And nobody outside of JSN, Pickens (maybe) and Collins (maybe) on either list is a true top 10 receiver in my opinion. My point is more solidified in my mind.
No
Jefferson
Chase
Puka
Amon-Ra
Brown
Lamb
All of which I would take over all of those receivers. (Minus JSN…if we could wash the Seahawk stank off him)
Totally agree. YPC isn't the right metric to use to rank WRs. In general, YPC will be slanted towards WRs who have a heavy diet of deep bombs. A WR who is more one-dimensional and not a 3-level threat who catches passes in the short, intermediate and deep area of the field could have a great YPC. If you are great at winning on 3rd&5, for example, it will drag down your YPC, because you got a 6 yard catch, not a 15 to 20 yard reception.
Tutu Atwell had 32 yards per reception last season. Meanwhile,
Puka Nacua was only 34th among qualified receivers with 13.3 ypc. In ESPN's receiving metrics, Puka was the best pass catcher in the NFL last year. Atwell is not a better WR than Nacua.
There was a WR named Trey Palmer who ran
4.33 seconds at the Combine and was just over 6 feet tall. He was a late round pick by Tampa. He started several games for them as a rookie but ultimately he only lasted 2 years with the Bucs with 526 yards over those 2 seasons.
Xavier Legette was a 1st rd pick in 2024. He's a muscular and thickly built 6'1'' who ran sub 4.4 seconds. He's started for the Panthers but so far has only averaged slightly more than 400 receiving yards per season. Jalen Coker was an UDFA in the same class as Legette and also plays for the Panthers. Coker has outproduced Legette. That's right, the UDFA has been more effective than the 1st round guy. Coker only runs about 4.6 seconds in the 40.
YPC is naturally going to be skewed in favor of WRs who have fast 40-yard dash times. That's fine if we're drafting
the next Calvin Johnson for Stafford, but good luck finding a 6'5'' tall WR who runs 4.3 seconds at the bottom of the 2nd round next year.
Coincidentally, after I post this comment, I'll be posting in the draft forum about Ryan Coleman Williams, the crazy fast Bama WR who played with Ty Simpson. I'm not high on him. Yes, he's fast but I think that's part of the problem. He learned to rely too much on speed and hasn't developed the other parts of his game like route running. My NFL comp for him is
John Ross, who ran 4.22 seconds, one of the fastest times ever recorded at the Combine.
Hitstick is right, many of the best NFL WRs aren't super fast. Let's take
CeeDee Lamb. He only ran 4.5 seconds in the 40. That's basically Robert Woods speed. Lamb isn't overly tall either. Good WRs come in all shapes and sizes in the NFL. They don't all look or run the same. Some are tall, others are short, some are heavy, some are skinny, some are very fast, others like Puka are supposedly "too slow". It is part of why WRs are a high bust rate position in the draft. It isn't easy to figure out which ones will pan out and which ones won't. If it were that easy, all 32 teams would just keep drafting the same body type over and over.