2026 NFL draft wide receiver projections: Rankings, comps

It used to be rare for a rookie wide receiver to make a big impact, but that paradigm is clearly changing. A first-year pass catcher with 1,000 receiving yards may now be a perennial occurrence. Every NFL Draft since 2019 has seen at least one wide receiver hit 1,000 yards passing as a rookie. (tetaroa macmillan Now! Reached this benchmark last year with 1,014 yards.)

What are the possibilities in 2026 nfl draft Will the class project have an immediate impact on professionals? We used the Playmaker Score to find out. Playmaker Score analyzes a player’s peak college season including other variables ESPN’s Scouts Inc. ranking – Projecting the receiving yards per year in a player’s first five NFL seasons. You can see the full explanation at the bottom of this story.

Below, we look at the top playmaker prospects in the 2026 draft, as well as some similar prospects from previous drafts (players who were similar in their playmaker stats but not necessarily similar in physical attributes). Overall, this is a better class than last year, but not as good as 2024. In 2024, we had 13 receivers with a playmaker score of at least 400. Last year, it had dropped to four. This year, it’s eight o’clock.

Go to a section:
top eight wr
Day 2 Sleeper Pick
Day 3 Sleeper Pick
Complete Playmaker Score Ranking
Methodology: How it works

Playmaker Score Projection: 671 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 13
Similar historical possibilities: sammy watkins, brandin cook

Lemon is a fairly typical first-round wide receiver prospect. He had a lot of yards (1,156) and touchdowns (11) in 2025. He also had nine carries and two rushing touchdowns, which is a good indicator for future performance, even if Lemon didn’t have many yards on those carries (four).

He’s coming up as a junior, and the best prospects usually enter the draft with eligibility remaining. (The top eight receivers listed here have eligibility remaining.) He also gets a little bonus for sharing the field with another draft-eligible receiver who is expected to go in the middle rounds, Ja’Coby Lane. Nothing extraordinary, but everything is very good here.

Playmaker Score Projection: 668 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 23
Similar historical possibilities: Justin Jefferson, ike hilliard

Cooper is interesting for a few reasons. First, his conservative numbers are deceptively low because Indiana had relatively few pass attempts in 2025. He had 69 catches for 937 receiving yards. Second, he had a much higher touchdown total (13) than yards per reception (13.6), although his per reception figure was much higher in his sophomore year (21.2). Cooper was the full-time slot receiver for the Hoosiers in 2025, but can also play on the outside.

Playmaker Score Projection: 637 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 12
Similar historical possibilities: mike evans, troy williamson

Tyson’s projection is slightly lower than Lemons and Cooper because he missed time last season. hamstring injury. But it’s easy to make the case that Tyson would have been the top receiver in Playmaker scoring without that injury. Through nine games in 2025, he caught 61 receptions for 711 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. He did not miss a game in 2024 and gained 1,101 receiving yards on 75 catches with 10 touchdowns.

Still, he comes out with a higher projection than our 2025 draft No. 2 receiver, tetaroa macmillanWho was it is expected to happen 625 yards/season. Tyson is a strong route runner who can also excel at contested catches at 6-foot-2, 203 pounds.

game

Jordan Tyson scores the tying TD on fourth-and-goal

Sam Leavitt hit Jordan Tyson in the fourth to tie the score at 24–24.

Playmaker Score Projection: 597 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 19
Similar historical possibilities: andre johnson, coren robinson

Is coming off two identical seasons with the Boston Huskies: 834 yards and nine touchdowns in 2024, and then 881 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2025. This is more impressive than you might think as Washington has seen a significant decline in the number of times it passes the ball from 2024 to 2025, following players like Rome Odunze And Jailyn Polk Went to NFL.

Boston is huge at 6-4 and 212 pounds, and scouting reports generally praise him for his toughness and ball skills more than his speed and ability.

Playmaker Score Projection: 586 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 11
Similar historical possibilities: AJ Green, Laquon Treadwell

Wait, what’s the consensus top receiver in the draft doing all the way down here – fifth? Tate actually recorded 51 receptions for 875 receiving yards with nine touchdowns in 2025. But the problem with his projection is the variable that gives receivers a bonus if they have to share the field with another talented teammate who is drafted the same year. It’s hard to put up great stats if you have to play against another superstar like the unanimous All-American Jeremiah Smith.

Smith is currently a sophomore, so he is not eligible for the draft until 2027. If we add Smith into the system as a projected first-round pick in this year’s draft, Tate reaches a projection of 649 yards per season, which would put him at third, just below Lemon and Cooper.

