The 2025 NFL Draft is in our rearview, giving us landing spots for the rookie wide receivers. For a more detailed breakdown of the biggest names, check out my pre-draft rookie wide receiver rankings . I have added some extra context below the table for players who didn’t crack my initial rankings but are now in the dynasty draft mix.
Rank Player Team Draft Pick 1 Travis Hunter JAX 2 2 Tetairoa Mcmillan CAR 8 3 Emeka Egbuka TB 19 4 Luther Burden CHI 39 5 Matthew Golden GB 23 6 Jayden Higgins HOU 34 7 Tre Harris LAC 55 8 Kyle Williams NE 69 9 Jack Bech LV 58 10 Jaylin Noel HOU 79 11 Elic Ayomanor TEN 136 12 Pat Bryant DEN 74 13 Isaac Teslaa DET 70 14 Tory Horton SEA 166 15 Jaylin Lane WAS 128 16 Savion Williams GB 87 17 Jalen Royals KC 133 18 Ricky White SEA 238 19 Dont’e Thornton LV 108 20 Tai Felton MIN 102 21 Arian Smith NYJ 110 22 Chimere Dike TEN 103 First Round Wide Receivers The first big debate dynasty managers face in drafts is Travis Hunter vs. Tetairoa McMillan. I don’t think there’s a wrong choice here, but I’ll be taking the receiver Jacksonville spent the No. 2 overall pick on plus a second-rounder this year and a 2026 first.
Calvin Johnson was the last receiver to go second overall, let alone the extra capital spent to move up. Hunter, of course, was drafted in part because of his ability to contribute on both sides of the ball. However, Zoomer Jags GM James Gladstone made it clear during his post-draft press conference that Hunter is a receiver first, saying he will play a heavy dose of offense and a sprinkle on defense.
The next three receivers all landed in tricky spots for year one production. Emeka Egbuka is a ready-made slot receiver and went to a Bucs team that has Chris Godwin projected for the starting slot role. Godwin has played primarily on the outside in a handful of seasons, but I don’t expect him to be booted from the slot entirely in 2025.
Egbuka will likely start his career with less than a full complement of routes, but I want to fall back on the talent when playing dynasty. Much like Egbuka, Luther Burden isn’t going to be his team’s top receiver in 2025. DJ Moore is locked in for that role.
However, Burden could ascend to the WR2 gig rather quickly. Rome Odunze ranked 70th in ESPN’s Open Score and 81st in yards per route run as a rookie. He might not be a star.
That leaves the door open for Burden to earn targets early in his career on an offense that is sure to be one of the most hyped during the summer. Matthew Golden could ascend to the top spot in his team’s receiver rotation. The Packers are stacked with role-players at wideout but are missing a true alpha.
The big issue is that Golden never managed to dominate targets in college. Now he goes to a team that seems to love their hyper-specific receiver roles and ranked 30th in pass attempts per game last year. Analytics Darlings The Patriots opened up their spreadsheets and took Washington State’s Kyle Williams with the No.
69 overall pick. Williams posted a true freshman breakout at the age of 19. Of the 19 Day Two receivers with an age-19 breakout, seven have gone on to post a WR1 fantasy season.
A few are still in the running to do so as well, though none look promising (looking at you Bills WR1 LaViska Shenault). Williams wasn’t just a pick for the data nerds though. Film nerds also loved him.
Kyle Williams is the best pure separator in the draft class. Couldn't love that pick more for Drake Maye — Mike Renner (@mikerenner_) April 26, 2025 A player everyone liked went early in the draft to a team dying for a wide receiver to take over the No. 1 role.
I’m all the way in for dynasty purposes. Elic Ayomanor was more divisive on tape, but the data was largely positive. He broke out as a true sophomore at a Power 5 school with a 62/1,013/6 receiving line.
His numbers took a hit in 2024, but he maintained his breakout-level dominator. Ayomanor’s red flags are serious concerns. Nearly 28 percent of his career targets were contested.
