3. Bengals
2025 rank: 3 |
2024 rank: 11
As you already know, the Bengals are the only team in the NFL that can credibly say it has two WR1-caliber talents anchoring the offense.
In
Ja'Marr Chase, the Bengals have a first-team All-Pro each of the past two seasons with an annual case to lead the league in any (or every) receiving category. Chase's big-play rate from 2024 inevitably regressed a little toward the mean in 2025, but there's no wide receiver in the NFL with a higher floor or ceiling.
On a snap-by-snap basis,
Tee Higgins has a solid case as a midtier WR1, particularly in the moments we've seen him without Chase on the field. Higgins has scored 21 touchdowns in 27 games over the past two seasons, and he ranked 11th in ESPN's receiver scores a year ago. The issue, frustratingly, is availability. Higgins missed five games in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons, and while he was healthier in 2025, he was still sidelined for two contests. He hasn't played a full season since his rookie campaign in 2020. A 17-game season from Higgins would go a long way toward getting the 27-year-old back to the Pro Bowl for a second consecutive campaign.
Chase Brown makes this a big three, although the Bengals are careful to limit his workload and haven't let their lead back top 240 carries in either of the past two campaigns. Brown's role as a receiver has grown; he garnered 88 targets last season on everything from slants out of the slot to shallow routes on mesh concepts to double moves. If he could do this with about 15% more workload, Brown would be a Pro Bowl contender in the AFC.
After those three, well, good luck.
Andrei Iosivas has been one of the least efficient receivers in the league, even when one of the players ahead of him has been absent. Tight end
Mike Gesicki wasn't able to build on his resurgent 2024 campaign.
Erick All Jr. quietly impressed early in his rookie season before missing the second half of 2024 and all of 2025 with a serious
knee injury. Could the 25-year-old tight end be the player the Bengals need to make it to No. 1 on this list?
2. Rams
2025 rank: 5 |
2024 rank: 9
The rivalry between the Rams and the Seahawks might have been matched only by the battle between their two star wide receivers in 2025. And just as the Seahawks narrowly claimed the NFC West crown and, eventually, the conference title, Puka Nacua finished just behind Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the race as football's best wideout. Nacua makes the Rams' offense work with his ability to block and all the play-action concepts that open up as a result, but he hit new heights as a receiver in 2025, particularly working downfield. He also added 105 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground for good measure. Nacua is the most complete receiver in the game.
Davante Adams was limited to 14 games by a late-season
hamstring issue. We didn't see the Adams of old in 2025, but we got a player who became virtually unstoppable near the goal line. He scored 14 touchdowns, and upon closer inspection, he was open for at least four or five more, only to be let down by some combination of poor throws, pressure and drops. Adams had nine touchdowns inside the 5-yard line last season, and Dallas Goedert was the only other player with more than four. That seems unsustainable in 2026, but again, Adams was simply routinely open time after time near the end zone. Regardless, the future Hall of Famer is more properly characterized as a No. 2 as opposed to a No. 1 at this point of his career.
Kyren Williams split time with
Blake Corum in 2025, but Williams led all rushers in success rate (50.6%) and was ninth in missed tackle rate (27.0%). Coach Sean McVay also relied more on Williams as a pass catcher in key spots, using him on choice routes when teams focused their coverages on Adams and Nacua. Corum isn't as complete of a player as the starter, but he's plenty explosive as a runner and a valuable second back. Throw in the bevy of tight ends the Rams have and this is a complete playmaker room, albeit one that could be more dependent on Nacua than it might seem.
1. Lions
2025 rank: 2 |
2024 rank: 7
It's the Lions, though, who inherit the top spot from the Eagles. I'm not sure we learned anything dramatically new about Detroit's personnel in 2025.
Jahmyr Gibbs did end the season as a true lead back, but his workload was only marginally larger than it had been as a rotational player in 2024. Gibbs was able to maintain elite efficiency as a rusher and a receiver despite a struggling offensive line, with the former first-round pick averaging more than 5 yards per carry for the third consecutive season. The only other back to do that on three consecutive 150-plus-carry seasons to begin a career is
Nick Chubb. Good company.
While
Amon-Ra St. Brown managed 1,401 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in yet another high-end campaign, the star wide receiver will look back and rue a very unexpected problem: drops. After dropping a total of five passes across his first four seasons in the league, St. Brown had five drops in 2025 alone, including one on fourth-and-2
against the Chiefs. St. Brown's track record suggests the issue was an outlier, and even with the drops, he was still wildly productive in 2025.
Jameson Williams solidified his status as one of the league's best No. 2 wideouts, racking up a career-high 1,117 receiving yards while playing a full season for the first time as a pro. And there were some bright spots from rookie wide receiver
Isaac TeSlaa, who seemed to only be targeted on jump balls in the end zone. In reality, TeSlaa caught 16 passes for 239 yards and six touchdowns, and he profiles as a potential breakout candidate if there are enough footballs to go around in the offense this season.
The only player Lions fans might want more from is
Sam LaPorta, who hasn't been able to build on his impressive rookie campaign. The fourth-year tight end was off to a solid start last season, averaging more yards per route run (2.0) than he did as a rookie (1.8). A
herniated disc in his back ended LaPorta's season in early November, though. He is never going to get the sort of target share he needs to produce like Trey McBride or Brock Bowers, but LaPorta is entirely capable of being one of the league's most efficient tight ends on a route-by-route basis.
There are small downgrades on the margins: The Lions don't have as much wide receiver depth as they've had in years past, and Isiah Pacheco doesn't profile to be as productive or explosive as David Montgomery was in Detroit. But this core also validated it could be among the most productive in the NFL, even without Ben Johnson in the mix. And while 2025 might have been disappointing for the Lions as a whole, it was the season that proved Detroit has the best playmakers in all of football.
