i mean it's like just look at his production look at he he did it all at a very young eight like he was a really young breakout age is something we talked about on the fantasy show which is you know like early producers in offenses if you're an 18 year old and you're going up against 20 year olds and dominating like that's a good sign that's that you're

that you're going to be a really good player going forward. And that was exactly what he did. So I think people are just, you know, maybe going to look at what he did this year and some of his little, like, get hung up on some things that maybe, like, he just didn't do as well this year and they might miss on him. So I like Bateman. Another guy that could have benefited much more from, like, a full regular season this year was Terris Marshall from LSU, who I think he'll probably be, like, a second.

There's like a small chance he falls to the third round, but I think probably second rounder from LSU. He's a former five-star guy. So he was like a big-time recruit. And in that incredible season with Joe Burrow in 2019, he was third behind Jamar Chase, who's like sort of the consensus number one. And then Justin Jefferson, who just won, you know,

he was like one of the top rookies in the NFL. Like one of the, he immediately became like an elite receiver in the NFL. He was the third guy on that, on that offense. He caught 46 balls, 671 yards, and 13 touchdowns. Quietly 13 touchdowns in that offense. That offense had just to be an absurd amount of offense. This is just really, really good.

But is that how do you distinguish a player from a system that good? Like, like, it doesn't become difficult to, when there's that much talent and the scheme is that good. How do you distinguish success at the NFL level when you actually might have a worse scheme and worse surrounding debates? I mean, it's tough. It's tough. You know, you have to kind of take into account the fact that he was in that offense and with those players and catching passes from Burrough.

However, I will say in 2020, after Chase opted out, Marshall came back in and he was kind of the number one guy in that offense. He got 48 passes for 731 yards and 10 touchdowns in seven games. And this was without Joe Burroughs, without Joe Brady. So he was still like in terms of numbers, his stats were really, really good. And in fact, I extrapolated. I don't have it in front of me, but I extrapolated his numbers over like a full season compared to like however many games. Like it was like 13 games or 14 games they played last season with the LSU and that championship team. Marshall's numbers would have been like absolutely absurd, almost as good as Chase is from 2019.

You know, that's extrapolating. He probably wouldn't have ended up doing it. But, you know, he was on pace to have a really, really good season before he opted out. So I just think he's an interesting player. reminds me a little bit of DJ Chark and the fact that he's kind of long, smooth. But from what I've heard, he would have tested really well if there would have been a combine, like, you know, 4-4 guy, good size. I like his, he's got a really good catch radius.

He doesn't play quite as strong as you want. And that's like Chase's game is like, Jemar Chase will just beat up the cornerback in front of him. It's like Andre Johnson almost. Whereas Marshall is more of a finesse player maybe, but I, I just like him. I think he's got a good, he's got a chance in the right system to be a big time playmaker for somebody. So second round,

he reminds me a little bit like the Denzel Mims type type guy, you know, a little bit underrated, but could end up being a really good pro. And Mims, the jury's still out, but I like Mims too. Going to my number three guy.

And by the way, this guy was teammates with, uh, D.K. McCaff and A.J. Brown. Elijah Moore from Ole Miss. Another freaking baller, uh,

from that from that offense. He was a first team all-American this past season. He averaged, quietly he averaged 10.8 catches and 149 yards per game, which was most in the country. He ended up with 86 perceptions for 1,100 plus yards, eight touchdowns, and eight games. Obviously, this past season was just weird.

It's hard to kind of like contextualize stats with, you know, different teams playing different numbers of games and all that. But he is, to me, just really, really exciting player, like twitchy, versatile. You know, he can run, he can run really quick routes, make guys miss. How big is he?

You're talking about him like he's small. Yeah, sorry, he's like, he's like 5-9-185. Okay. I can tell me. No one calls big guys twitchy. Right. He reminded me of stylistically, in terms of the football field, he reminded me of Antonio Brown.

