Top 10 NFL Wide Receivers

What a terrible year for me to do this list. Wide receiver is the most interesting position in football to me. A good receiver can do some fun things, but at the end of the day is completely reliant on his quarterback. A great quarterback can make his receiver look like a god, where a mediocre QB can make his great WR look weirdly average. Some QBs are so great they can still be great with bad WR options. However the difference a great WR can make is pretty easy to see. We saw it happen in the mid-2000s when Randy Moss went to the New England Patriots and Tom Brady put up godlike stats immediately. Randy Moss on the other hand, was fresh off of two hugely disappointing seasons in Oakland where he put up 1,558 yards and eleven touchdowns. That first year in New England alone, he put up 1,493 yards and twenty-three touchdowns.

Point being is that receivers are a dependent position, yet have such a wide range of skill sets and skill levels it makes them one of the strangest and most difficult position groups to rank. That is precisely why I chose to rank them. I enjoy doing research and felt like spending a day buried so deep in Pro-Football Reference I’m not sure I will ever see daylight again.

This list has some qualifications. This is an attempt at both a skill review and a statistical analysis of the players performance over the season. One player falls down further on the list than others may put him because his season has honestly just been a bit shit. The combination of how highly they have performed this season and how much I would want them on my team going forward is how I compiled this list.

Before I get into the meat of the list though, I have three honorable mentions I want to highlight. Mike Evans is the first. He has had a bit of a wonky season due to Tom Brady not really fitting into Bruce Arians’ system and the fact that they just have so many weapons in Tampa. That being said he is still the number one red zone guy in that offense and the top jump ball guy as well. Next I want to mention Adam Theilen. Theilen has the tragic career path of being stuck with Kirk Cousins, a QB good enough to get you the ball a bit, but not good enough to do any real semblance of winning with. Theilen is as sure as it gets and is often the safety blanket for cousins which is understandable. Theilen was probably the hardest guy to leave off my top ten. Lastly I want to bring up the tank that is AJ Brown. Brown is one of the toughest wideouts in the league to bring down and absolutely has the potential to be a top five guy, he just needs to put it all together. With the honorable mentions done, it's time to move on to the list. 

Number 10: DJ Moore - Carolina Panthers

DJ Moore is a yards per catch animal. He is second in the league in yards per catch at 18.8 yards per reception. The only player ahead of him is at 19.5 yards per reception but is doing that on only thirty-one receptions to Moore’s fifty-six. DJ Moore is only in his third year in the league and is already a top deep threat in the NFL, is top ten in the league in yards per game, and on his second 1,000 yard receiving season. This may be a bit of a projection as Moore is only twenty-three years old, but the talent is there and even with changes in quarterbacks and some sub-par play, Moore has managed to be one of the top guys in the league. 

Number 9: Chris Godwin - Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Too bad I am not doing this list at the end of last season. Chris Godwin has easily been the biggest sufferer from the Tom Brady era in Tampa. Godwin has missed a few games due to injury and there just isn’t anything you can do about that, but even so he is well off pace of where he was last season. That being said, he is still at fifty-five catches and 623 yards in ten games played. The man is still so supremely talented and also in only his fourth year in the NFL. The league is populated with young guys that are getting ready to take over from the old heads, and Chris Godwin is at the top of that list, almost.

Number 8: Allen Robinson - Chicago Bears

You try having the inconsistent QB play that Robinson has had and see how well you do! Robinson is on his second 1,000 yard season in a row, in this the worst the QB play has been since he was in Jacksonville. Robinson has also not missed a game in the past two seasons, something some people were worried about post ACL tear. At 133 targets, Robinson is the fourth most targeted receiver in the NFL. Teams know Robinson is the number one and he still performs every week like the number one. One criticism of Robinson may be that he doesn’t have the big explosive games that the other top guys have, but the counter is that he also doesn’t disappear like many of the other guys on this list do. Robinson only has two games below fifty yards this season. He only has three games below seventy yards receiving this season. Robinson makes the hard catches look easy, and he doesn’t miss the easy catches. He has only two drops this year. 

Number 7: Michael Thomas - New Orleans Saints

What a fall from grace. Last year I would have had Thomas at number two on this list. Michael Thomas is not entirely to blame for his mediocre season as he has dealt with injuries, but according to reports he was also suspended by the Saints for a game for basically being an ass-hole. Allegedly he punched a teammate. However, in the games where Thomas has been back, he has just not looked like himself. He has only played in seven games this season. He has fifty or more receiving yards in five of them, however if we raise that number to fifty-two yards, he only has three games with more yards. Catching more balls in a single season than any other player is not a fluke. That doesn’t just happen. Michael Thomas deserves the benefit of the doubt. However, that only goes so far, and right now I would take six other guys over him. 

