The Notinhalloffame Pro Football Hall of Fame Monitor has been revised: Wide Receivers Edition
The 2026 NFL season is here, and we have updated our Pre-Season Football Monitor.
As we have expanded our projects, we can’t say we've expanded the team behind the scenes! As a result, we are a little behind on this one, and we could only post the top 50 of the Pre-Season Monitor at this time.
We will add more during the season (and yes, we know that defeats the purpose of pre-season), but thank you for your patience.
We have unveiled the Quarterbacks, Running Backs, and now Wide Receivers, of which there are nine.
They are:
#1 WR, #18 Overall: Mike Evans, San Francisco 49ers. #13 Overall Last Year.
#2 WR, #21 Overall: Davante Adams, Los Angeles Rams, #23 Overall Last Year.
#3 WR, #25 Overall: Tyreek Hill, Free Agent, #18 Overall Last Year.
#4 WR, #27 Overall: DeAndre Hopkins, Free Agent, #24 Overall Last Year.
#5 WR, #40 Overall: Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings, #37 Overall Last Year
#6 WR, #42 Overall: Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals, #56 Overall Last Year
#7 WR, #43 Overall: Stefon Diggs, Washington Commanders, #41 Overall Last Year
#8 WR, #49 Overall: Keenan Allen, Indianapolis Colts, #46 Overall Last Year
#9 WR. #50 Overall: A.J. Brown, New England Patriots, #49 Overall Last Year
Look for more information on this project shortly.
#27 Overall, DeAndre Hopkins, Free Agent, #4 Wide Receiver
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.