He is, you know, just like a really good, receiver like a really technical route runner extremely good hands good at the catch point they had him on end rounds jet sweeps screens all that um just makes plays i think he's getting underrated a little bit despite the fact that he was like one of the most prolific receivers in in college football this past season i think he's going to end up probably a second round third round pick but um he's really really good and then my final sort of like well-known guy that i think could be really interesting is in the same vein of Elijah Moore, and that's Ron Dale Moore from Purdue, who I think he might be even smaller than Elijah Moore. At least he's like 5-9, 5-8, but he's a little thicker.

He's, he looks like, he reminds me of like Golden Tate body-wise, like kind of just a just a gyroscope type player where, you know, extremely, extremely explosive. Like one of the most explosive athletes in this entire class. I actually looked it up. He was dunking the ball as a 5 foot 7 high schooler. If he can picture that. Yeah. He could dunk. He's talking 5'7.

Yeah, that's what I read. He ran a 43340 as a high schooler at the Nike opening. And recently he was filmed jumping 42 inches in the vert. He's got Sequin quads. Like his quads, this is just a ball of explosive this guy. And the reason he's not getting more hype, as like a, you know, first rounder. He might be a first round. I suppose any of these guys could be. But the reason he's not getting as much hype lately is he's, he basically hasn't played a full season since

2018 when he was a true freshman. He came in as a four-star recruit to Purdue, won first team All-American honors, caught 114 passes for almost 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns as a freshman, as an 18-year-old freshman. So, I mean, the guy was just absolutely absurdly good in 2018, but then he had injuries and missed a bunch of games. The last few years, the last few years. seasons. Obviously, this last season was COVID-affected, and there was sort of this mysterious injury for part of the season. It ended up being like a hamstring thing. And I don't know, it's just weird. My comp for him is actually Nate Robinson, you know, the basketball player. Just like, imagine just a ball of muscle. Like, he's just, he's so explosive. I think that's

kind of the deal. And so, I don't know, you know, you have to kind of fit him into the right scheme, I think, in order for him to be a star. But if you get him with a coach that is willing to scheme him up in space, get him touches. I do think he's actually a dangerous downfield receiver too. He had some good deep passes or deep catches in college. But, you know, he was definitely used on a lot of screens, end rounds, things like that, get him the ball.

Devo Samuel-esque a little bit. But I think he's way more explosive and he's smaller. So I don't know how to, you know, the comps are always tough. He's like Golden Tate slash Nate Robinson. So, I mean, you mentioned he had almost. 1,300 yards as a true freshman? Yeah. I mean, like 18 years old just comes in and is dominant.

See, that's rare. That like doesn't happen. But on the flip side, I'm very scary. It's scary to hear 5'7 or no. How's how is he? 59 or 57? He's like in that range, 58. It's scary to hear that and like he's already having injuries though. That's the one concern. He's listed at 59-180. Elijah Moore, 59-185.

But I don't know. We'll get their official measurements like as the the pro days happen and whatnot, but in that area, he's short, he's tiny. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be bad. I mean, there's been a lot of really explosive good players that are that size. It's just, yeah, the health thing is more of a worrisome thing. And, you know, is the is the hamstring issue going to be a long-term thing, is the question? I got two guys to finish out that I want to talk about that are sort of like getting a little less shine right now,

but could end up being good players. And now that I'm thinking about, a lot of these guys kind of fit into the same category, like Lajmore, Rondell Moore, I'm going to give you two more. Amari Rogers from Clemson, who just had his pro day on Thursday. Wait, what's the category? He is... He said they fit in the same category. What's the category?

Sorry, like undersized, juiced up explosive guys, not juiced up. Guys with juice. I'm not saying they're on... Huge difference. Huge difference. Not on PEDs. I'm saying they got a lot of juice. Amari Rogers from Clemson, I think is very interesting.

former four-star recruit from Knoxville. In fact, he was the Mr. Football in Tennessee twice in his high school career. I don't know how many guys end up being the Mr. Football, their state twice, but this guy was. His dad, former NFL player, T. Martin, who is now a coach. And I think he's still at USC. He may be moved now, but when they, when he was coming out of high school, Rogers initially, you know, went to, he was going to go to USC. and then he switched to Clemsend at the last minute. Anyways, got to play with Trevor Lawrence four seasons.

