I didn't see a thread devoted to WR's yet and I think we'll be doing a lot of talking about them in the months to come. I think this position must be addressed in the first round of the draft, either with our Seattle pick or via a trade down with either of our picks. The consensus seems to be that this is a relatively deep WR class but it lacks the high end talent like we saw in last year's draft with Chase, Smith and Waddle. I haven't watched much film on any of these guys yet so I don't have a strong opinion on whether that's the case or not. I'd be curious to hear opinions of those who've followed these WR's already and how they compare to last year's best. Here are some highlights of the top guys to get our feet wet: I must say after watching some footage that Williams just jumps off the screen to me. I can't really comment on his nuanced WR skills but the guy can flat out fly, that's for sure. Reminds me of Smith from last year where he just seems to glide away from everyone. Burks appears at a glance to maybe be the most complete WR of the group. Great hands, physical, very fast and pretty big overall. London looks like a Mike Evans type to me. Not especially quick or fast but huge and very capable of winning contested balls. Updating this post after watching more film: Just watched some more footage of Wilson, Williams and Burks. Wilson has really good hands and body control. He's very shifty after the catch and he's fast but not extremely fast. Really good at making acrobatic catches on passes that aren't thrown very accurately. He catches with his hands, not body. He's not very big but seems to have great leaping ability which makes up for some of the lack of height. He's probably the best pure WR of the three. Williams is insanely fast. Probably the best pure athlete of the bunch. Great acceleration and top speed. He catches with his body a lot. Doesn't seem like he was asked to run a lot of complex routes as most of his footage is just him running right by guys deep. Concerning that Wilson outperformed him significantly when they played for Ohio State together. Biggest boom or bust WR of the bunch. Burks has better size than the others but he's significantly clunkier in his movements. Great top end speed but less agile than the other two. Gigantic hands. Good after catch but not great due to clunkiness. Wilson seems like the safest bet. Williams has crazy upside but some red flags. I think my rankings are something like: 1. Wilson 2. London 3. Williams 4. Burks London is safer than Williams but lower upside. Burks I just think is in this weird middle ground where he's big but not very big and agile but not very agile or quick. I don't see him beating guys with size like London and I'm not sure he's quick enough to get open consistently in the pros.
I’ll toss a couple more mid to late round guys out there. Alec Pierce - Cincinnati Not the fastest guy in the world, but he’s a big possession receiver type. Excuse the white on white comparison because he’s much bigger but he reminds me a bit of Hunter Renfrow. Dontario Drummond - Ole Miss Extremely fast guy who should be a potential deep threat in the NFL. He played most of the season but was banged up a lot of the year or else I’d imagine he would’ve put up bigger numbers. Very good double move ability. Wan’Dale Robinson - Kentucky He’s very small and light and might not be strong enough in the pros, but he can absolutely fly. He might be more of an offensive ‘weapon’ than a pure NFL receiver. Think the way Arizona uses Rondale Moore and how he projected to the big show. Romeo Doubs - Nevada Highly productive receiver with good deep play ability. A bit of a question mark for me because he just ran by horrible defensive backs all year long. Khalil Shakir - Boise State Another Mountain West receiver that carries the same concerns for me as Doubs. But he’s played a lot of football and I like the fact that he’s been productive playing with a turbulent QB situation over the past three years at Boise State. A bit light, not sure how he’ll run. George Pickens* - Georgia I put an asterisks here because I have inside information from a former coach down at Georgia that he is a massive piece of shit teammate and human being. Still, he’s not a criminal or anything but I could see his personality getting flagged at the combine. ACL injury here I believe and never really lived up to what he should’ve been, but that’s possibly because of the shotty QB play down there and conservative run first offense. He’s a good jump ball guy.
Thanks for posting these. I'm really intrigued by Treylon Burks. I love his size, build, strength, and yet he looks pretty fast. He was lined up in the backfield, the slot, took direct snaps, ran end arounds, very versatile. His hands look strong, but is it my 67-year old eys, or does he not catch the ball cleanly sometimes? It looked to me like he bobbled a few catches, and a couple got into his body. That's a bit of a concern, but I need to see game video and read more about him. I haven't watched the others yet, but will admit that even though I really like fast and elusive WRs, I'm biased towards taller/bigger WRs. We have Moore who fulfills the fast and elusive, and I think we need a WR with prototypical #1 WR size that can win 50/50 balls, and go up and get the ball. I was very disappointed in Davis this past season and think we need someone that size with better hands, and maybe better speed. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of these, plus learning more about the top WRs in this draft class. I've watched all now, and solely based on these, I'd rank them Burks/Williams, then London, then Wilson. They're all very talented, look to have great hands, great awareness of where they are on the field. Wilson's speed, quickness, and body control are outstanding, but again he's shorter than I think the jets need, and he looks to be a bit of a diva to me. Williams just flat out runs by defenders. If they can't jam him at the LOS, most DBs can't keep up with him, but will that be true in the NFL? He also looks to have some diva in him. London is the slowest of them, but love his fire, his hands, his ability with 50/50 balls. So far, I think Burks and London would be the best fits for the Jets in terms of giving Zach the ability to throw the ball up and let them go get it since they're bigger than most DBs. Neither looks like a diva. I don't know how they block, but with their size, they should be able to block pretty well. I think Wilson could be limited as a blocker due to his size. If it's true that Williams doesn't give much effort to block, that could eliminate him from consideration by the Jets, but having someone that fast to return KOs and who could score from anywhere on the field would be mighty nice.
