2026 NFL Draft Wide Receiver & Tight End Rankings: Jordyn Tyson and Kenyon Sadiq Lead The Way

We wrap up the offensive skill-position groups today as we forge through my 2026 NFL Draft positional previews and rankings. Today, we'll cover the top pass catchers in the 2026 NFL Draft class by breaking down my wide receiver and tight end rankings.

Note: Oregon WR Evan Stewart is not listed below because he will miss the entire 2025 campaign after tearing his ACL in June. I assume Stewart will return to school for the 2026 season. Stewart’s talent and pedigree speak for themselves, but he’s never been consistently dominant. Meanwhile, in the TE rankings below, Ole Miss TE Luke Hasz is not listed after suffering a potential season-ending ankle injury in late July.

Wide Receiver Rankings For The 2026 NFL Draft

1. Jordyn Tyson | Arizona State | 6020/200 | rJR

In the story of the early years of the Coach Prime Era at Colorado, there will be a chapter entitled “The One Who Got Away” that will tell Jordan Tyson’s story.

Tyson was one of the few bright spots for Karl Dorrell’s ill-fated 1-11 Colorado Buffaloes in 2022. A true freshman that year, Tyson averaged 21.4 YPR and 52.2 YPG receiving on a team that struggled to throw the ball. He became the first Colorado player to record 100-plus receiving yards and 100-plus punt return yards in a single game.

Tyson’s freshman season ended early with a devastating knee injury—a torn ACL, MCL, and PCL. That offseason, with Deion Sanders arriving and blowing up the CU roster, Tyson was one of many who fled Boulder.

Tyson spent most of his first year at Arizona State in 2023, rehabbing his knee. In 2024, back to full health, Tyson exploded onto the national scene with a 75-1101-10 receiving line. Tyson received a whale target share. ASU’s WR2, Xavier Guillory, finished with only 22 catches for 339 yards.

Tyson has labored in the weight room to reach 200 pounds, but the high school track star maneuvers on the gridiron like the 180-pounder he recently was. I’m anticipating a low-4.4s forty this spring in Indianapolis. Athleticism runs in the family. Tyson’s brother, Jaylon, was the 20th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Jordyn Tyson is one of this class’ best route runners. He is a smooth, graceful, almost hypnotic mover. Tyson is economical and tactical through the route break, and he tends to multiply whatever separation and leverage he’s acquired with his acceleration out. His burst startles defenders.

Last season, not surprisingly, Tyson was, per PFF, 88th percentile in separation rate and 94th percentile in single-coverage separation rate. Tyson is interchangeable between the boundary and slot, and he’s a proven three-level threat.

He’s a contortionist adjusting downfield, and he extends and attacks the ball in the air, giving his quarterback a larger net of a catch radius downtown than his physical dimensions would imply. Tyson is very comfortable in traffic, going 10-of-15 in contested situations last year to finish 96th percentile in contested catch rate.

It’s difficult to stay with Tyson one-on-one in man coverage on standard passing concepts in the intermediate area, especially the ones that send him across the field. Passes that lead Tyson into space open the door for explosive YAC opportunities. Tyson posted an absurd 4.62 YPRR against man coverage last fall.

Tyson’s seven drops last year are high in a vacuum, but his drop rate of 8.5% was roughly class-average. (As an aside: I wouldn’t have charted at least two of those “drops” as drops – both were on sideline balls where it was dubious whether Cris Carter could have completed the play with his toes in-bounds).

That said, Tyson did have a couple of bad drops. One in particular, which occurred near the goal line against Texas State. A would-be touchdown ball clanked off Tyson’s hands and was deflected into a defender’s arms for an interception. That obviously cannot happen.

But overall, it is my opinion that Tyson has good hands. This is a classic case of concentration drops—Tyson’s legitimate drops all happened because he was either peaking ahead to his YAC running lane, or because there was a defender barreling downhill on him.

The biggest question on Tyson’s evaluation is his medicals. At the NFL Combine, Tyson’s knee will be poked and prodded. Doctors will also look into a broken collarbone injury from the end of last season that knocked Tyson out of the 2024 CFP.

