2025 Pre-Season Rank #13, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #18, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #58, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #73.  Peak 2020-24

How can so much production seem so quiet?  

Two years ago, Mike Evans broke 12,500 Yards and 100 Touchdowns, and in the first 11 seasons of his career, he has never failed to break the four-digit mark in Receiving Yards.  The only person to do that is Jerry Rice, and as Evans was injured last year, he was unable to break Rice’s record, though anyone who shares a record with Rice has to be a legendary figure.

Right?

Well…

So, why is his career so unassuming?   In four of those seasons, Evans did not reach 1,100 Yards, and in two of them, he was less than 1,010.   Although Evans made the top ten in Touchdown Receptions six times, he has only reached the top ten in Receiving Yards twice and has never been a First Team All-Pro.  Regardless, he is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and a Super Bowl winner.

Entering 2026, Evans is no longer a Buccaneer, as he joins the San Francisco 49ers.  On all-time lists, should he get 1,000 Yards this year, he will vault from 21st to 12th, and he is already 10th in Touchdown Receptions, needing only four to pass Tony Gonzalez.

As it stands, we feel Evans will be a Hall of Fame inductee, but the question we ask is what year of eligibility it will occur.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #23, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #27, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #24, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #43, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #67, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #95.  Peak Period: 2018-22

The Hall of Fame case of Davante Adams fascinates us.

A WR1 for most of his career and, at one time, the favorite weapon of Aaron Rodgers, Adams starts the 2026 season as one of the elder statesmen of the National Football League. While he is no longer the top dog on a team, he is still one of the most go-to end zone threats in the game.

Last season, in his debut for the Los Angeles Rams, Adams was Matthew Stafford’s favorite target to get six.  For the third time in his career, he led the NFL in Touchdown Receptions (14) and has a staggering 117 overall, making him the active leader and seventh overall.  Five TDs will take him to sixth to pass recent Hall of Fame inductee Larry Fitzgerald.

Yardage-wise, his 12,633 is well behind the 14,345 needed to make the top ten all-time, but the overall body of his work should be enough at this time.  Adams has a huge opportunity with the Rams to get his first Super Bowl, and if they get there, you know that Stafford will be looking at his veteran.

We think he’s done enough to get in, but we can’t forget the Wide Receiver queue for Canton has always been deep.  Ask Torry Holt.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #18, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #8, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #53.  Peak Period: 2019-23

Oh boy!

Tyreek Hill was a three-time First Team All-Pro and Super Bowl Champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, but they traded the talented Wide Receiver to Miami for a slew of draft picks.  Miami then made him the highest-paid WR in the league, and in his first two seasons, Hill was the game’s top receiver, achieving over 1,700 Yards in both campaigns and leading the NFL in Receiving Yards (1,799) and Receiving Touchdowns (13) in 2023.    He was also the runner-up for Offensive Player of the Year.

However…

2024 a different story for Hill, who, for the first time in his career, was not chosen for the Pro Bowl.  He had a lackluster year by his standards (959 Yards/6 TDs), and whispers of his decline were in the air.  2025 was an absolute disaster. 

Early that year, Hill suffered a gruesome knee injury and again faced domestic violence accusations, adding to the many off-field issues he has had over his career.  Together, these issues have made him a free agent as of this writing, and while we would not rule out a comeback, we doubt a return to peak form is in the tea leaves.

The numbers are still solid, and at one point he was considered the top dog in his position, but his Hall of Fame chances have taken a tumble over the last 24 months.

2025 Pre-Season Rank, #24, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #24, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #30, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #44.  Peak Period: 2015-19

There is a very good chance that we have seen the end of DeAndre Hopkins on the NFL field, and if that is the case, does the (as of this writing) Free Agent done enough for that coveted gold jacket?

From 2017 to 2019, if you were to say that Hopkins was the best Wide Receiever in the league, the biggest pushback would be at the very least the current “Mount Rushmore”.  A two-time top-five Offensive Player of the Year finisher with the Houston Texans, he was shockingly traded to Arizona in 2020, where he had his last of five Pro Bowl seasons.

In more recent seasons, Hopkins chased a Super Bowl ring (first with Kansas City in 2024 and Baltimore in 2025), but it didn't happen.

