VideoFrom Matt Harmon
Nico Collins Is Better Than You Think He Is
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this video and kept the full transcript here for context.
26 min
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Estimated from transcript
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5
Player insights
5
Players mentioned
Topics
C.J. StroudDeAndre HopkinsJayden HigginsNico CollinsTank Dell
Player analysis
Player insights
C.J. Stroud
NegativeProjection20:04
CJ Stroud ranked top 10 in EPA per play during the 2025 regular season, sandwiched between Sam Darnold and Patrick Mahomes. However, his playoff performance was bottom 10 in EPA per drop since 2017, including poor showings against New England (without Collins) and Pittsburgh despite a win. Matt Harmon cautions against overindexing on the poor playoff finish given his strong regular season efficiency, noting the Texans' 31st-ranked run game success rate since 2023 forces constant pass-first situations. Harmon defends Stroud against playoff-driven criticism, noting Stroud ranks in the top 10 in EPA per play and is not a problem for Nico Collins's production discussion. Harmon emphasizes that Collins has been a top receiver on a per-route basis when Stroud is the quarterback, and that Collins's per-route production is not inflated by three Davis Mills games that people obsess over.
Insight pageDeAndre Hopkins
NegativeProjection16:57
DeAndre Hopkins is one of the top four player comparisons for Nico Collins in the reception perception database when comparing effectiveness and usage across NFL history. This comparison underscores Collins' elite tier of receiver performance.
Insight pageJayden Higgins
PositiveRole24:44
Matt Harmon identifies Jaden Higgins as a really good big Z movement receiver who fits well in that role but could also take approximately 30% of his snaps at X receiver. This dual-role deployment would allow Nico Collins to get easier matchups and move around the formation, positioning Higgins as a key piece in the Texans' receiver rotation alongside Tank Dell on the perimeter.
Insight pageNico Collins
PositiveProjection0:00
Matt Harmon argues Nico Collins has performed like a top-five receiver in the NFL since 2023 based on per-route efficiency metrics: second in yards per route run, 10th in targets per route run, and sixth in first downs per route run from 2023–2025 among all relevant receivers. Collins ranks among the most productive receivers in the NFL on a per-route basis with elite isolation metrics: 77.1% success rate vs. man coverage, 82.3% vs. press coverage (96th percentile in reception perception history), and 82.7% vs. zone coverage in 2025. He has maintained the 77% man and 82% press thresholds for three consecutive seasons, a consistency level only matched by consensus top-tier NFL receivers. Harmon's reception perception analysis shows Collins cleared these thresholds—met by only 21 players since 2014 and exclusively elite receivers (Antonio Brown, CeeDee Lamb, DeVonta Adams, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Stefon Diggs, Michael Thomas, Odell Beckham Jr., Jackson Smith-Njigba, Brandon Aiyuk, Rashad Bateman). Harmon ranks Collins as a top-5 NFL receiver talent, comparable to Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, Devonte Adams, and Dez Bryant (2014) from a charting, role, and effectiveness standpoint; he fits with elite players who have cleared the 90th percentile in success rate versus man and press coverage multiple times in reception perception history, and he's better against zone coverage than many of those elite comparables like Allen Robinson and Terry McLaurin. Harmon concludes: 'If you're an ex receiver and you're winning against man and press coverage at that level and then zone coverage at that level, like guess what? You're one of the best receivers in football, period. Point blank. End of story.' With C.J. Stroud at quarterback (top 10 in EPA per play), Collins has been a top receiver on a per-route basis; the three Davis Mills games do not inflate his metrics. Harmon isolates Collins's per-route production from surrounding variables and concludes he is clearly a top five receiver in the NFL.
Insight pageTank Dell
PositiveRole25:00
Matt Harmon expresses hope that Tank Dell is healthy, noting he was awesome as a rookie in 2023 and played mostly on the perimeter. If healthy and performing at 75% of his rookie-year level, Dell would serve as a perimeter receiver alongside Jaden Higgins, enabling the Texans to move Nico Collins around the formation and maximize his production.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Matt Harmon here from Reception Perception, here to tell you why Texans wide receiver Nico Collins is better than you think. Let's get into it.
