The Five Wide Receivers You Have To Take In Your Draft
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Jul 29, 2026
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Wed, July 29, 2026
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0:00number one wide receiver expert consensus ranker was kind enough to join me today. I'm having trouble with some of these wide receivers. So, I brought
0:07in my guy Jeff Bell from Football Guys.
0:10We are going to be talking about his five favorite wide receivers to target in fantasy football drafts right now.
0:16And we're actually going to work from the end. We're going to go we're going to go in reverse order because one of
0:21the guys that you sent me, I was very surprised to see this name, very happy to see this name. And it's very topical
0:27because we're going to begin with Deon stribbling as a result of Ricky Pawol's PCL injury flaring up. So we're going to
0:34begin Jeff. First of all, thank you very much for joining me. But uh let's talk about let's stribbling about stribbling here.
0:40>> Absolutely man. I really do appreciate the invitation. You're somebody that I've looked up to in the space and going way back of your on the couch episodes
0:48with Sigman Bloom have always been appointment viewing for me and so anytime I get the chance but yeah little did I know that when I sent the names
0:55over to you that it would be officially become Jean Stribbling Day and we're turning into Jean Stribbling Week at this point.
1:01>> Yes. Yeah. It's it's everywhere. So we've got Christian Kirk with the calf strain. We've got Ricky Pasol with the PCL injury flare up. George KD is on the
1:11physically unable to perform list. We already have people speculating, okay, are they going to bring Debo Samuel in?
1:16What is the issue here? Stribbling a very interesting prospect in the sense of, okay, he was a 5-year guy, great wraps, had an awesome 2026
1:26combine. Hard to find the production.
1:28So, how do you view Stribbling this year?
1:31>> He turned it on during the college football playoffs. So, I do think that that was a key there. He was a big part
1:35of that run that Old Miss made. They pushed Miami right up to the limit right in the semi-finals there. So shribbling
1:41in the rookie guide, he was he was one of those as I was going through the rookie guide, I've done the the rookie
1:45guide with football guys for the last four years. I handle the wide receivers there. I watch all the wide receivers and I think one of the things that stood
1:53out is as you're watching college wide receivers so often you get what I call the Dante Thornton route tree where it's
1:59basically either a nine route or a a screen is basically what all these receivers are running. And I think one of the things that stood out both with
2:06the Old Miss guys and with the Texas Tech guys is they were running the full route tree in in what they were doing
2:13there. And so Stribbling I think stood out as an athlete even before the testing came in. And then when the testing came in he really lit it up
2:20there. And you're right on the production middle a little bit hit or miss. He's bounced around five-year player. He was the leading receiver for
2:26Oklahoma State and then Washington State and then ending up at Old Miss. But really kind of combination and I understand where we can be off on this
2:34profile being a fifth year player not having a dominator score whatever it might be that stands out there but as you get the testing and again that the
2:43production in the college football playoff I think are things that stand apart and then you see him go 33rd over the all all in the draft and almost be
2:51that first round pick there >> 100%. And the guys who do get that first round draft capital, they end up we we
2:58kind of get to peak behind the curtain earlier, you're you're there's in recent vintage, most recent like five years, teams have gotten a lot smarter about
3:07roster building. It's not really the thing to do to spend a first round pick even on a pass catcher, even on a tight
3:13end like Sadique I expect to play this year. You you basically, you know, you're particularly the 49ers, they are in a Super Bowl window. You do not take
3:21guys early on in the draft and then say, "Hey, well, it would be really nice if he turned into something." Kind of think
3:26the same thing is true with Kalin Black as well. I'm with you on stribbling. I think there's a clear role for him in
3:32the 49ers offense where he can basically just be the Yak guy. He and even if you don't think dribbling's any good, which
3:39there are going to be people out there who did not think he is, a comp I've been making is uh I mean very different
3:43style of players, but Dante Pettis had the one insane yak year in this offense and then was basically out of football.
3:50I mean, he's hung around. He's on the Saints. Like, he's on the bottom end of the roster. But I think that dribbling
3:55due to already guys being injured, and he is an insanely good run blocker, which I think is actually a big part of
4:02uh of what the value that he's going to be adding into the 49ers. So, I I like that for him as well. So, I really like
4:08taking him later on in these drafts.
4:11He's actually kind of like the last guy.
4:13You know, you're in a you're in a 16-man league right now. I mean, this is if you're not if you don't need a running
4:17back, if you're not going to try and play the zero running back game, I I really like going with dribbling as one
4:22of your finer wide receivers. Another guy that uh that we brought up is Juell Robinson, who I mean, if you look at his
4:30game logs, it's it's so funny how many wide receivers generate eight targets per game, eight and a half targets per game, and then go outside the top 100
4:39picks after getting paid for the first time. I I I think in full PPR, I mean, this is kind of just like picking up a
4:45buck that you found on the street, Jeeoff.
