2026 NFL Draft - Wide Receiver Preview!!!

Oh, it's bad. What? What would the people do it? Mate. Thought you'd be into it, Sam. What, me? No, that's deeply offensive. Harry, you're wearing socks and sandals. In public. Come on. I travel in style. You don't. It's a new low. They're the mullet of footwear. And what's wrong with mullets? Sharing moments you'll never live down. On The Train, you can. What's up, Green Bay Packers fans and welcome back to the Daily Draft. I am your host and the publisher of Pack Report, Ross Uglum, joining me today to break down the wide receiver position in this year's NFL Draft is Jacob Morley. Jake, how are you, man? Doing good, man. We're getting closer and closer. The position, the, I think our dear pal, Jacob Westendorf calls the wide receiver position the building blocks of any NFL franchise. So excited to dive into this one today. Yeah, I, I'm pumped. It's one of those positions. And I think I tweeted this out where if this is the pick at 54, it's going to surprise people, but I don't know if it should. And we can kind of get into some of that, but it would shock people because there's been so much detackle corner, detackle corner, detackle corner. And then the, the like galaxy brain position always when the Packers are picking is like, what if they took an offensive lineman? And they have. I mean, right? Like the Jordan Morgan pick happened, the Anthony Belton pick happened. They will issue real needs for offensive linemen occasionally. But now both of those guys are slated to start. So it is what it is. Good, good, the class being good, the wider, this class is a good class. But, you know, we've talked about this with the evolution of seven on seven and the evolution of what college football has become like every wide receiver class is good. So, you know, you're never like, oh, let's not take a wide receiver this year. Let's wait because next year we can take two out of this really good class. Like they're all really good classes. It just, it's been that way for a while. To like with that caveat of every wide receiver class being good. I don't think this class is like blow your mind good. Like I think there's a lot of like good role players in this year's draft class. But yeah, in some years, draft classes, you can look at rounds two, three, four and beyond and be like, man, in the right situation, this guy could be puka, Nakuha, you know, I mean, like someone that like has all the tools to be a really, really good football player, not saying those guys aren't in this year's draft class. There's not as many of them. Like it's a lot of, we'll get into it, but like it's a lot of kind of skill specific scheme, specific type guys. Yeah. And that's what we're talking about too is the specific type. So like, you know, if you're going to have them in buckets, I've kind of got, you know, if you were to look at one that would be really kind of everything. I think Jordan Tyson would have had a chance to be that if he had not had the injury history that he has. But then you've got kind of the smaller types like carnell Tate, but specifically Mackay Lemon, you've got the, and then you've got like the bigger types, you know, whether your favorite flavor is a Bryce Lance out on North Dakota State or a Malachi Fields out of Notre Dame. So you've got like your, your archetypes, right? You've got your six foot three, six foot four guys, you've got your smalls, and then you've got, like I said, you know, and to a point also you kind of have your, your, I won't call them gadgety guys, but like your KC Concepts, you know, and where it's like, okay, let's get him the ball and then see what he does with it after the catch. You do have, there are yak monsters in this class. Yeah, it's a really, really interesting group. Yeah, and I think with guys like, I don't want to just be specific with like KC Concepts, you know, like, but guys like him scare me, and I know you like him a lot and I don't think he's a bad player at all. But like when I have to be really like, I got to think hard, or have to think at all about how I'm going to get the ball in his hands. I'm out. You know, like that's why you go back to like Savion last year. Yeah, like Savion's got the ball in his hands. He's a monster. Like there's no denying that, but like I have to think about how I'm going to do that. I would rather just the guy that's like, Hey, this is the route concept and I don't really doubt that you're going to be able to get the ball. And for every, for every AJ Brown where that was a concern, there's five Traylin Berks, you know, five Laquan Treadwells, you know, five, hopefully not Savion Williams, but like now like I core, you know, yeah, the 100%. Yeah, you guys get excited or you guys, me guys, I am guy. It's just like, it's kind of the learning, you know, like, you do this long enough and it's like, what lessons have you learned about guys that you really liked that didn't pan out. And like with anything you can't make any, you really can't make broad strokes with any of these guys like, you know, can KC conception like he could turn out to be the best player in the NFL, I don't know, but like, just players like that you do kind of have to look back and say like