0:17All right, maybe I'm being presumptive when I say that Nico Collins is way better than you think, but I generally believe when I'm
0:26looking out there across I guess maybe general sentiment of NFL fans and even some analysts and respected colleagues in the space, I'm not sure
0:37that people realize just how good Nico Collins is. And if you're familiar with Reception Perception, you know, one, appreciate you coming back. If you're
0:46new to Reception Perception, you probably don't know two things here, which is one, Reception Perception is the charting methodology that I use to
0:54evaluate wide receiver play isolated from surrounding variables. So, purely going in and charting the film, I come up with a full database of metrics to
1:05again try to not just isolate the player from surrounding variables, but also categorize the players based on their archetype, their role,
1:12everything like that. You can find all of that at receptionperception.com.
1:16But again, if you are new here, that's what RP is, a film-based charting series where again the goal is to isolate
1:24players from surrounding variables. The other thing you might not know is that Nico Collins has actually been a flag plant player of mine for quite some
1:31time, even dating back to his in-season rookie report in Reception Perception all the way back in 2021 when he came into the league. RP was pointing out
1:40like, "Hey, this is a guy who is, I mean, right up there with good quality starting X receivers. He is a guy that
1:51really was performing well in isolation even in a very, very chaotic and bad off honestly just a bad and poisoned offensive environment with, you know, up
2:02and down coaching to be kind, mostly down quarterback play.
2:06That probably being kind on that one, too. But Nico Collins again, in isolation, was winning against press man coverage as an X receiver kind of in
2:14like a I don't know maybe like a like early career Tee Higgins honestly type of way was Nico Collins winning. You know, maybe Michael
2:22Gallup type early on in his career. And then Reception Perception also pointed out in 2023 that Nico Collins then had graduated to
2:32a whole whole new level. And I would argue that based on what he's done since 2023, Nico Collins has performed
2:40like a top five receiver in the NFL.
2:44We'll we'll do the rankings discussion at the very end of this video and why that is honestly kind of a poisoned
2:49discussion in general.
2:52A cursed discussion. We'll do that at the end of the video, but he really has played and performed like a top five
2:57receiver. And by the way even if you don't buy into me and you don't buy into Reception Perception, some of the best and most predictive
3:04wide receiver stats have shown that Nico Collins has been performing and producing like a top five wide receiver
3:13since 2023. And so again I'm going to do a little bit of C.J.
3:17Stroud apologist type stuff in here as well. But we're doing 2023 specifically because I think that's when Collins ascended and also when C.J. Stroud got
3:28in the mix here. So, from 2023 to 2025, Nico Collins, among all receivers all relevant receivers in this span
3:37has performed like a top top level receiver on a per route basis. He is second in yards per route run. He is
3:4410th in targets per route run. And he is sixth in first downs per route run. I mean, he keeps the company
3:52with all the best receivers in NFL during the span. I mean, look at the guys that he is up there with. Puka
3:56Nacua, Tyreek Hill, Brandon Aiyuk. Uh obviously you're seeing there 104th [snorts] in routes run during this span. And because they were mostly just looking at
4:06that one 2023 season here. So, put him aside for a second, but like CeeDee Lamb, A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, you
4:14know, Justin Jefferson obviously in the mix here. You see by the way, uh Rashee Rice. There's 112 receivers in this span
4:20that have run 600 or more routes.
4:23Rashee Rice has the lowest uh air yards per target. Uh so, Nico though, running real deal routes, getting real deal air yards,
4:31and he is one of the most efficient receivers on a per route basis, period, end of story.