4:47>> Yeah, absolutely. The value and I think all the things that all these wide receivers that I sent over to, the value
4:53is the biggest thing here. But as you're moving through the wide receivers, like you mentioned, Stribbling's kind of that last fall off there. I really do think
4:59there's a cliff right after Wel Robinson where he's sitting. And it's not only going out and getting paid. We usually don't see players of that profile even
5:06hit free agency because wide receivers are so rare. that production that age is so rare. But Brian Dable coming in there
5:13and obviously he knows Brian Dable's offense. We can feel whatever way we want to feel about Dable's offense at this point, but Wandel Robinson knows it
5:20better than anybody on that Titans roster. So, I think you can definitely see him coming in. The question I think on him would be, are we going to get the
5:28vertical threat that we saw last year, the development there, or is Dball going to park him in the slot, the short
5:34areas? And I think that that's probably the biggest question. But we did see it and that was one thing that we saw at
5:39Kentucky. He he was a running back at Nebraska, then worked his way into becoming a receiver.
5:44>> It's one of my it's one of my favorite stories is that he literally got recruited as a running back, changed
5:49position, changed schools, led two different schools in receiving. Like it, you know, it's it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of fight
5:57and the dog. And and man, does Wandell have a lot of dog.
6:00>> He absolutely does. And that's the targets are they're wide open. We know that they spent a top five pick on
6:06Carnell Tate. I don't feel like anybody else is there is going to command any level of targets. And so I think it's
6:11it's again when you're looking at a wide receiver 47ish valuation, a guy that was a top 20 wide receiver last year, it's
6:18just an easy pick to make as you get to that area of the draft.
6:21>> I I completely agree. I mean, it's it's going to be based on the context of your team. Like if you if you have uh if you
6:28have if you start your draft Jamar Chase, Rashi Rice, and Garrett Wilson, maybe you don't have as much of a need.
6:33But, you know, a lot of builds this year, particularly if you have like a later draft pick, like you have nine,
6:3810, 11, 12, you probably start running back running back. There's a very good chance you might need a guy who projects
6:44for 10 and a half points in week one, which I think we are probably going to get from Juanell Robinson. Now, the next
6:50guy on your list, it's actually funny. I was kind of anticipating this next guy on your list to be Courtland Sutton's
7:00teammate and not in fact one Mr.
7:02Courtland Sutton, who uh is at the 41 overall in our ranks here uh on the site. Courtland Sutton is basically Wandel Robinson, but in
7:13terms of down the field, right? Very, very consistent between 10 and 14 fantasy points per game over the most recent four seasons. Think about all the
7:20change that he's seen there in Denver.
7:22He's changed coaches. He's changed quarterbacks about 16 times. However, I have a hard time seeing Jaylen Wadd not totally changing the context of how
7:32Courtland Sutton gets used.
7:35>> Well, I think that I have a hard time seeing Jaylen Wadd not totally change the context of how Marvin Mims, Troy
7:41Franklin, and Pat Bryant get used is I think where a lot of it comes out of it.
7:45And you look at those guys, we we had spurts and you could never pick it right. you were never on the right guy,
7:50but you had had one one of those guys ended up being startable most weeks in fantasy. It seemed more often than not
7:56opposite Courtland Sutton. So, I see Denver going out getting Sutton. I think I I absolutely think you're right that Wendell Robinson becomes not Wel
8:05Robinson, uh Jaylen Wadd becomes the number one receiver there. So, I think you're right in that, but he's priced into that. And I think a lot of it is
8:12you're getting Sutton as you get into the seventh round. It's really starting to fall off at the wide receivers that you want to place a chip on. Sutton was
8:19a top top 12 wide receiver, won last year. We know he has that connection with Bo Knicks backto-back thousandy seasons. I think he's still I mean
8:27obviously age 30 season. I still think there's something there. And I think that what you can see is Waddle come in
8:34be the number one receiver. Sutton still have his game basically be exactly what Sutton is and then they start to sparse
8:41out these other receivers. It's going to be question what happens with Marvin Mims. He's going to be a free agent after this year. There's already some
8:47talk that his agents not the most thrilled about that situation. I mean, Pat Bryant has brought in some physicality, some blocking. I think you
8:55do see a situation though where they lean on having top two top wide receivers and at the value, I think there's plenty of room there for Sutton
9:03to deliver. I think a lot of it is going to depend on how much can Boicks repeat leading the NFL in pass attempts while
9:13also increasing the average depth of target. Now, a point that I had not considered, which is pretty good, which is that Jaylen Wadd can soak up a lot of
9:21guys who are running about 40 to 32% of the routes, the the Mims, the Franklin, the Lil Jordan Humphrey, the Michael
9:29Bandandy. I mean, you can certainly keep Courtland Sutton at 87% of the snaps and just have Jaylen Wadd take over for
9:36those guys where I would have a little bit I mean, a 21% target share in a top 12 wide receiver season. I it it is it's
9:44I mean it's actually just kind of hard to do to have that low of a target share. And Courtland Sutton is of the
9:49archetype that he could generate plenty of touchdowns heading into the age 31 season. Been wrong about I've been wrong about these things before. I I will
9:58probably still be more of a Jaylen Wadd drafter. But uh look, when the number one wide receiver ranker tells you you
10:03need to think about Courtland Sutton, you got to start thinking about it. The next guy I honestly went to the mat so
10:10hard for Jameson Williams last year. I find that he has just ranked so appropriately this year that I haven't even spent that much time thinking or
10:20talking about him. Like I must have opened my rankings up, looked at the I was like, "Yeah, that's about right.