Another name to throw out there would be Jahan Dotson from Penn State. IMO you have a few tiers in the first 2 rounds. I've put them in the order I prefer them for the Jets in each tier. The difficult thing about these guys is that each one of them brings a lot to the table but it really just depends on what you want from your WR. Need a big-bodied, physical guy with great hands? Burks or London, and to a slightly lesser extent Bell, would be your guy. How about a guy who excels at route running and creating separation? Williams, Olave, or Wilson should be your pick. Tier 1 (Top 10-15): Williams Olave Tier 2 (Mid-Late 1st rounders): Burks Wilson London Dotson Tier 3 (Early-Mid 2nd rounders): Metchie Bell I know a lot of folks probably have their rankings for these guys too so I'd be interested to see how everyone else stacks these guys up!
I haven't seen enough video on those WRs above to make a determination, and haven't seen any on the others, although I have seen some of them play in games. So far at least, Burks has to be in Tier 1 with Williams, and based on what I've seen from Olave before, I'd put him in Tier 2. Unless my memory is faulty, I'd put Wilson above Olave in terms of play, but need to watch more film on Olave. I agree that London's lack of foot speed, puts him in Tier 2 or maybe even Tier 3.
I like Dotson as well. I think no matter which way you rank all these guys, I do not believe that we can go without taking one with one of our first four picks barring something egregious happening like there’s 7 first round wideouts and we didn’t take one with our first selection.
I'm excited to see what Wilson and Williams run in the 40. Both seem like 4.3ish guys. London feels like a 4.5+. Burks probably 4.4ish.
With his longer legs, I could see Williams hitting 4.2. I could see London even being 4.6 or higher. He looks pretty slow to me, but maybe that's just after watching Wilson and Williams blazing down the field.
Some may remember but I pounded the table for Lynn Bowden a few years back but Wan'Dale is my next UK-guy-being-drafted-by-the-Jets wish. Seeing how much LaFleur incorporates motion and misdirection this year, I fully think Wan'Dale would instantly find a home and have immediate production. UK hired a new offensive coordinator this year, Liam Coen, who had spent his 3 years prior to the 2021 season on the Rams, first as the WR coach and then as the assistant QB coach in 2020, and he brought a very pro style offense to UK. Wan'Dale flourished in it this season after transferring from Nebraska. He now has the most receiving yards in a season by any UK player all-time (1,334), along with the most receptions in a season by any UK player (104). Here's a highlight tape from his performance in our bowl game this year (10 catches for 170 yards). There's some chatter that with NIL's being a thing, he may return for one more year, but if he comes out, he would be a guy I'd love to take in the 3rd round range.
Using the 49ers as a model, their top WR's are Samuel and Aiyuk. Both are 6'0" and have good speed. Might not mean much, but it could eliminate London from consideration.
Yes, I read something the other day about him and he sounded intriguing, but that's supposedly what they had in mind for Moore ala Deebo Samuel. I suppose he could be Moore's backup, or maybe even start him in the slot ahead of Berrios, but I'll be surprised if they take him. Maybe if JD does trade down and add an additional 2nd-3rd round pick he might, but I think that's the range that he'll have to take a TE and LB, or maybe even a S.
I have Olave in Tier 1 over Wilson for 2 reasons. I believe Olave possess better deep speed than Wilson and I think Olave is the best route-runner in the class. Their skillsets are very similar but Olave gets the edge for me. I also agree on Burks and I've watched a little more tape on him lately and have flirted with the idea of putting him in Tier 1 but his under-developed route-running ability won't let me do it. I think Burks has the highest upside of all these guys though due to his physical gifts. This is the most important thing. I, like everyone else, have a preference on these guys but we have to use one of our first 4 picks on one of them. You put any of the first round guys with Elijah and Corey Davis and you've got the makings of a very, very good WR trio.
True, but they also started integrating Jauan Jennings and added Sanu last year even though they haven’t done much. I think the most interesting thing to note is that they like thick (no homo) receivers especially when you factor in Bourne who they let go because of price tag, Aiyuk, Samuel, Jennings, Sanu, Trent Sherfield, etc. They’re all 200+ which seems like it’s become heavy for receivers given the revolution with the small lightning quick guys like Waddle, Smith, Jefferson, etc.
I have a feeling Wilson will run slower than most think but I'll be watching the Combine on WR day very closely this year.
I trust your judgment on this, and I'll probably wind up with Olave over Wilson as well. You may be right about the route running thing with Burks.
Is it just me or does Olave seem a lot shorter than 6'1? He's looked tiny on the field whenever I've watched him. I find it hard to believe the listed height.