He was a four-year contributor. He broke out this last season with, you know, T. Higgins was gone. Justin Ross injured. So he was kind of like one of their go-to guys. 77 catches, 1,020 yards, seven touchdowns. He, to me, is a good Debo comp. Like, the way he's built is physical. Yes, Devo Samuel.

know, like he looks like a running back. In fact, he was doing running back drills at his pro day on Thursday. And so I think, you know, he has a chance to go into the league and be like a useful player. I saw Mike Renner from PFF comp to Ty Montgomery. And I've been like a long time proponent that Time Montgomery should get more touches. Like when he was with the Packers and he came into the league as a receiver, number 88, and then he ended up just being a running back for them and was like actually really good at it, a good returner, kind of in the same vein as those two guys like

Debo Samuel slash Ty Montgomery. I just think he's a lot of fun. He's going to probably be like a third or fourth round pick, but he could come in and be a pretty productive guy. And then finally, oh, the other thing actually wanted to mention about Mario Rogers. He might be Wolverine. He suffered a torn ACL. It's called burying the lead. There's a Wolverine on this list. Do you have him fifth? He has healing factor, whatever you call it. He had an ACL Atamancyon in spring is what it's called. In spring football.

No, I'm saying he could heal really fast. And then he was playing five months later, like six months later. It's insane. So that would be a hell of a release. We're talking about Devante Adams having like the AI crossover. But if you could just like, like just get four knives out of your hand and just like, that would really be effective at creating separation. Jesus.

He's popping a lot of balls, unfortunately. But yeah. So my final guy. That was a dad joke. I don't. I apologize. You're a dad. Don't apologize for being a father.

Yeah, true, true. I make dad jokes. I don't even have kids yet. That's true. That's true. So anyways, my final guy, Tutu Atwell from Louisville, who I think is,

you know, he's a tough one because on one hand, I could see him like come in and not really establish himself as a big time player, but he has the speed to, I think, really sort of outplay where he's going to go.

In fact, I don't really know where he's going to go. It's like, this is a weird season where you don't have the normal pre-draft stuff, and so it's hard to get a grasp really where guy's going to go. I'm guessing right now he'll be a third rounder, but I did actually see Daniel Jeremiah had him in a first round mock draft. So he could go earlier than I think people are thinking. Regardless, the dude is just, you know, super, super fast, like four-two speed. I saw this, in fact, from Bruce Feldman.

He does the freaks list every year at the athletic. Atwell is 5-9 and Feldman has him listed at 180 or 190 pounds I've seen other places listed him at like 165 so he's like Marquis Brown size you know very very skinny essentially but extremely fast 4-2 and extremely you go to 4-2 no one runs a 4-2

like 4-2 4-6 so like okay you know lower 4-2s and then very very quick The other thing is per Feldman, he can squat, triple his body weight and bench press double his body weight. So the dude is just- So can I.

Country strong. Oh, you can, huh? Yes. It's like, I'm not going to have a pro day, though, so you can't check that. Yeah, I mean, yeah, check my math. Yeah, prove it. Yeah.

But anyway, he, like, I, in my little notes here, like, he's a Dukadi like acceleration. The dude just gets up to top speed immediately. Like, Dukotty or Bougat? You can use them. Ducati. What are your car rankings for acceleration? I don't know.

I'm talking about motorcycles. Isn't Dukati a motorcycle? Is Dukati? I'm terrible. Oh, wow. That makes sense. I don't know anything about motorcycles. I was confused.

Okay, glad I clarified. Wait, now I'm like, now I'm self-doubting. Wait, the motorcycles accelerate faster than like the really fast cars?

I would think so, since they're much lighter. Yeah, Ducati. What's a Bougat is that a car? Bucati's a car. That's what we've been trying to win for like the whole year

on our podcast, the fantasy football show. Oh, yeah. It's like a $3 million car. I mean, hell, I'm going to be honest, not a car guy, not a motorcycle guy. I'm going to guess do Qadis have better acceleration than Bugatti's? But maybe someone can tell us. Regardless, really fast is my point.