man I really like Malachi I corelly why didn't he make it? You know, and, and I really liked, I liked a Mario Rogers a lot out of Clemson. He was a guy that's like man, here's a guy that just does everything well, does everything well. And then sometimes you get to the NFL and you got to be really good at something. You can't just do everything well. Amari's problem too was he, he had that jack of all trades master of none paired with some really limiting athleticism. And then people were like, well, Randall Cobb was a shitty athlete and it's like, well, a lot of that was size related, you know, I really like Antonio Williams, like really, really like Antonio Williams. And that that's another guy where it's like, oh, well, he can, you know, he can throw it and he can, he can return punts and he's like this ultimate football player. It's like, well, and I get excited about that. But it's at the same time, he better find something you better win better at this level, you have to find a way to win there's got to be something that you do better than the guys that are covering you. And yeah, I mean, I think specific is a word that you can maybe use with this class. My guys, like, this isn't going to surprise anybody. But Bryce Lance, he's so interesting to me because, you know, and he's taking a couple of jet sweeps to the house and stuff, but like, long speed was a was a question or long speed was a, we could release like we could release the group chat. You know, like, is he I mean, the question was like, I think he's I think if he's a four or five, good, like that'd be great for him. And you and I, you and I kind of have this agreement on wide receiver, especially outside wide receivers where four, five, five is like, that's it. And I think maybe it's maybe Devonte was a four, five, four guy. But like, once you get into that high four fives, you start to hit four, six, it becomes a limiting factor. And then he goes out and runs a four, three, four at six, three, two, oh four. I mean, he worked out runs worked out better than like, but you know, you just put spreadsheet by spreadsheet. He's a better athlete. Christian Watson. Yeah, I don't think he is. I don't think he actually is but but he's a very good athlete. Like, I mean, I would have never figured that we would have never figured that in a million years. I do like Casey Concepcion. I think he has shown enough of the ability to get open where it's not literally tunnel screens and handoffs and goofy stuff like that. Our guy Georgia State Ted Hearst. I mean, you better be ready for him to be a big green bit packer. Ladies and gentlemen. Yep. I really like the way Omar or go ahead. Ted didn't run three cone though. Didn't run three. Yeah. He's not when you get the guy the draft guide which I hope you ordered already. You're going to see him. Yeah, he's not a perfect fit because he's missing data, but sometimes I almost wonder if they brought him in Green Bay just because they're like, Hey, we want to get some info on you and some of that. Come run a three cone. I don't know that that's probably it's probably ridiculous. The people that actually listen to this podcast that know more about the ins and outs of all this stuff are probably like this guy's a freaking idiot. Get out of your spreadsheet Morley. But yeah, no, and yeah, he is but you turn the tape on and you just just watch the film and it's it's stupid that we've you know the Packers have liked a certain type of receiver since Ron Wolf. And so if you've paid attention, I think that is the position that you can narrow down better than any other position in the draft. And you know, Ross, we do this stuff and again, we could release we could release a lot of group chat stuff that looks makes us look really stupid. Probably more than makes us look smart. But there are guys, especially at the wide receiver position like very early in this process that are just like, Hey, have you watched this Ted Hurst guy? Because he is. Yeah. Yeah. We've been talking about Bryce Lance for like two years. Like, Hey, this is he's going to be a tier one guy. And those two guys are the ones to really highlight as far as like, if you look at what they've done in the past, they are going to like those guys. They're going to like them a lot. Another guy that I really like that's going to be on the fringes is Omar Cooper Jr. from Indiana. He's a shade over six foot. He's a shade over 195. He ran well, we don't have agility data. But I think he's a good player. And then like I said, Antonio Williams out of out of Clemson, that might be one I got to check really quick. That might be one where he's not a packer, but it's like Mikey Sainter still a couple of years ago. Yeah, 511 and a half 187 with a 10 reps on the bench. Like, who you talking about Williams? I'm talking about Antonio Williams. Yeah. Yeah. I think we got him on our spreadsheet as like guys I really like, but probably not factors. Right. Yeah. And that's fine. We mean, really, I mean, the only thing, if you look at his numbers, the only thing he's got like a red check mark, like red X, by his weight, weight, everything else. He's good. I mean, he's bringing cold guys. They've taken guys shorter. They've taken guys