Number 6: DK Metcalf - Seattle Seahawks

This man is something special. Metcalf is still only twenty three years old and he currently sits at fourth in the NFL in yards per game. DK is fast, big, and strong in a way that few wide receivers have ever been. The closest comp we have to what DK is, is Terrell Owens. DK can go over people, burn people, and he runs some pretty crisp routes. Right now his biggest issue is drops as he has had seven in both of his professional seasons. However DK is still so young and he is already as dominant as it gets. As soon as he can learn how to handle the guys like Jalen Ramsey, he will be a top ten guy in the league.

Number 5: Stefon Diggs - Buffalo Bills

Diggs has been nothing short of brilliant this entire season. Diggs is currently the NFL leader in receptions and is third in yards at 1,314 yards. He is only ten yards behind the league leader. Diggs has eight drops which is a lot but that's also on 147 targets. His catch percentage remains at 75% even with the outrageous target number. Diggs is on his third straight 1,000 yard season, but we see the real difference as a true number one. The Vikings wouldn't pay Diggs like a number one because they have Theilen, but this season has proved how great Diggs can be with a genuinely great QB while he is the true number one on his team. At only twenty-seven years old, Diggs is just hitting his prime and should have no problem sustaining this kind of phenomenal production for the next few years. 

Number 4: Julio Jones - Atlanta Falcons

After six straight seasons of 1,300 yards or more, it looks like Julio Jones will not be cracking 1,000 yards this season. I say that tentatively though as there are few people in the league more likely to just randomly throw up 264 yards and two touchdowns on a Sunday. However, Julio’s season is definitely a step back for him as a top guy, but it is not entirely his fault. Julio has only played in nine games this season as he has been struggling with multiple injuries all year. Julio’s biggest issue this year has been consistency. He has five games over ninety yards, with three of them being over 125 yards. However, in every other game he has played this year, he has less than fifty-five yards. In three of those he has less than forty yards. Being a top four receiver in the NFL is still a ridiculous amount of respect, however after this season, I am not sure if Julio is quite in the conversation for best in the league anymore. We will have to wait til next year to see if Julio bounces back, as he is thirty-one years old now. 

Number 3: Tyreek Hill - Kansas City Chiefs

Take the fastest wide receiver in the NFL, give him the best quarterback in the NFL, and tell me what you get. What you get is a fifth year player leading the league in touchdown receptions and sitting in fifth on the receiving yards leaderboard. Tyreek isn’t just a burner who tries to go over the top on every play. He runs crisp routes and has pretty sure hands. He has five drops on 129 targets which is not bad at all, and he has fifty-four first down catches this year. Tyreek has one or two things that he does better than anyone in the league, but he does everything. Hill is also still just twenty-six years old. He has time to get even better. He has not missed a game in two out of the last three seasons. Hill is a top guy in the league, though it does help that he has the best QB in the league tossing him the ball. 

Number 2: Davante Adams - Green Bay Packers

Adams doesn’t stick out on your TV screen like DK Metcalf or Julio Jones do. He doesn’t constantly burn defensive backs over the top like Tyreek or DJ Moore do. Davante Adams does everything he does in one of the most deliberate and skilled ways you can. He is near picturesque in his route running. His breaks are lightning fast and the way he accelerates to his top speed is like few players in the league. Adams is second in touchdown grabs this year, only one behind Hill. Adams is currently seventh in receiving yards this season, yet he leads the league in yards per game because unlike any of the people above him, he has missed two games. Adams has received 131 targets in those twelve games he has played, putting him at over ten per game, because when Aaron Rodgers gets into trouble, he tends to just fling it at Adams. The crazy thing is, Adams is so good this usually works. His biggest critique is that Adams has a tough time staying healthy. Adams has never played a full sixteen games in his career. Luckily, Adams is still only twenty-eight. Unfortunately what that means is Bears fans like myself will continue to be tortured by this man almost as if it's a personal vendetta. 

Number 1: DeAndre Hopkins - Arizona Cardinals

I will die on this hill like William Wallace would for freedom. I will fight for this tooth and nail till I turn blue in the face. Ask any of the poor souls that I play fantasy football with who I think is the best wide receiver in the NFL and within four seconds they will all say DeAndre Hopkins. I have been raving about Hopkins being one of the best guys in the league since 2015. In 2017 when he finally got a good quarterback and had an impossibly good first six games before Deshaun Watson got hurt, I began my campaign for Hopkins as number one receiver in the NFL. Hopkins has averaged ninety or more yards per game four times in his career, this season included. He leads the league in yards this year. The stat that most conveys my point about Hopkins is that he has 138 targets and only one drop. Hopkins has the best hands in a wide receiver since Larry Fitzgerald. Hopkins has been showing the NFL community for years now, and if it wasn’t clear, Hopkins stamped his season with a last second Hail Mary reception to win a game over the top of four defenders a la Calvin Johnson. DeAndre Hopkins is the best wide receiver in the NFL, he is only twenty-eight years old, and in my opinion, has the potential to go down as one of the four greatest wide receivers in NFL history when his career is over.