4:36So, honestly, from a production standpoint, he's already been there. You do have to do the per route stuff because if we are noting one of the
4:41bigger weaknesses, not player perspective, but weaknesses in like his holistic profile, is that Collins has struggled to stay on the field. He has
4:50consistently missed games with, you know, soft tissue injuries. Things that are issues for him uh to stay on the football field. That's been a big
4:58problem for him, but the production shows he's one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. And I think that the film and his reception perception
5:07data really shows a lot about what is so special about Nico Collins. And you know, some of the guys that I've talked
5:15about on the list there, up the most productive receivers on a per route basis, Puka Nacua, Tyreek Hill, CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra St. Brown, even Justin Jefferson
5:24to a certain degree, although not quite as much as some of these other ones here.
5:29Like we're living in a world where almost all true high-volume number one receivers are getting role catering.
5:36They are moving across the formation to exploit matchups.
5:39I Nico Collins has what I would say is real old school deployment as almost just a pure X receiver. We don't see guys like this
5:48in the NFL anymore.
5:50The 6'4" 215 plus pound wide receivers who take over 80% of their snaps outside and on the line
6:00of scrimmage. And that is exactly who Nico Collins is. In 2025, Collins took just 15.4% of his snap sample for reception perception in the slot. He was
6:11in the backfield for just 0.4% of those snaps. And so again, all that means he was outside on 84.4%.
6:19He took a whopping 89.5% of his sampled snaps on the line of scrimmage. That is going to be one of the highest rates for
6:26any receiver charted from 2025.
6:30We have never seen him through the course of these of the course of his career, he's never taken fewer than 80%
6:36of his snaps on the ball. He's got 3 years north of 89%. Never been in the slot more than 17%. Like this is again,
6:45it's true old school X receiver role that we see in the NFL right now.
6:51To put that into context, I looked at Nico Collins's three average from the last 3 years. So again, we're we're going to throw out
6:59some of the early career stuff and just look at the last 3 years when he's been as we showed one of the most productive
7:05receivers on a per route basis.
7:08Just his average alignment rate during this span, 83% sampled snaps on the outside and 87.3% sampled snaps on the line of scrimmage.
7:19So 83.3% 87%. I looked at the receivers who in Reception Perception history, which is well over 500, nearly 600 players in the
7:31historic NFL database right now on the site, by the way, if you have a Sicko Tier subscription to the site, you
7:37get access to all this historic data. So tons and tons of players going to push close to that 600 here pretty soon.
7:45All those guys, there are only 15 receiver seasons.
7:51Excuse me, 16 individual receiver seasons where a guy took over 83% of their sampled snaps outside and over
8:0187% of their sampled snaps on the line of scrimmage.
8:06These are the following players.
8:08Alec Pierce in his rookie season in 2022. Two seasons worth of Alshon Jeffery.
8:14One DeAndre Hopkins season in 2017. A Deonte Johnson season. That's a funny one. Doriel Green-Beckham. Remember him?
8:21Back in 2015 as a rookie. Kenny Britt in 2016. Kyle Williams, rookie receiver from last year. Basically just used as a
8:28sacrificial X receiver. Two seasons of Marvin Jones. Three seasons of Nico Collins.
8:34Preston Williams, Dolphins 2019 rookie season. Stefon Diggs rookie season, funny enough. Outside X receiver stuff. And Terry McLaurin from 2022. To
8:44put into point how like unusual this is in the modern NFL, this has only happened three times since 2022.
8:56Well, since after 2022. So, 2023 to 2025, these three seasons we're looking at here.
9:00It is indeed two Nico Collins seasons and one Kyle Williams from last year.
9:06So, that's just is insane. If you want to look at it since 2022 and beyond, it's Alec Pierce's rookie season where
9:16he was a true sacrificial X and Terry McLaurin in 2022.
9:20He was outside for 83.4%. He was on the line of scrimmage for 94.6%. So, this level of hyper-concentration at the X
9:29receiver position is not just unusual for high volume receivers, for number one receivers.
9:36It's unusual for like any relevant receiver at this point.