He is currently the active leader (again, he is not retired) in Receiving Yards (13,295), but we have him ranked below Mike Evans (the most consistent WR of this era), Davante Adams (who has over 100 Touchdowns and is within 700 Yards of him), and Tyreek Hill (though barely, but his peak was better than Hopkins' best).

The Wide Receiver logjam is the tightest one in Canton, and while the numbers are there, we have seen once-elite WRs struggle.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #38, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #50, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #101, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #130.  Peak Period: 2020-24

Since he debuted in 2020, Justin Jefferson has accumulated more Receiving Yards (8,480) than any other Wide Receiver,  and nobody else is within 1,000.

In his first three seasons, Jefferson won the Offensive Rookie of the Year (2020), the Offensive Player of the Year (2022), and earned three Pro Bowls and two First Team All-Pros.  The three seasons after have been more challenging; although he was chosen for a fourth Pro Bowl in 2024, he missed seven games due to injury in 2023, and last year, despite being healthy, he had the misfortune of having the ineffective J.J. McCarthy as his Quarterback, leading to only 2 TDs and 1,048 Yards.

Regardless of last season’s woes, he has a new thrower in Kyler Murray, who comes to Minnesota with a lot to prove.  Jefferson should be elite as always, and as he is still in his prime, the yardage will continue to pile up.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #55, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #111, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #134, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #145. Peak Period: 2021-25*

Ja’Marr Chase has been money since the Cincinnati Bengals took him fifth overall in 2021 and reunited him with his college Quarterback, Joe Burrow.

A Pro Bowl selection in all five seasons, Chase’s best season was in 2024, when he won the Wide Receiver’s Triple Crown (127 Receptions, 1,708 Yards, and 17 Touchdowns) and was named First-Team All-Pro.  He was third in Offensive Player of the Year that season, and he followed that up last season with a second First Team All Pro nod.

Moving forward, there is no reason to think that his second half-decade in the sport could be just as good as his first, and barring injury, we project he will crack the top 30 of this list next year.

What a joy he is to watch!

*Chase has only played five years.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #40, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #38, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #48, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #57, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #118.  Peak Period 2019-23

Stefon Diggs is an interesting player, isn’t he?

After establishing himself in Minnesota, Diggs played four years in Buffalo, where he was a Pro Bowl selection in each campaign and led the NFL in Receiving Yards in 2020 (1,535).  After an injury-plagued year in Houston in 2024, he rebounded in New England, with 1,013 Yards and a trip to the Super Bowl.   However…

Diggs was accused of assault by his personal chef, and while he was found innocent, drama followed him to the Super Bowl, where he and megastar Nicki Minaj broke up before the game.  Diggs was flat, and after he was released by the Patriots, we weren’t sure if he would find work; luckily for him, he did, as he joins the Washington Commanders this season.

Diggs is still capable of great production, and he will have to go the compiler route to make a late charge for the Hall. 

2025 Pre-Season Rank #46, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #41, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #45, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #48, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #66, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #82.  Peak Period: 2017-21

We have said for years that Keenan Allen’s path to Canton would have to be through longevity and compiling as many yards and touchdowns as possible.  While he is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and the Chargers’ WR1 for years, he wasn't the enigmatic, dynamic force that took your breath away.

What he is, however, is a consistent producer who passed 12,000 yards and reached 70 touchdowns last season, but how many times have we said how high the bar is for Wide Receivers?  Time is running out for Allen, but if he can remain on the field for a few more years, it is not impossible, and this year, he will see what he can do to help his third franchise, the Indianapolis Colts.

He should receive some type of post-career acknowledgment from the Chargers when all is said and done.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #49, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #76, #2023 Pre-Season Rank #106, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #142, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #141.  Peak Period: 2020-24

The fanbase of the Tennessee Titans is still shaking its head at the trade of A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles.

A Pro Bowl Selection in 2020, Brown was traded to Philadelphia, and the Eagles made the right bet: in his first three years in the City of Brotherly Love, he was named a Second Team All-Pro.  The primary air weapon of Jalen Hurts, Brown had back-to-back 1,400-yard seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in 2024, he was a massive part of the Eagles' Super Bowl win.  That is where Brown's Philadelphia story ended, as he begins the season with the New England Patriots and should be able to get his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season.

As he is still in his prime, and should the Patriots return to the Super Bowl, Brown should see his Hall of Fame stock improve.