He brought down 45 percent of those looks, a good but not elite mark. The good news is that Cam Ward is willing to make aggressive throws and the Titans have an extreme need at receiver. NFL Draft Surprises The two stunner picks at the receiver on Day Two were undoubtedly Pat Bryant and Isaac TeSlaa.
I wrote about both in my Day Two Recap , so I will keep things brief here. Bryant was a downfield receiver who ran over 80 percent of his career routes from outside, but his 4.61 speed and ability to make tough catches in traffic earned him some “big slot” projections before the draft. Sean Payton seems to agree.
"There were so many parts of his game that reminded me of Michael Thomas" Sean Payton on WR Pat Bryant pic.twitter.com/rMwbnUaPid — Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) April 26, 2025 Bryant was great out of the slot in his final season, averaging 2.99 YPRR, though the fact that his team didn’t use him there often is a concern. He was not playing a possession role either, logging a 17.3 aDOT on his limited slot targets. If this is the job Denver wants for Bryant, I expect it will take him a year to make the transition to an inside, underneath route tree.
TeSlaa was a man amongst boys at DII’s Hillsdale College, accounting for 60 percent of the team’s passing yards and over 70 percent of their touchdowns. He then transferred to Arkansas and proved incapable of consistently earning targets. He peaked at a 19 percent dominator in two years with the Razorbacks, failing to hit even two yards per route in his final season.
TeSlaa is a big slot with elite athleticism, but he failed to translate that into anything more than the occasional deep shot win. Isaac TeSlaa was drafted in round 3 pick 70 in the 2025 draft class. He scored a 9.93 #RAS out of a possible 10.00.
This ranked 29 out of 3816 WR from 1987 to 2025. https://t.co/6qWoPzgVd8 pic.twitter.com/YwK0ftOmwA — Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 26, 2025 In a top-heavy Detroit receiving room, I don’t see TeSlaa making an impact anytime soon. Day Three Sleeper WRs Commanders fourth-round pick Jaylin Lane never recorded a true breakout campaign (30 percent dominator) across three seasons at Middle Tennessee and another two at Virginia Tech. He primarily played on the outside at Middle Tennessee but moved into a full-time slot role after transferring.
Lane was slippery with the ball in his hands no matter where he played. He recorded a career YAC per catch of 8.1 and a missed tackles forced per catch clip of .27, both of which are elite marks. The Commanders tried to find a crafty slot receiver in Luke McCaffrey last year and struck out.
Lane will get every chance to fill that role if he shows well in camp. Another non-breakout fourth-rounder, Jets wideout Arian Smith spent five years at Georgia and never recorded a dominator above 17 percent. With a career aDOT of 17, Smith is primarily a deep threat, though he did start to work some intermediate routes into his repertoire in 2024.
Smith was a decorated track runner early in his time at Georgia and showed off that speed at the combine with 4.36 wheels. His poor production profile typically doesn’t warrant a second look in dynasty leagues, but he is competing with Allen Lazard, Malachi Corley, and Josh Reynolds for routes in New York. He could earn a starting role as a rookie, putting him in line for the occasional and completely unpredictable spike week.
Chimere Dike posted a true breakout season in his third campaign at Wisconsin but couldn’t sustain the momentum after transferring to Florida. He set a career-high in receiving yards at 783 but fell short of his best marks in receptions, touchdowns, and the major efficiency metrics. With 4.34 wheels and a career aDOT of 13.5, Dike is purely a burner right now.
Dont’e Thornton Jr. spent two years as a backup at Oregon before transferring to Tennessee, where he remained a rotational player. He did, however, take off from an efficiency perspective as a senior. DTJ averaged 3.7 YPRR and led the Vols in yards and touchdowns despite ranking fifth on the team in routes.
He is one of just five receivers to average over eight yards after the catch with an aDOT over 14 for his entire career since 2013. Tennessee runs an offense that comically inflates the stats of its receivers, but I’m leaving the light on for DTJ.