9:41Nico Collins is a true outlier among the top and most productive receivers in the NFL for how much he is lining up at X
9:49receiver.
9:50And I think that is so important to put into context with his role because within that very old-school high degree of difficulty
9:59role, he has been outright freaking dominant, man. I mean, and not just again, we showed the per route stuff.
10:08And obviously, any sort of wide receiver stat, even the good ones, like first downs per route run, yards per route run, targets per route run, those are
10:15good stats, but they're not player isolating. That's the goal of Reception Perception, where he has been flat out one of the best receivers
10:24charted over the last three seasons.
10:2677.1% success rate versus man coverage, 82.3% success rate versus press. I mean, those are going to be among the best for
10:35any player charted in 2025. Uh that press coverage number, by the way, of just shy of 83% is at the 96th
10:42percentile in Reception Perception history.
10:46He was unbelievably good in isolation this past season, and that's what again makes him such a unique throwback receiver because he's he's this guy that
10:57lines up at X, and he wins against press man coverage, especially on the breaking routes, right? You're seeing the route charts here.
11:04The success rate on the digs and the outs where he runs a high volume.
11:08Unbelievable stuff there. We noted also that he ran a ton of um like slants and digs. I'll give Nick Caley a lot of
11:18credit here. You know, I'm certainly raising my eyebrow at that alignment, right? Like we need to get Nico Collins more snaps away from X receiver, period,
11:26end of story. But I will give Nick Caley a ton of credit that he got him the routes that he I mean Nico's good
11:34across the route tree obviously as you're seeing. He he can absolutely stack and and and line up on the boundary and win on go routes, but he's
11:42at his best on these breaking routes like outs, digs, and slants. Especially those routes over the middle of the field and that accounted for the vast
11:49majority of his route tree. 46.8% of his charted routes were slants and digs.
11:53There are very few receivers as good as Nico Collins working the middle of the field right now in the NFL today. He is
12:00right among the best. Especially again with how much he is running from the X receiver position. If you're wondering why like why is Nico Collins
12:08I have him in fantasy and like why does he kind of come and go from a production standpoint? Well, that's because he's
12:14running routes from the boundary as the outside receiver, the X, which was a longer developing routes, especially those big digs. And yeah, CJ Stroud
12:23playing a little bit of chaos behind a bad offensive line, sometimes also creating his own chaos. We can we can acknowledge that. A team that is because
12:30they've been the 31st ranked run game in success rate since CJ Stroud was drafted in 2023.
12:3831st, folks. Second worst run game on a success rate basis since 2023. That means they're constantly behind the sticks, okay?
12:47Teams know they're in pass first situations on second and third down especially.
12:52They're sending. They're they're they're they're like they're trying to get after CJ Stroud in those situations. Stroud knows it, which I think
12:59Look, again, I'm doing a little bit of CJ Stroud apology here because he was a top 10 quarterback in EPA per play. I
13:04know and I put out the stats that his like play in the playoffs from an efficiency EPA per dropback standpoint was one of the one of the worst runs
13:12we've seen since 2017. It is a bottom 10 playoff performance. And you know that if you watch it. You don't need the EPA
13:19to back that up. You saw it. It was dreadful. Not just against New England, which by the way he didn't have Nico
13:24Collins in that game, but also against the Pittsburgh Steelers even though they won that game, he was not good in that
13:28one either.