2. Denzel Boston | Washington | 6030/209 | rJR

Denzel Boston waited his turn behind top-100 overall NFL Draft picks WRs Rome Odunze, Ja'Lynn Polk, and Jalen McMillan for two years before breaking out with a 63-834-9 line as a redshirt sophomore in 2024.

Boston is a big, strapping boundary receiver with good ball skills who is a better athlete than he is given credit for. Per Sports Illustrated, Boston ran a 4.46 forty at Washington's Rising Stars Camp back in 2021. Boston weighed 180 pounds at the time—he’s now up to 209. PFF clocked him at 22 mph on the GPS in 2024.

Boston has outstanding hands, with only three drops over 97 targets in 2024. He had a stellar 95.7% catch rate on catchable passes. Boston has a big catch radius, and down the field, he weaponizes it along with his big frame.

He tracks the ball well and has a knack for adjusting his pace or path to give himself advantageous positioning when the ball is descending. Boston pins defenders to his back and attacks the ball in the air. Jostling does not break his concentration. Boston converted 12-of-22 contested situations in 2024.

The biggest weakness of Boston’s game is a lack of explosion. When he changes direction, it takes him several steps to get back up to top gear. He’s a build-up speed guy.

Though Boston has a decent release package and though he’s a decent route-runner, this athletic peccadillo trims his route tree a bit. He’s most effective on routes that send him on straight-line paths.

Last year, Boston was on pace for an even bigger season before Washington’s offensive line crumbled. Through the Iowa game on Oct. 12, Boston was averaging 5.7 catches, 77.1 yards, and 1.2 TD per game.

The offensive line buckled from there, and the Huskies also made a quarterback change. Boston only averaged 3.8 catches for 49.0 yards per game over the final six. He scored only two TDs in those games.

This fall, with most key members of the offense back, a promising young quarterback returning, and the offensive line seemingly fixed, expect an enormous season out of Boston. If that happens, he’s got a shot at being a Round 1 pick in April.

3. Antonio Williams | Clemson | 5110/195 | rJR

A former top-100 recruit, Williams has been a difference-maker whenever he’s been healthy at Clemson. That began with Freshman All-American honors en route to a 56-604-4 receiving line in 2022.

But the next year, injuries wrecked his sophomore campaign. First, a high-ankle sprain requiring surgery cost Williams three games. He returned against Miami only to break his toe, costing him five more.

In 2024, outside of a minor shoulder injury that knocked him out of the Stanford game early, Williams stayed healthy. He exploded for a 75-904-11 receiving line while playing 727 offensive snaps. Williams would have been a Day 2 pick had he declared for the 2025 NFL Draft.

“I think I am the best route runner in college football,” Williams said over the summer. It’s difficult to argue with that. Last year, Williams finished 95th percentile in separation rate and 94th percentile against single coverage, per PFF.

A bursty athlete, Williams explodes off the line and accesses his mid-4.3s speed quickly. He has quick feet and makes violent cuts at high speeds. Last year, Clemson used Williams in the slot on 58% of his snaps and on the boundary for 41%.

He was effective at both spots and won at all three levels of the field. Williams was an outstanding 11-of-19 in contested catch situations, including 6-of-9 20+ yards down the field. Williams was deadly on those 20+ yard deep balls, catching 12-of-22 targets for 371 yards and six TDs.

As you might imagine, Williams’ electric movement plays after the catch. Williams has cat-like quickness in short quarters, and he tends to make the first man miss. His 14 missed tackles forced last fall were No. 2 amongst the top-20 WR on my 2026 board.

Williams needs to cut down on the drops after flubbing eight balls last year. His 9.6% drop rate was more than double his career drop rate to that point.

Williams is likely to be seen as a slot by the NFL due to his lack of height and length. He projects to be an electric one, and Williams also chips in additional value as a dangerous punt returner.

4. Germie Bernard | Alabama | 6006/209 | SR

Germie Bernard was ahead of Denzel Boston on the Washington Huskies’ pass-catching hierarchy in 2023. Whereas Boston stayed in Seattle when Kalen DeBour left for Alabama, Bernard followed his former coach to Tuscaloosa.

Bernard is of average height, but he’s stoutly built—an inch-and-a-half shorter than Jordan Tyson, but 10 pounds heavier. Bernard’s build is more reminiscent of a running back.

