Top 10 wide receivers in the National Football League right now

Get your pitchforks out for a good old fashioned debate...

By / NFL / 7 years ago

The NFL should stop listing the NFL in game weeks and just state the amount of Cleveland Browns losses that have occurred to this point.

While their morale seems to have dropped even lower, we’re going to rank those who never drop anything.

We count down the top ten wide receivers in the NFL right now.

* Disclaimer: if they’re injured, they’re hardly very good right now, are they?

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10: Doug Baldwin (Seattle Seahawks)

Maybe the most underrated wideout in the NFL, Baldwin was undrafted out of Stanford in 2011 and has been the go-to for Russell Wilson at the tail-end of his Houdini-like escapes. The Flordia-born receiver is coming off the back of successive 1,000-yard seasons and despite an ever-worsening offensive line in the north-west, he’s still got 700 yards through eleven games.

9: Adam Thielen (Minnesota Vikings)

Oh look, another undrafted receiver. Starting to see that you don’t need to take receivers high in the draft yet? Thielen’s the ultimate story of growth and adaptation. In his first two years at the Vikings, he only started a couple of games in each. Last year, he became a permanent fixture in their lineup, and notched 1,000 yards in just ten starts. This year? He has a thousand already. It’s not December yet.

8: TY Hilton (Indianapolis Colts)

Perhaps the importance of TY Hilton is overstated because he’s the only good thing Indianapolis have at the minute, but that aside, he’d be achieving far more in a better environment. He’s averaging twenty yards per reception, which leads the league for any receiver who’s caught forty passes or more. Another elite receiver – only taken 92nd overall back in 2012.

7: DeAndre Hopkins (Houston Texans)

Ah, maybe the biggest sob story on this list is ‘Nuke’ Hopkins. Not only has he been all but wasted in the NFL due to the lack of good Houston quarterbacks, but he actually found a connection with a rookie in Deshaun Watson, only for a training ground injury to rule him out for the year. He’s gotten 117 targets – which is second in the NFL.

6: Brandin Cooks (New England Patriots)

If we feel sorry for Hopkins, we must be in awe of the luck of Brandin Cooks. Granted, he was stepping away from a future Hall of Famer in Drew Brees to make the trip north to Massachusetts, but now he gets to play for the greatest signal caller of all time in Tom Brady. Cooks has hit 869 yards for the season, and is used to a variety of clever ways.

https://twitter.com/CaseyBake16/status/934889524269932546

5: Mike Evans (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

If you think of a prototype wide receiver, you think: six-foot-five, 230lbs, with unbelievable athleticism and physically unable to drop anything. That’s Mike Evans – and his intangibles are every bit as impressive as his measurables. He’s only tied sixteenth for receiving yards right now, but that offensive scheming could do with some work and he’s losing out because of it. They won’t even pass the ball to O.J. Howard. Oh well, you live and learn.

4: AJ Green (Cincinnati Bengals)

A couple of NFL players have called AJ Green ‘soft’ in recent times. Apparently, you can get inside his head and throw him off. Yet, he’s averaging fifteen yards a reception and still burning defences despite the supposed weaknesses in his psyche. He’ll be a contender for Catch of the Season with this beauty.

3: Keenan Allen (Los Angeles Chargers)

In terms of pure route-running, Allen might be one of the best technical receivers to grace the league in the last twenty years. Nobody can get near him when he’s manned up on the line of scrimmage. Philip Rivers is leading the Chargers back into the divisional hunt in the AFC West and Allen has caught fire in the last three weeks – now sitting at 927 yards for the year.

2: Julio Jones (Atlanta Falcons)

This was very close. Very close. But Julio will have to settle for a runners-up spot. There isn’t a player in the NFL who can boast the wingspan this man has when he jumps into the air. He rarely drops the ball. He does not get beaten in triple coverage. It’s a rare gift and production hasn’t slowed down. He’s broken the 1,000-yard threshold for the fourth year in a row.

https://twitter.com/FirstDownFR/status/929850751274438659

1: Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers)

He leads the league in receiving yards, receptions and targets despite being in a team with plenty of options and the best running back in the league. Even when he’s not open, he is open. He’s also the only player in the game averaging over 100 receiving yards per week. It’s borderline incredible. If you’re reading this, there’s also a good chance you’re taller than him, at just five-foot-ten. The best things can never be explained.

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What do you think?