The 2025 NFL season ended on Feb. 8, and the 2026 season starts on Sept. 9. That means the halfway mark of the offseason is May 25… And you know what? We’re close enough: It’s offseason ranking time, baby!
This is just a regular ranking, not a power ranking. There’s a difference between the two. A power ranking is a ranking of the teams and players at the time of the ranking. That means injuries matter, and history doesn’t. In a regular ranking, it’s the opposite: Injuries don’t matter, and history does.
This is a definitive ranking of the 10 best wide receivers in the NFL. Before we get started, some honorable mentions: DeVonta Smith, Tetairoa McMillian, Jaylen Waddle, Stefon Diggs and Zay Flowers. Those guys are all super awesome, but they don’t quite crack the top.
10. Chris Olave, Saints
- Contract: Playing on his fifth-year option
- 2025 Stats: 100 catches, 1,163 yards, 9 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Never played a full season, but still really good
This was between Chris Olave and Nico Collins. Olave’s got a concussion problem and has had some trouble staying on the field… But when he’s healthy (read: not getting thrown hospital balls by Derek Carr), he absolutely rocks.
Last year, his quarterbacks were Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough; the first was very bad, and the latter was a second-round rookie. That didn’t stop Olave from having a 100-catch season that got him 1,163 yards, nine touchdowns, and a second-team All-Pro nod.
The dude was on an offense devoid of any type of skill position talent. If you played the Saints, you knew that the ball was either going to be thrown to their tight end, Juwan Johnson, or Olave… and it was still a functional offense because of how good Olave finally showed that he can be.
9. A.J. Brown, Eagles
- Contract: Three years, $96 million (through 2029)
- 2025 Stats: 78 catches, 1,003 yards, 7 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Only player to have six-straight games of 125+ receiving yards
On the first few days of June, A.J. Brown is going to get traded to the Patriots. Philadelphia traded for him during the 2022 draft, and in the past four seasons, he’s proved that he’s the best wide receiver in Eagles history.
He’s a mix of gunpowder, NO2, and pure bull shark testosterone. The 2022 Eagles took that syringe, jabbed it straight into their carotid artery, and had one of the most explosive passing offenses in the league. That’s what happens when you add the most dominant X-receiver in the NFL.
He can do everything. You want a slant and YAC? A.J. Brown. You want a deep shot and YAC? A.J. Brown. You want a possession receiver who will body the guy across the line of scrimmage? A.J. Brown.
Ninety-nine percent of the world’s population knows that he’s that type of football player. The problem is that the only person who didn’t was Kevin Patullo, and it was his job to draw up plays to get Brown the ball… Spoiler: He didn’t and now he’s fired, and AJB is leaving the team.
8. Mike Evans, 49ers (but actually Bucs)
- Contract: Three years, $42.4 million ($14.3 million guaranteed)
- 2025 Stats: 30 catches, 368 yards, 3 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Had 11-straight seasons with 1,000+ receiving yards
Did Mike Evans have a good 2025? Absolutely not, and no one would argue that he did. Is Mike Evans still a top-10 receiver in the NFL? Absolutely, and no one would argue that he’s not. I’m not going to let one bad year, a year that was bad because of injuries, knock him out of the elite tier of receivers, and neither should you.
Now, the problem is that he’s a 49er now. If there’s a franchise that’s been defined by their recent history of debilitating injuries, it’s them.
7. George Pickens, Cowboys
- Contract: Franchise Tag
- 2025 Stats: 93 catches, 1,429 yards, 9 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Didn't punch his quarterbacks in Pittsburgh, even though he could've.
You could argue that George Pickens having one truly elite season doesn’t make him worthy of being a top-10 receiver in the NFL, and that’s fair. The counterargument is that we saw flashes of borderline eliteness in his previous three seasons. The difference is that in those first three seasons, he was getting the ball thrown to him by hot garbage.
In 2022, his quarterbacks were Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky. That season, he had a career-low 84 targets, but he still had 800 receiving yards. In 2023, his quarterbacks were Pickett, Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph. That season, he made the year-two jump that elite receivers make and had 1,104 yards.
In 2024, his numbers dipped to 59 catches, 900 yards, and three touchdowns. Part of that was due to his quarterbacks being Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, and part of it was due to him being a lunatic. In his defense, you would also get mad if those two guys were directly responsible for getting you the ball.
Then he got put on a real offense with a quarterback who doesn’t totally stink, and he dropped a cool 1,493 receiving yards. That was the third-most yards a receiver had last season, and he did it with 93 catches. For reference, Ja’Marr Chase had 1,412 yards and did it on 125 catches.
It’s not fun to say a Cowboys receiver is good, but here we are.
6. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions
- Contract: Four years, $120 million (through 2028)
- 2025 Stats: 117 catches, 1,401 yards, 11 Touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Fourth round pick, and he'll slug you in the nards if you bring it up
There’s a running theme with these guys, and it’s that they’re almost all crazy people. Where Pickens is more than willing to fight a ball boy or the guy with the parabolic mic on the sideline, Amon-Ra St. Brown has made an Arya Stark-esque list of the 16 wide receivers who were drafted before him in 2021.