The best part of Bernard’s game is how he marries his muscle/contact balance with his movement, in particular his agility. Bernard’s sudden, concise footwork through the route break tends to buy him separation out of it.

Bernard opens up windows of opportunity, and he exploits the spacing he created after the catch. Bernard makes the first guy miss with a violent cut and pings away from off-angle contact.

As with Tyson, Bernard is interchangeable between the boundary and slot. Bernard also had one of the class’ most even target distributions across sectors in 2024, with between a 20.5-34.2% target shared behind the LOS, short (0-9), intermediate (10-19), and deep (20+).

Bernard has some of this class’ best hands, with a sterling 3.2% career drop rate over 130 targets. Only 38.9% of Bernard’s 70 targets were charted as catchable. Nevertheless, he caught 50 of them—71.4%.

If that doesn’t convince you that he’s better than his 50-794-2 receiving line, nothing will. Bernard did an admirable job working with QB Jalen Milroe, who badly struggled with accuracy from the beginning of October through the end of the season. Alabama barely cracked 3,000 total passing yards over 13 games.

I think Bernard is headed for a monster 2025 season now that Alabama has a pocket passer behind center that fits DeBoer’s pocket-centric system.

5. Nyck Harbor | South Carolina | 6050/245 | JR

I had Harbor in the first round of my initial 2026 NFL mock draft. Now I’m ranking him as a top-five WR in the 2026 class. Harbor has recorded only 38 catches for 571 yards over two seasons. But he’s a fascinating projection, because Harbor will become one of the most gifted athletes the NFL has ever seen the moment he is drafted.

Last summer, Harbor became the first player in the 20-plus year history of Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List to be listed No. 1 in back-to-back seasons. Perhaps out of boredom, Feldman listed Harbor No. 3 in the recently published 2025 version. Per Feldman, Harbor has hit 23.6 mph on the GPS at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds (with 5% body fat).

A second-team All-American on South Carolina’s track team, Harbor is top-three in Gamecocks history in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Feldman noted that Harbor was often racing against runners a half-foot shorter and 60-70 pounds lighter than he is.

Harbor’s on-field game is extremely raw at present. But we have seen strides. Last year, Harbor’s ball skills were noticeably improved—he dropped only one ball on 42 targets and had a miniscule 3.2% drop rate despite a bloated aDOT.

Harbor has shown he knows how to use his body downtown, going 7-of-14 in career opportunities. Harbor is a hands catcher who extends to the ball.

His routes are the rawest element of his game. As a true sophomore in 2024, Harbor was still running an extremely limited route tree. The vast majority of his catches last season came in one of three ways: Deep balls, comebacks, and crossing routes.

You can see how much Harbor’s size and speed terrify opposing boundary corners in the way they typically play him—off the line, and with their bodies half-slanted upfield to get a head-start on trying to sprint with him.

South Carolina got better with calling comebacks for Harbor to exploit corners who were too aggressive flipping their hips upfield with him. Expect more of that in 2025. The crossers were the way the Gamecocks got Harbor YAC opportunities against off-coverage, and I’d also expect to see more of those this fall.

At the NFL level, Harbor will get pressed more, and he’s going to have to develop a release package to deal with that. Texas A&M was the first team in 2024 to challenge Harbor with consistent press coverage looks. Harbor bombed with his worst game of the season—zero catches on four targets.

Later in the season, against Missouri and Clemson—the two other teams who pressed Harbor on double-digit route snaps in 2024—Harbor did a better job of being sudden off the line and ripping through hand-fighting with his length muscle.

However, Harbor remains a straightforward proposition coming off the line, with little in the way of footwork nuance. He can blast his way through initial contact, but telegraphs his intentions early and too often invites defenders to run alongside him.

Harbor enters the fall on a similar trajectory to DK Metcalf, who had 41 catches for 659 yards over his first two years at Ole Miss. Harbor is taller, bigger, and faster than Metcalf. But we need to see more physicality and nuance to his game in 2025.

Best of the rest (WR) ...