13:30But I think we've over-indexed on that's the last thing we saw, okay, with C.J. Stroud. Because again, in the regular season, even if one of the games
13:38everybody watched, Seattle Seahawks, primetime game, was not very good in that contest, either. He still was a top-10 quarterback sandwiched between
13:45Sam Darnold and Patrick Mahomes in EPA per dropback. Patrick Mahomes, even in a down year, still widely considered one of the best quarterbacks
13:51in the NFL. Sam Darnold won the freaking Super Bowl, all right? Nico Collins has put up all these great stats with, yes,
13:56that's right, C.J. Stroud mostly at quarterback. So, uh Stroud does need to improve in some ways. I would be foolish not to
14:02acknowledge that, but you know, he's not this detriment to Collins like producing going forward. I think these guys actually have a really good
14:09connection and chemistry. But my point in saying all that is these big breaking routes, longer time to develop, we can we can change that a little bit
14:17here, but regardless, point is Collins has been dominant in isolation in this span of time. I talked about those success rates, the overall success
14:28success rates from this past year, like 77% versus man, 82% versus press. That is nothing new. Nico Collins has cleared that 77% success rate versus man
14:39coverage and 82% success rate versus press coverage barrier for three straight seasons. That is a consistent run of excellence that is honestly
14:49only offered up by the consensus best receivers in the NFL during that span of time.
14:54Like he's just a marvel to watch separate on tape.
14:58Sinks in and out of his breaks with ease. He's super fluid. Like this is one of the most athletic receivers in the
15:04NFL. I don't think we give him enough credit for what a freak show he is.
15:08And by the way, in conjunction with that success rate versus man and press coverage number, he was at 82%
15:1982.7% success rate versus zone coverage and 83rd percentile mark.
15:24That is just narrowly better than his previous career best number from 2024.
15:29That is one of the best numbers that we're going to see. Really good solid number. If you're an X receiver and you're winning
15:36against man and press coverage at that level and then zone coverage at that level, like guess what? You're one of the best receivers in football, period.
15:41Point blank. End of story. And again, to put this into context at the receiver position, I looked at the guys through Reception
15:51Perception history who have cleared 77% success rate versus man coverage, 82% success rate versus zone coverage, and 82% success rate versus press coverage.
16:01So, where Nico Collins was last year.
16:04It has happened 21 times in Reception Perception history, which goes back to 2014 to the current season.
16:12These are the players who have done it.
16:14Antonio Brown did it twice.
16:16Brandon Aiyuk in 2023 did it that season. CeeDee Lamb has done it twice.
16:20Davante Adams has done it four times.
16:22Ja'Marr Chase has done it.
16:25Jaxon Smith-Njigba last year, he did it.
16:27Justin Jefferson has done it three times.
16:30By the way, I haven't charted Chase and Jefferson from this past season, so it's realistically possible that they've done it a couple of times here as well.
16:36Michael Thomas, he did it.
16:39Nico Collins has done it twice. Odell Beckham Jr. did it.
16:43Rashod Bateman did it in 2024. That's That's my one outlier, but we can, you know, all right. It's happened once to a
16:49guy that is really good on tape. He was in that 2024 season.
16:53Okay.
16:54You You guys know, if you've been watching the channel, my My therapist doesn't allow me to talk about Rashod Bateman. So, we're going to skip past
16:59that one, but he's a guy that did it.
17:00And then Stefon Diggs did it twice. That is, other than Bateman, those are all like elite receivers in the NFL. That's the company that Nico
17:09Collins has kept not just this past year, but for multiple seasons.
17:15For multiple seasons now, we have seen Nico Collins perform at that level.
17:20He is a superstar.
17:23No question about it. Wins it all three levels of the route tree, wins against press man coverage. By the way, much
17:29better after the catch than you would think.
17:31He was in space not as much as you'd want. 44% of his sample catches last year was in space.
17:37Those are plays that I chart where he's in the open field with an opportunity to break a tackle. He went down on first
17:41contact on less than half of those plays. Excuse me, 42% of his catches were in space. 44% first down or first
17:48contact drop.
17:50He's an awesome player with the ball in his hands. He's a big ball winner. I mean, he just checks all the boxes.
17:55Honestly, we're going to pull up the player comparison tool to really make the point here.
18:00From a effectiveness and a usage standpoint, this is a tool on our site, by the way. You can get this tool with
18:07any level of subscription to the site.
18:09Use the full historic database to compare players across the entire history of reception perception. Look at the comps for Nico Collins here.
18:19Four Three of the top four comparisons here are DeAndre Hopkins and two Julio Jones seasons.