And yeah, it makes sense. There’s only one wide receiver better than him who was drafted before him, and that’s Ja’Marr Chase, who was picked fifth overall.
Aside from that ever-pesky rookie season, he’s had over 100 catches and over 1,000 receiving yards. And in the past three seasons, he’s had at least 10 touchdown catches as well.
The vast majority of his catches are shorter throws, but he’s a middle-of-the-field guy. That means he’s in traffic and making contested catches, or he’s using speed to get separation and YAC. Yeah, that’s what every wide receiver should be doing, but ARSB does it at an insanely high rate, and he’s just about the best in the world at it.
5. CeeDee Lamb, Cowboys
- Contract: Four years, $136 million (through 2028)
- 2025 Stats: 75 catches, 1,077 yards, 3 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: 1 postseason touchdown catch in his career
CeeDee Lamb has been in the NFL for six seasons, and he’s averaging 1,236 receiving yards per season. Even if you take away his 1,749-yard season in 2023, he’s still averaging 1,133 yards per season. That’s absolutely nuts.
Even last year, when he dealt with an ankle injury, a concussion scare, and another wide receiver who got a full workload, he still had 75 catches for 1,077 yards. He did have a career-low three touchdowns, but I’m not going to let that take away from him being super sick.
He’s incredibly smooth, he’s incredibly shifty, he’s incredibly strong at the catch point, and he’s incredibly consistent. He’s a top-five receiver, and it’s going to take a lot to bump him down.
4. Puka Nacua, Rams
- Contract: Rookie contract (for now)
- 2025 Stats: 129 catches, 1,715 yards, 10 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Most catches in the NFL last season
A couple of years ago, Puka Nacua did an interview where he said that he doesn’t eat vegetables, but he eats a lot of pineapple and watermelon because “you gotta poop somehow.”
At the time, it was a very funny thing because “Dudes rock” and all that. But it turns out he might just be an idiot. Also, he’s been on record doing not one, but two antisemitic things… And he bit a woman. So let’s normalize not giving a bunch of kudos to bad people.
He’s an infinitely better football player than he is a person.
3. Justin Jefferson, Vikings
- Contract: Four years, $120 million (through 2028)
- 2025 Stats: 84 catches, 1,048 yards, 2 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Should be really angry with his team, but he's not
There was a minute there when we all thought Justin Jefferson was quarterback agnostic; that no matter who was throwing the ball, he’d be productive…
And then the 2025 season happened.
Even though J.J. McCarthy was terrible. And even though Carson Wentz got every bone in his body broken in that Week 8 game against the Chargers. And even though Max Brosmer threw 71 passes… Justin Jefferson still had 84 catches and 1,048 receiving yards.
It was by far the worst season that we’ve ever seen from him, and that includes the 2023 season, where he missed seven games with a hamstring injury (he still had 68 catches and 1,074 receiving yards).
There have been hundreds and hundreds of wide receivers in the history of the NFL who would die to have 1,000 receiving yards, and Jefferson did it with quarterbacks who belong on the bubble of a practice squad.
That’s just about as big a compliment as you can give a wide receiver.
2. Ja’Marr Chase, Bengals
- Contract: Four years, $161 million (through 2029)
- 2025 Stats: 125 catches, 1,412 yards, 8 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Cost you your fantasy league if you drafted him in the first round
Let’s look at Ja’Marr Chase’s resume:
- Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2021.
- Five-time Pro-Bowler (he’s only played five seasons)
- 2021 Second-team All-Pro
- 2024 and 2025 First-Team All-Pro
- Triple Crown Winner in 2024
It’s that Triple Crown (most catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns) that’s the most impressive feat. There have only been 17 guys in the history of the NFL to win the Triple Crown, and 12 of them won it between 1932 and 1966… and none of those guys had over 100 catches, so it was a different game.
So in the relatively modern NFL, the only guys to win the Triple Crown have been Jerry Rice (1990). Sterling Sharpe (1992), Steve Smith Sr. (2005), Cooper Kupp (2021), and Ja’Marr Chase (2024).
Oh, and last year was a bad year for Chase, but he still led the league in targets (185) and had 1,412 receiving yards. So… pretty, pretty, pretty good.
1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks
- Contract: Four years, $168 million (through 2031)
- 2025 Stats: 119 catches, 1,793 yards, 10 touchdowns
- Featured Stat: Responsible for 29.1% of the Seahawks' yards in 2025
Last offseason, it was Saquon Barkley at the top of the running back rankings, and this year it’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba… It doesn’t matter who you are: if you are the reigning Offensive Player of the Year and you just won the Super Bowl, you’re going to be ranked at the top of your position.
Going into the 2025 season, D.K. Metcalf had the Seahawks' single-season receiving yards record with 1,303 yards. JSN broke that record in Week 12.
At the time, he was on pace to break the NFL single-season record of 1,964 yards set by Calvin Johnson in 2012. He was at 1,313 yards, so all he had to do was average a measly 109 yards in the next six games. He fell short of that, but it was a tremendous start to one of the best seasons a wide receiver could possibly have. That’ll put you at the top of the rankings.
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