It's the idea. Like rare, rare speed. So I think that's what makes it really interesting. You know, he's very balanced, very quick in addition to being fast. And honestly, he's had really, he's had really good production. As a true freshman, he got 24 passes, 416 yards. And then in 2019, his best season, he caught 69 passes for 1,272 yards, 11 touchdowns for Louisville in 13 games. So again, like we talked about earlier, like good breakout, early breakout, you know, very good production in terms of his target share and all that.

You know, analytically speaking, he's pretty strong. The only factor is he's like maybe 165, maybe 175 pounds. and so that is going to be a big worry for a lot of people and a lot of teams. The question is, is he going to be... My grandmother would say skin and bones. Yeah. The scouting term, which I don't know if it's like it's kind of a dumb term, but it's like tight-skinned. It's like you don't have room to put on much like weight.

You don't have room to put on much weight. It's basically the idea. Scouts have weird phrases. Oh, there's a lot of really weird ones. But yeah, so the question I guess is in the pros is he can be like a Sean Jackson, like a really good. game breaking type guy or more like Tavon Austin where super exciting college player just did not translate to the pros. So I guess that's kind of a question. He's more of a boomer bust type guy, but I think his speed alone is going to be very interesting to watch where you lands.

So do you see a trend here of, I mean, you pick these guys and it seems that the guys you're isolating as guys who we could look back on and wonder how they fell through the cracks? The thing you seem to be identifying here is basically size. Yeah, yeah, that is the theme. Yeah. And that's the thing. It might just, and look, this draft class is different

because, like, it's hard to hold, like, this 10-year trend against one class. At the end of the day, your job's devalued this one class, and you never know how it holds up.

But I'm curious is the lit, between the receivers that we identified earlier and this class, I'm wondering if there's any trend of just what the NFL's missing. Is it size? Is it speed? Is it just smaller schools? Like, you know,

Devante Adams went to Fresno State. T. T.I. Hilton's at Florida International. Like, what is, is it just a lot of things? Or is it, as you said earlier?

is it just the fact that they have no idea what receivers are going to be good. So they take 35 of them every year. And then so you look back and you're like, oh, how do they miss? Well, they had no idea it was going to be good. They just threw more darts at that position because they really don't know. So is this random or are there a trend you see? I mean, I don't think it's random, but I think that there's just so many variables that come into it, that it's very tough to, it just makes it a tough position to scout, I think.

You know, there's, you got to have guys that are supremely. confident. That's why you have so many like divas at the receiver position, I feel like. It's you have to have supreme confidence, athleticism, you know, you have to have the mental part down, the physical part down. And it's hard to, it's hard to project some guys from, from college schemes into the NFL schemes. And so I think there's just a lot of variables that go into it. I don't know. I don't know why so many guys miss, honestly. It seems like it should be easier, but it's not. You mentioned two things I want to hit on. The mental aspect is really hard because mentally, or at least the mentality for a receiver,

is a lot closer to basketball players than football. Because football is a lot more about sacrifice, like especially offensive line, right? Like, it's the only position where your job is to protect your teammates in all sports. But basketball, you need the ball. That's kind of the point. And then in football receivers,

you literally need someone else to give you the ball to do your job. Like you want to get money, you want to get a contract, you want to get drafted. It's like me, me, me, you have to call yourself out. And so that's number one. just kind of different than the rest of the sport. I think it makes it harder.

And the number two is it, I think, you mentioned there's so many variables. I just can't get over. It must be so difficult to scout because you also have to understand the context of the quarterback and the entire offense because it's so dependent. Their production, their numbers are kind of irrelevant unless you understand the context of an entire offense. And how the hell are you supposed to understand 35 different offenses from college football

every year as they evolve with different coaches and quarterbacks and schemes. I think that I think, yeah, like to that point, I think a good sort of hypothetical is would Justin Jefferson have been Justin Jefferson if he would have played for the Eagles last year? The Eagles who had a completely sort of dysfunctional offense, the quarterback situation obviously was a mess. You know, I think you could make the argument that Jefferson still would have been really good. But at the same time, it would not be surprising if in an all alternate universe, he was just like another pretty good rookie instead of being a great all-time rookie, if you know what I mean?