10:24He's about the 20th to 25th best wide receiver in fantasy football." I mean, he was so much better last year after
10:31Dan Campbell took over the play calling, that zero point game in week seven and then basically like never looked back after that. Uh, why are you in on
10:40Jameson Williams as one of your primary targets this year?
10:44>> Again, another player that we saw deliver a top 12 wide receiver season last year and that was really almost a
10:49half season top 12 finish and and I think that the ceiling ceiling is certainly there. I mean, at the I'm looking at football guys ADP pulling
10:56from a bunch of different sites and it's kind of at wide receiver 27 across the industry. As you're moving through kind
11:02of working our way up now here as you're moving through the fifth round, I do think that there's a cliff about in the
11:07middle of that fifth round. And to me, it seems like Jameson Will, it's like Jameson Williams made Quinchan Judkins kind of one of those last guys in that
11:13cliff there before you really start to step into some uncertainty. And so where he's being priced, you're able to add him as your wide receiver three. You're
11:22able to add a player in his prime that we've seen be explosive in an offense that we want parts of, and you're able
11:29to add him as a wide receiver three in a lot of builds, still have a strong running back within that build or go
11:34multiple different directions there. And so at that valuation, it's just a piece that I love as you're moving through the draft because it gives you so much
11:42ceiling. And we know I'm in Ross St.
11:45Bra. See that I think that that's the other interesting thing about Jameson Williams is we've seen him deliver that top season last year. We've never really
11:52seen the contingent upside the George Pickkins with CD Lamb out of the lineup contingent upside that we know is it's in there for Jameson Williams. And I
12:01think the other part of it he's been profiled as a boom bust splash player, but it's to me and I wrote a piece on
12:08football guys on Jameson Williams earlier this off season. a lot of wide receivers. He doesn't he's not a more inconsistent than a lot of wide
12:16receivers are. It's just that the bottoms are so so strong zero here after we think he's ready to take off a
12:23suspension PD suspension out of nowhere.
12:25It's the things that Jame only Jameson Williams would do that make us realize that valley outside of those peaks and it's not all that different. I dig in
12:34dug into some consistenc consistency stuff. I'm not a big consistency guy when it comes into it. I do like the ceiling of a guy like Jameson Williams,
12:43but he's overall he's not really that more inconsistent. And if you want a consistent receiver, it's like Jacobe Myers is the most consistent receiver in
12:51the NFL. And I'm not building a lot of teams around Jacobe Meyers.
12:54>> It's actually It's actually such a good point. Most fantasy football matchups are not close. Go you're if you're watching this right now, if you're on
13:02your phone, go pull up your app, go look at your home league last year. How many times was I within 20 points? How many
13:08times was I within 10 points? How many times was I within five points? My guess would be way less than you think. Maybe
13:13on Sunday, you know, you have the experience, you have the sweat, and you're like, man, this is going to be really close. And then you realize that
13:18it definitely wasn't. So, I want to build a lot of my teams with guys like this. And then we're going to scale all
13:26the way up to the very top. I think it's uh pretty interesting to think about the high-end wide receivers this year
13:33because these six guys, Jamar Chase, Bukanua, JSN, St. Brown, Jefferson, and Lamb. I think they're actually going to effectively define the season because
13:42they are the only wide receivers who are projected for above 16 fantasy points per game, which is kind of that benchmark of when you would say it's an
13:49elite elite wide receiver season. And you highlighted one Mr. Nakua uh to talk about today as one of your favorite wide
13:57receivers to draft. And and honestly, it's such a good such a good player to talk about because we do not really talk
14:04about Puka like Julio Jones, like Jamar Chase, like like we it just for whatever reason, the the the conversation around him just doesn't ever feel like and
14:12maybe it's just because I'm old and Puka is is a young man. It's actually probably because he was a fifth round
14:18rookie from BYU, honestly. That that's probably it, right? It it really is.