18:27I think because the Texans are regarded as a defense-first team, which they are.
18:33Obviously, their defense is badass.
18:35And let's be honest here. I Listen, I talk about the Texans a lot, but they're not a team that gets a ton of national
18:40media pop. And when they do, it usually is because of that defense. We're like, "What's What do we do about C.J. Stroud?
18:44We need to contact the Texans." Blah, blah, blah. That whole deal.
18:47I don't think Nico gets highlighted enough. By the way, Nico Collins is not one of these like diva receivers who's out there making it all about him.
18:55This guy, by the way, I I did an interview with him uh a few years ago at the Super Bowl, which if you're familiar
18:59with like the Super Bowl process, it's like a car wash where guys come in with the sponsorships and, you know, they're
19:04just they're like trying to they're there to make some money, okay?
19:09It's fine.
19:10It's what they supposed to do. That's what they should do. Take advantage of your brand and your spotlight and make some money doing some of those Super
19:15Bowl interviews. They're sponsored by whatever product.
19:18>> [gasps] >> Nico comes by and he didn't have a sponsor to to do an interview with us at Yahoo.
19:23And it was an awesome interview. You can check it out on the Yahoo Yahoo Fantasy YouTube channel, I believe. Might be the Yahoo Sports
19:29YouTube channel. Anyways, we'll find the video. We'll We'll link in the description below. Awesome conversation with Nico. And yeah, just did it not even there with a sponsor.
19:36He's just there to kind of talk ball, chop it up, talk about what being an X receiver is with with me. Super fun. Um but yeah, again,
19:43he's not the one of these diva wide receivers that's out there like trying to get attention or anything, you know?
19:47He's just trying to Not that there's anything wrong anything wrong with that. But Nico doesn't really bring that spotlight on himself in that
19:54way. Not one of these divas, you know, out there crypto cryptic tweeting, whatever.
20:00So, my point in all that to say, I think he just doesn't get the attention nationally, at least in my mind,
20:07that he probably deserves. Like, look at those two Julio Jones comparisons. He's the closest thing to Julio Jones that we have in the NFL today.
20:14It It's just I know that sounds like a crazy thing to say because Julio Jones and look, is he the true alien
20:22that that Julio Jones is? Maybe not, right? Okay, we can use a little bit of qualitative discussion here and debate the merits of that. But from a charting
20:32standpoint, from a role standpoint, from an effectiveness standpoint, he's putting up that kind of film right now, okay? He's very comparable to a
20:41Julio Jones, to a DeAndre Hopkins, who we showed, to a Davante Adams, who we showed, to a Dez Bryant 2014, right?
20:52Like Justin Jefferson comparison here. Yes, I do see the two Aiyuk seasons and the Bateman seasons. But like these classic old-school X receivers that Dez Bryant
21:02season is from 2014.
21:06Old-school X receiver stuff for Nico Collins. And as we showed at the beginning of the video, he's one of the most efficient receivers on a per route
21:13basis.
21:14He is one of the best receivers in reception perception from a charting standpoint. He fits in with some truly elite players.
21:24This is a guy that is just I mean, he's he is he's damn near special.
21:30He's he's a special player, period. I mean, he is a rockstar of a wideout. He fits in a group of players that has cleared the 90th
21:40percentile in success rate versus man and press coverage multiple times in reception perception history.
21:47Some of the players we've talked about previously, but it's like it's AJ Brown, it's Allen Robinson, it's CeeDee Lamb, it's Garrett Wilson, Nico Collins, Odell
21:53Beckham, Terry McLaurin, and he's better against zone coverage than a lot of those guys like Robinson and McLaurin, the guys who haven't quite got there,
22:01right? Like Garrett Wilson, you know?
22:03Man, Nico Collins, pretty damn special player.
22:08Guy who has been incredibly good over the course of the last three seasons. Flat-out one of the best receivers in the NFL. And and when
22:15I come back to like the cursed and ultimately, you know, other than like for fun, the wide receiver rankings exercise is
22:23meaningless.