Elijah Sarratt | Indiana | 6016/206 | SR
Bryce Lance | North Dakota State | 6031/207 | rSR
Carnell Tate | Ohio State | 6030/191 | JR
Makai Lemon | USC | 5110/190 | JR
Eugene Wilson III | Florida | 5110/180 | JR
Zachariah Branch | Georgia | 5100/175 | JR
Malachi Fields | Notre Dame | 6030/212 | rSR
Eric Singleton Jr. | Auburn | 5011/179 | JR
Deion Burks | Oklahoma | 5094/182 | rSR
De'Zhaun Stribling | Ole Miss | 6015/204 | rSR
Isaiah Horton | Alabama | 6040/209 | rJR
Aaron Anderson | LSU | 5080/187 | rJR
Eric Rivers | Georgia Tech | 5096/170 | rSR
Eric McAlister | TCU | 6020/202 | rSR
Dane Key | Nebraska | 6024/206 | SR

Tight End Rankings For The 2026 NFL Draft

1. Kenyon Sadiq | Oregon | 6030/245 | JR

The state of Idaho had produced only six consensus four-star football recruits over the previous 20-plus years before the arrival of Michigan TE Colston Loveland in 2022. Incredibly, Kenyon Sadiq, a consensus four-star recruit out of Idaho Falls, Idaho, arrived the year after Loveland.

This opens up the very real possibility that the state of Idaho could have the top TE selected in back-to-back NFL Drafts—Sadiq is that good.

Stuck in a rotational role behind Rams’ Round 2 pick TE Terrance Ferguson over his first two years on campus, Sadiq has only played 440 career snaps. He caught a modest 30 balls over that time.

Despite that, Sadiq is an easy call for our summer TE1. His eye-popping athleticism jumps off the screen. Sadiq moves like a freak receiver. He has a rare combination of size, acceleration, speed, and agility.

Oregon used Sadiq as a gadget offensive weapon in 2024, manufacturing him touches close to the line of scrimmage to see what he could create after the catch. Oregon even gave Sadiq five carries last year (4.8 YPC).

Sadiq was listed No. 11 on Bruce Feldman’s 2025 Freaks List. Feldman reported that Sadiq is now up to 255 pounds after enrolling at 220 two years ago.

“He’s much leaner this season thanks to healthier eating, which he said has enabled him to go from 12-13 percent body fat to about 10,” Feldman wrote. “He vertical-jumped 41.5 inches this summer, power cleaned 365 pounds, and bench pressed 435."

There is a lot we can’t yet say with certainty about Sadiq’s overall game as a pass-catcher, simply because we don’t have a big enough sample yet. Last year, Sadiq was targeted 17 times (16 catches) behind the line of scrimmage.

Meanwhile, the ball only traveled 10-plus air yards downfield to Sadiq five times all season. But Sadiq caught all five of those passes, turning them into 139 yards and a TD. That included 41 yards after the catch, with three broken tackles.

In short: Sadiq has monstrous upside as a pass-catcher. This season, he also has a huge opportunity. Oregon has to replace its top-five pass catchers from last season.

That doesn’t just include TE Ferguson, it also includes WR Evan Stewart, the one of the five who was set to return before his torn ACL earlier this summer. Sadiq and RB Noah Whittington, who both caught 24 passes last season, are Oregon’s de facto co-leading returning pass-catchers.

In a fun and unexpected twist, Sadiq is not a finesse player. His blocking cutups stunned me—he’s a legitimately terrific run blocker. Sadiq explodes off the line, gets to his spot, and he strikes with purpose. He plays with leverage, and he legitimately works play-in and play-out to achieve his assignment, the sealing-off of the play side. He usually succeeds.

Feldman’s snippet on Sadiq included a quote from Ducks HC Dan Lanning referring to just that: “He does stuff that amazes you every single day. But as a coach, one of the things that excites you the most is that he really challenged himself to block better this past year, and he was really good at it,” Lanning said.

Last season, Sadiq ranked 10th amongst qualifying FBS tight ends in PFF run-blocking grade. This is a true two-way tight end who is going to blow the roof off the NFL Combine next spring. Buy your stock now, it’s about to explode.

2. Tanner Koziol | Houston | 6060/251 | rSR

Koziol is the most productive tight end that you’ve never heard of, and he’s being slept on in the draft community.

Last season, at Ball State, Koziol caught 94 balls for 839 yards and eight TDs. Of all tight ends returning to college football in 2025, Koziol was the most valuable on the field in 2024, according to PFF’s Wins Above Average metric.