14:23>> Yeah, I absolutely think that's it. And I'm I'm there with you. It's a player that I mean some people were in on him
14:28as a rookie but even then nobody was taking him in the third round of their dynasty rookie drafts and so to say that
14:33people were in on him it was to varying degrees how often do we see fifth round players become what Puka Nua has become
14:41and I mean he checks the boxes that we would want to see he's got physicality he's obviously a high level athlete
14:47that's translated to the NFL and just the volume that sits there within that offense everything is schemed up in that offense to work around Puka Nikua at At
14:55this point, we've seen Cooper Cup in similar offensive structure deliver some of the best wide receiver seasons in NFL history. And so that and we've already
15:04seen Puka Nua deliver some of the best rece seasons in history. I think when you're looking at Nua and what he
15:09represents for me putting him on this list, it usually means I drew a top four pick and I do think that there's some
15:15level of separation with those top four players. I love building around one of those and getting that pick there. The other part of it is when you've got that
15:22top four pick and especially picks two through three, you're seeing a lot of the fall off in that second round where
15:27you're still able to get a Brock Bowers or A Chance falling occasionally a Derrick Henry or if you wanted to go
15:34with Nico Collins or Drake London, that type of player. It seems to me a real fall off at the 212 usually. And so
15:42getting that 104, getting one of those top four high-end players that I think can be foundational pieces and also still getting that value out of round
15:50two, that's what Nua represents. And so you're asking about my four favorite wide receivers to draft. I love when I get a draft puka nua because I know what
15:58picked spot I got I drew out of that.
16:00>> Yeah, that's actually I mean that's a huge advantage to be able to build your team out that way. I I guess here's
16:06here's my question.
16:07>> Yeah. Do you think that any of Puka, Chase, JSN, any of these guys, they're they're so good with such a ceiling,
16:14right? I mean, they are projected for I mean, depending on whose projections you're using, either about the same or a hair less or a hair more than Bejian or
16:23Gibbs with the caveat that actually wide receivers have access to higher ultimate scores than running backs do in full PPR formats because 11 catches is the
16:34equivalent, you know, 12 catches, you just scored two touchdowns on top of um whatever you did. Would would you take any of these guys 101 in any you know
16:42standard PE this not Scott Fishbowl style but like is there is there ever a reason you would consider it?
16:48>> Well, I don't know. Today we just got the news that Bjan Robinson and Jir Gibbs are having holdins and >> holdins. Yeah,
16:54>> I do. For all the talk that we spend all this off season about football, we still get into the camp opens and we're like,
17:01well, we probably didn't really talk about that very much. I don't know that anybody talked about that too much, but here we go with this. And we do, it does
17:08seem to be players that miss the preseason or miss portions of c camp disappoint that season more often than not. I mean, I don't have any
17:17statistical backing of that. I'm just going straight gut feel on that, but it seems like >> multiple multiple uh studies have been
17:24done on this that have backed it up, which is guys who guys who are either skip training camp, guys who are injured
17:30in training camp, injured in the preseason, they tend across the board, they actually do have lower fantasy points per game. Now, obviously, some of
17:37that is stuff like Levian Bell or uh I I mean Terry McLaren last year, he's a guy who would go into that sample of like so
17:44you you the tail ends drag it down, but it still does show that it is more likely than you would probably think. Uh
17:52Jeff, thank you very much for telling me your five favorite wide receivers to draft in fantasy football this year. If people were interested in finding more
17:59of your work, where would they go and get it?
18:01>> Uh I I do the old exclusively at Football Guys. You can find me at football guys and that's where most
18:06everything is coming out. I'm the host of the Dynasty show. I was just able to have your co-host Jacob Sanderson on
18:11this week. That's up on YouTube. You can check that episode out. You can find me on Twitter socials at for whom jbells.
18:18And uh that's pretty much the only places you could find me at this point.
18:22>> There you go. All right, everyone. Go check him out. If you want more of my stuff, you can get over on
18:26flockfanasy.com.
18:27Code Davis over there. Like the video, subscribe to the channel, and I'll be back with you guys tomorrow.
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