Playmaker Score Projection: 521 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 40
Similar historical possibilities: michael thomas, t higgins

Concepcion starred as a freshman at NC State in 2023 with 839 yards and 10 touchdowns. He then had a disappointing 2024 season, with only 460 yards, before bouncing back with 919 yards after transferring to the Aggies in 2025.

they tied tennessee Chris Brazell II (That’s coming down) for the SEC lead with nine receiving touchdowns last season. Concepcion relies on his quickness to get open against close coverage, so having a career like Thomas would really be the best situation for him.

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Casey Concepcion skies for Texas A&M TD

Marcel Reed connected with Casey Concepcion on a 17-yard touchdown to give Texas A&M the lead over Arkansas, 28–20.

Playmaker Score Projection: 496 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 39
Similar historical possibilities: Nico Collins, Justin Hunter

Branch had only six touchdowns last season and only nine throughout his three-year college career, which is very low for a highly touted wide receiver prospect. However, he led the SEC with 81 receptions for the 2025 Bulldogs and had to share the field with another prospect. colby young. He also recorded 811 receiving yards.

Stylistically, Branch is like a gadget slot receiver who runs fast but can have explosive pass gains. So he isn’t on par with players with most similar playmaker metrics like Collins.

Playmaker Score Projection: 451 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 50
Similar historical possibilities: rache caldwell, Anthony Gonzalez

Brazell had 62 catches for 1,017 yards and nine touchdowns for the 2025 Volunteers. He is 6-4 and 198 pounds and has long arms. He also has a long stride as he sprints down the field and runs a 4.37-second 40-yard dash.

day 2 sleeper

Playmaker Score Projection: 390 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: 85
Similar historical possibilities: anthony miller, Kevin Lockett

pull someone chris carter Alarm, as Sarat just scores a touchdown. He led the FBS with 15 catches for the 2025 Hoosiers, including 65 catches for 830 receiving yards.

This total is even more absurd when you consider that Surratt had to compete with Cooper for touches, although this is partially explained by the fact that they were playing with the potential No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, at quarterback. Fernando Mendoza. Serrat has the highest projection this year for a player who is coming off college eligibility remaining.

day 3 sleeper

Playmaker Score Projection: 136 yards/season
Scouts Inc. Ranking: N/A
Similar historical possibilities: Ty Montgomery II, Jalen Hurd

With the increasing number of players transferring from Group of 6 schools to Power 4 schools for their final year of eligibility, Daniels is an example of something we need to study. The Playmaker Score system suggests that a player’s peak season is more predictable than their most recent season, but what do we do when those two seasons are played at different levels?

Daniels had 55 catches for 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns for Liberty University in 2023, but he hasn’t been as productive the past two years playing in Power 4 conferences. He had 480 yards and zero touchdowns for LSU in 2024, and then 557 yards and seven touchdowns for Miami in 2025. After six years of college eligibility, Daniels probably doesn’t have much development potential, but he could be a useful depth receiver for the next few seasons and should be available late in the draft.

One last note: I also have a tight end projection system I call “Travis”. This playmaker isn’t as developed as Score, but the Oregon tight end kenyon sadik The projection of 603 yards per season is the most in system history.

Methodology

The Playmaker Score predicts NFL success for wide receivers based on statistical analysis of Division I wide receivers drafted over the years 1996–2022 and measures the following:

• Projected draft position of wide receivers from ESPN Scouts Inc. ranking.

• The wide receiver prospect’s best or “peak” season for receiving yards per team attempt (i.e. a wide receiver with 1,000 receiving yards whose team passed 400 times would get a “2.50” score).

• Peak season for wide receiver prospects in receiving touchdowns per team attempt.

• The difference between the prospect’s peak season for receiving touchdowns per team attempt and the prospect’s most recent season for receiving touchdowns per team attempt (this factor is simply “0” for a player whose peak season was his most recent season).

• A variable that rewards players who enter the draft as underclassmen and penalizes those who exhaust their college eligibility.

• A wide receiver’s rushing attempts per game during his peak season in receiving yards per team attempt.

• A factor that gives a bonus to wide receivers with teammates who played for the same college team, entered the draft for the same year, and are projected to be drafted.

Playmaker’s primary output (Playmaker Score) projects the average total of regular-season receiving yards that the wide receiver will gain per year during his first five NFL seasons. The secondary output (Playmaker Rating) shows how well the receiver performs compared to historical benchmarks without considering projected draft position.