Koziol is a stretched-out, long-levered, smooth-moving tight end who was a man amongst boys for an otherwise forgettable Ball State offense in 2024. He was within shouting distance of doubling up BSU’s next-highest finisher in receptions, receiving yards, and TDs.

Ball State had poor quarterback play last season, which they worked around via the quick-hit passing game. Koziol only received four targets 20+ yards downfield.

This is the area of Koziol’s game that I expect the Houston Cougars to take advantage of more in 2025. Koziol is a smooth athlete who gets up the seam quickly, and he’s really good at using his length as a weapon at the catch point.

Ball State’s janky offense ended up feeding 124 targets to Koziol in 2024, many of them forced. That’s how Koziol ended up in a ridiculous 41 contested catch situations. He converted 26 of them. Both of those numbers easily led the FBS.

What Koziol got to show over and over again in 2024 was his YAC ability. For a big fella, he moves well, with more burst than you would expect.

Koziol, who split snaps almost evenly last year between inline and slot/boundary, is a decent blocker. He gives effort, and when he wins, it's generally through a combination of length and footwork. I did see Koziol knocked on his butt a couple times—he can be trump-carded by power when deployed in line.

Koziol first transferred to Wisconsin this offseason and spent spring ball in Madison. A college football source familiar with the Wisconsin program told me that Koziol was the Badgers’ best offensive player this spring. But after spring ball, Koziol decided to leave Wisconsin for Houston. He’s already opened eyes. Cougars WR Stephon Johnson’s first impression: “I was like, ‘Wow, he is that good,’” Johnson said.

Expect Koziol to rise up draft boards this fall.

3. Eli Stowers | Vanderbilt | 6034/240 | rSR

Stowers is a former four-star quarterback recruit who found his destiny after a pair of transfers (from Texas A&M to New Mexico State to Vandy) and a shift to tight end. Stowers had his national coming-out party in the raucous upset of Alabama last fall—posting a career-best 113 yards—en route to a 49-638-5 receiving line in 2024.

Stowers is a superb athlete and another member of Bruce Feldman’s 2025 Freaks List. Feldman reported that Stowers had an 11-3 broad jump and a 39-inch vertical this offseason. Stowers has also hit 21.43 mph on the GPS.

That movement translates to the field. PFF's Game Athleticism Score metric pegged Stowers as a 99th-percentile in-game athlete. Stowers’ 373 YAC ranked No. 4 amongst P4 TEs in 2024.

Stowers is a big slot—he took more than 70% of his snaps in the slot last year. He’s a matchup problem in the pass game due to his combination of size and athleticism. Stowers’ quarterback background also helps him—he deciphers coverage looks quickly and adjusts accordingly.

Stowers is one of only three returning qualifying TEs who had 2.5 YPRR or more against both man and zone coverage in 2024. Stowers also has one of the best sets of hands in this TE class. He’s only dropped two balls over 86 career catches for an elite 2.3% career drop rate.

Some nuance is required when talking about Stowers’ blocking. In space against smaller defenders, he’s actually a strong blocker, particularly when you consider how new he is to the position.

Stowers knows how to use his size/athleticism advantage over smaller defenders. I also noted that he’s a value-add on concepts that send him hunting and ask him to pick off moving targets—pulls and counters—and also when shifting to the play-side to get downhill angles on defenders in space.

However, Stowers is not to be trusted inline against defensive ends—he will get rag-dolled. Vanderbilt rarely asked him to do this—on his inline snaps on running plays, Vandy would use Stowers as a clear-out decoy by asking him to sprint upfield off the snap—and the NFL will similarly have to shield him from this.

Stowers is expected to test very well at the NFL Combine. That, in conjunction with his receiving ability, will give him a real shot to sneak into Day 2 if he has another big fall in Nashville.

Best of the rest (TE)

John Michael Gyllenborg | Wyoming | 6054/251 | rSR
Max Klare | Ohio State | 6030/240 | JR
Miles Kitselman | Tennessee | 6045/259 | rSR
Justin Joly | NC State | 6027/250 | SR
Jack Endries | Texas | 6040/240 | rJR
Joe Royer | Cincinnati | 6045/252 | rSR
Michael Trigg | Baylor | 6033/250 | rSR