There are 3 top wide receivers in this Draft, but who is really WR1?

Greg Gabriel breaks down the top three receivers in this draft class.

The depth and quality of the wide receiver class in this Draft is as good as I have ever seen, and I have been doing this for 43 years! What it means is that clubs will be able to select a quality receiver at least into the third round and perhaps the fourth. While there is no questioning how deep this class is, there is some argument as to who is the best of the group.

If we go back to the beginning of the 2023 College Football Season or even during the summer, the odds-on favorite to be the first receiver selected was Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. He had a spectacular 2022 season and has the genes of being the son of Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison. At that time there was no argument as to who was the best.

With many fans, Harrison is still WR1, but that is not the case within the National Football League. If you have listened to some of the better “Insiders” or analysts, such as Adam Schefter, Ian Rapport, Daniel Jeremiah, or Dane Brugler, you would have heard that it isn’t unanimous as to who the best receiver is.

There is no argument as to who the top three receivers are, as all have Harrison, LSU’s Malik Nabers, and Washington’s Rome Odunze as the top three. It’s the order that changes from club to club. Some have Nabers as the top guy, some have Odunze, and some have Harrison. In fact, the order of one through three is different from club to club. Regardless, all three are excellent players; all will go in the Top 10 next week, and all will become very good NFL players. It’s who goes first?

The order of how they get selected will be determined by who selects the first wide receiver in this draft next week, but this doesn’t automatically make him the best receiver in this class. It means he was the highest-rated receiver by that club.

Personally, I have Nabers as my top WR, with Harrison second and Odunze third, but I honestly would be very happy with any of the three. Why do I have Nabers as the top guy? It can be a long answer and part of it goes back to some of the great wide receiver coaches I have been fortunate enough to work with in my career.

Without question, the three best wide receiver coaches I have worked with are the late Darryl Drake, who was on Lovie Smith’s staff here with the Chicago Bears. The next would be Tom Coughlan, who many remember as an excellent Head Coach, but few know he coached wide receivers for the Giants before he began his Head Coaching career at Boston College in 1991. The last would be Todd Haley who not only was a coach here with Chicago but also a very good offensive coordinator in the League and a former Head Coach.

To a man, all three looked for similar traits when evaluating a receiver. In no particular order, they wanted speed, hands, a large catch radius, the ability to consistently create separation, and very good run-after-the-catch skills. When I evaluate receivers, I look at the same things because of the influence those three had on me during my career.

When looking at Harrison, I see a player with great size and athleticism, along with very good speed. No, we don’t have a 40-time on Harrison, but he has a verified in-game 21.7MPH GPS speed as well as an unofficial 22.5MPH speed. Needless to say, Harrison can run.

Harrison does well running routes. He knows how to set up a defender to get open versus both man or zone. Marvin also tracks the ball very well, has excellent hands, and has a huge catch radius. He can make the difficult catch look easy. He competes for the ball in traffic and wins because of his size, hands, toughness, and competitive nature. Where Marvin isn’t quite as good as the other two is with getting separation and with his run after the catch.

Harrison gets separation on a consistent basis, but when you watch tape back-to-back of all three receiver,s his ability to separate is not quite as good as the others. His run after the catch is, in my opinion, the worst of the three. Harrison gets what’s there, but he isn’t very elusive and doesn’t make defenders miss. He is a bit more of a straight-line type then the others when comparing that trait.

Nabers doesn’t have the size of Odunze and Harrison, but he has long arms and big hands (9 7/8”). He runs well, having run a 4.38 at his Pro Day as well as jumping 42” in the vertical and 10’9” in the standing long jump. His explosiveness is excellent, and that shows with the way he gets separated. He easily gets the best separation in this class when comparing him to the other receivers. On tape we see him consistently gaining three to four yards of separation and sometimes more.

Nabers’s run-after-the-catch ability is as good as I have seen in years. His ability to make people miss is rare, as is his acceleration. He can stop and go and then pull away like I have never seen before. To me, that’s what separates him from the others. He has the ability to turn a short catch into a large gain at any given time.

Line Harrison and Odunze, Nabers has great hands, makes the tough catch, and has a very large catch radius. He’s tough in traffic and can take a big hit.

Odunze doesn’t have the flat-out speed of Harrison or Nabers, but he is plenty fast (4.46). He is an excellent route runner who does a very good job setting up defenders, like how Harrison does. I feel he is a little quicker out of cuts than Harrison and has better run-after-catch skills. Like Nabers. Odunze has returned kicks and that open field running ability a kick returner has shown when he has the ball in his hands.

Odunze also has excellent hands, a huge catch radius, and a very good adjustment to the ball. In traffic, he is fearless and consistently wins. If Odunze could run like Harrison or Nabers, he might be WR1 because there really isn’t a weak part of his game.

Why do clubs value these three differently? It basically comes down to what they are looking for at the position and what their profile is for the different WR positions. All three can play X, Z, or in the slot, but Harrison and Odunze may be best as X receivers, while Nabers looks to be more of a Z. No matter where they get selected next week in the Draft, it will be interesting to watch their careers and see who actually ends up as the best NFL player in the group.