So I think, I think, and I still have some faith that Jalen Rager, who was picked instead of Justin Jefferson at that spot, that he'll end up being a good player. Now he had some injuries to go with the overall just dysfunctionalness of that offense. And so, yeah, I think that there's just a lot that goes into it. You know, landing spot is key, quarterback is key, finding a guy. finding a guy or finding a scheme that like really exploits all your best attributes

all those things matter and it's like going back to the DK Metcalf thing like I've told you this before many times that DK McHath I don't think would have been as big of a star if he didn't if he didn't play with Russell Wilson in that offense. It's like perfect for him. It's like the perfect offense for his skill set. Go deep

make big plays on the ball, run after the catch like that's the Seahawks offense gives him the opportunities to do that and if he would have been asked to go and play and, you know, say in offense that was very much about timing and quick passing and short routes and getting open with your routes and all that stuff, like he probably would have sucked or he probably would have struggled at least, at least early on in his career. If you're asking him to do all that stuff and said the CX were like, hey, go, you know,

run a drag drag race deep route down the sideline and beat the guy in front of you and we'll throw it to you. I think that you're exactly right. And like the poster boy for all this poster man is Devanta Adam. So we both had at number one on the list of miss of like the best value draft picks. But the reality is we're pitting him at number one for what he's done. But even two years into his career in Green Bay, good Packers fans wanted them to cut him because he was dropping everything.

They thought he didn't have hands. Thought he couldn't get open. Isn't that crazy? And now it's like so crazy. It took three, four years of offseason work with Aaron Rogers. And now it's like he's been a top three receiver in the NFL for three or four years now. But it took so long to get there. And it's like, is Devante Adams even a top 10 receiver?

Is he even a 25 top receiver if he's on one of the other 16 teams in the league? Never mind if they go through a quarterback change. He might have gotten cut if they didn't have Aaron Rogers. And so I think you're right. Like it's literally one of the most dependent positions in the entire sport. Because you need everything else to be chumming along, humming along. Yeah. Chumbing along is very different.

I think I you know to that point it's just so fascinating I think the draft that's what makes the draft so fascinating is um there's just so much that goes into landing spot and and and situation that you kind of like you can like dunk on people for missing on their draft like analysis but at the same time like they're not we're not able to predict like where these guys are can go where and if it ends up being like the perfect scenario like that's just going to change it changes the evaluation almost you know what I mean so um The draft is great. I love this. Receivers are a lot of fun just because, like I said, there's so much variation, you know, take it back to John Ross. Like, I don't know why John Ross didn't pan out. High Fitz, what's going on with that guy?

Well, it's the Bengals. So what you're saying here, this is the... High Fitz gets mad at me for bringing up John Ross constantly. Well, I think John Ross, the Bengal, and the Bengals didn't hurt. But to your point, I think what you're saying is it's not that the Eagles drafted the wrong receivers. It's that any receiver the Eagles would have drafted would have been bad. Yeah.

I mean, you can make that argument. I don't know if that's true. It might get me fired at the ringer. We can't replay that, you know, but yeah, I think that's somewhat true, or at least could be true. Okay. That's all we got. That's the big board.

That was fun. I can't believe how close our list was. Yeah, that was a little ridiculous. I'm glad we didn't go eating that 10 for 10. All right. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Isaiah and Arjuna behind the virtual glass on the Zoom, whatever. You can check us out also here every Friday for the big board show through the draft.

We're also on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Subscribe to us on Spotify. We do that with Craig Horleback on Wednesdays. And then on this feed, on the Ringer NFL show on Tuesdays, it's Kevin Clark and Nora Preciati. You can check them out. Thanks to everyone for listening.