22:24It's fun, I get it. Offseason content, you know, you got to do it.
22:28Debating on the internet, if that's what you want to do, that's okay.
22:31But like he's a top-five receiver talent to me.
22:35If you don't put him in the top five, you got to put him like six, seven.
22:39I know the issue there is that he runs up to like Amon-Ra St. Brown in the rankings, and the reality is like him
22:45and Amon-Ra St. Brown like basically play two different positions. Like St. Brown is not asked to do what Nico does, and Nico's not asked to do what
22:53St. Brown is. And they're and they're both excellent at their respective roles.
22:57So, you know, it's kind of makes them tough to compare. But the The point of that is that like these guys are both top five NFL
23:04receivers. And Nico Collins absolutely based on reception perception, based on what we've seen here, is a top five NFL receiver. So, how can we get Nico to
23:11have one of those seasons from a production standpoint to match with that? I think number one, he's just got to stay healthy, which who knows if he
23:18will, that's something we can't control, he can't control, that's just we're you know, players are injury prone until they're not, okay? That's how that goes.
23:26So, we'll see about that. I do think the Texans as an environment have to obviously be better.
23:32I like the moves they've made along the offensive line this year. I think the offensive line can go from being a real
23:35problem to you know, like not the worst unit in the NFL.
23:40I think C.J. Stroud has gotten a little bit over hated due to the playoffs. I don't actually think he's a big problem
23:45for Nico Collins' this discussion like his production and everything. Again, top 10 quarterback in EPA per play. Nico has been a top
23:53receiver on a per route basis when C.J.
23:56Stroud has been the quarterback.
23:57There's not those three Davis Mills games that people obsess over that are pumping up Nico Collins' per route production. I promise you that.
24:05So, the other part of it, too, is just I do think he needs to get moved around more. Like, we talked about the
24:12complete outlier usage heavy X receiver usage for Nico Collins. I do think that needs to change. Will that change? That is up to offensive coordinator Nick
24:19Caserio. Look, Nico's so good as a elite press man beater, it's hard to say like, "Oh, I don't want to play him at X
24:26receiver cuz like he's one of the best X receivers in the NFL." But, I think you can really maximize him, allow him to take that next step like a
24:33Ja'Marr Chase did, by the way, when he stopped being an X exclusive player and was moved around the formation cuz they started throwing Tee Higgins
24:41out at X receiver. I think Jaylen Higgins is a really good big Z like movement receiver. He fits well in that
24:47role, but I also think he could take like 30% of his snaps at X to allow you to get Nico Collins some of these layups
24:54and move around the formation. I think Jaylen Noel could be an on-ball slot.
24:57Where you can then cut Nico across formation. I We'll see about Tank Dell.
25:01I hope Tank Dell is healthy cuz he was awesome as a rookie in 2023.
25:06He played mostly on the perimeter.
25:08You can have a perimeter receiver in Jayden Higgins and a perimeter receiver in Tank Dell if he's healthy and like 75% of himself that he was in his rookie
25:16year.
25:17That's two guys you can play on the outside. You can move Nico Collins around. There's a lot of potential for that to happen here and I do think it
25:23could happen with Nico Collins. But again, the point of this video, the point of Reception Perception is to isolate him from surrounding variables
25:29and when you do that, you see that this is clearly a top-five receiver in the NFL.
25:35Hope you like this video. If you did, subscribe to the channel. Got videos coming out all the way up to NFL week one. And well and well
25:45beyond that, too. I mean, we're going to be pumping out a ton of content on this channel. If you liked what you saw in
25:48this video, you will definitely like what you'll find on receptionperception.com where you get individual player profiles like the one we showed with Nico
25:54Collins. You can get access to the player comparison tool, my dynasty rankings tool as well and so much more.
26:01With that, I'm Matt Harmon. I will see you all in the next video.