slower. They've, you know, so I think the, but the sky more, the sky more of it all makes it. The Jaden Reed of it all. Yeah. Like that too. And like they took a, they kind of took a small last year in Matthew Golden, which, you know, everybody, they did kind of take a small. This isn't, this isn't me poking at anyone, but like last year there were some chatter that like, not chatter, but just like con like good conversation that, hey, like, is your weight number too low for the packers? Like they want guys six foot in above 200 plus and above. They took a guy below both of those in the first round last year. So I think our numbers are pretty good, but he is light and, and, and Matthew Golden is light. And that's what I was getting. It's like, you got now a guy in Matthew Golden and Jaden Reed. So do you want to throw it? It's not a perfect system either. Just and look, maybe down the line, I'll be wrong. But, but like you and I were both obsessed with Luther. And we were both just like, they're not going to take him. You know, I mean, we just knew they weren't going to take him. I had him ranked well above Golden and he's been way more productive than Golden. And, but you can, you know, bring role into that and, and offensive scheme and all those things. I mean, then Johnson does a phenomenal job of getting him the ball. Like they use that key. You talk about the same thing. Like I think he's a better fit in Ben Johnson's offense than he would have been in Matt, in Matt, with Florida's office. Yeah. So whatever your favorite guys. We'll be right back. So we talked about two already in Bryce Lance. Ted Hearst, some guys that maybe aren't talked about as much does on stripling out of Ole Miss. I think he played somewhere else too for a little bit, but I took him in Mock Draft Monday today. Very packery. Yeah. Now he is one of three guys in the top 100 with that did all the tests and he's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's one of three guys in the top 100 with that did all the testing and everything and is clear across the board. Perfect fit. So you watch him play too and it's like, man, he's got some of the yak ability. He's got straight line speed. There is a play against Georgia where he takes just a quick like five yard out and he just outruns the entire Georgia defense to the end zone. Like that was the moment for me that you're just kind of like, whoa. Okay. Stop pause. Who is this again? Because when you get into watching 50 prospects and you kind of recycling through them and then a play like that jumps out that that makes you sit up in your seat. But also he'll block. He's nasty. Like he is a guy that when you watch him, like he takes pride in what he does as a blocker. So I think Green Bay will like him a lot. A guy that I think Green Bay will like that I like as well. He did no testing. So it's tough to tell. It's Josh Cameron out of Baylor. And the reason I think they might like him is a few things. One, they might be able to get him in a place in the draft that they're more comfortable taking a receiver. I think he's a day three guy. But then he's got the size. I don't know. I think, I mean, you watch the tape. I think he's got the speed. I think he's got the athletic ability and what they like. But one thing about him that is really appealing is he was an all American pun returner as well. And at the size Green Bay typically likes. If you go around and you look at like the average height and weight of pun returns in the NFL, they're not very big. And so like that's kind of the log jam, not log jam, but just that's the issue in Green Bay is like, we don't want to roster that small and just to be a puck return. So here's a guy that they might be able to get, you know, an actual developmental wide receiver that they like in that role that can actually return puns as well. And the last guy I'm going to talk about, I'm giving away all the draft guy today. So if you're listening, just buy it because I'm giving you everything. The top three guys that are all perfect fits. My dog just came up here and he is excited about wide receivers too. Is we talked about her. She's one Lance is the other. Stribbling wait a second who no first sorry first isn't one. Don't give away the whole guy. He didn't do the three come. But the other guy that we don't talk about enough and this guy has the highest grade for perfect fits tier one fits in our guide. And that's Jeremy Bernard out of Alabama. And like he, he checks every single box. He's a 448 guy. He's got the size, but you watch the tape with him and it's, I'm not saying he's Romeo Dobbs, but he kind of is. That's kind of who he was in Alabama's offense where if you watch Romeo's film last year, you're like, oh, yeah, he's okay. He's a good player, right? And same kind of thing with Jeremy. It's like, he's just kind of the guy that ends up being there a lot of times where it's like, oh, they scored. Who was it? Oh, okay. It was that guy. And it's hard to even explain, but it's like, he just doesn't do anything that pops off the tape. We just talked about it with the Marty Rogers. But I think Jeremy has actual, you know, size and tools that he can kind of overcome some of that and maybe develop in certain areas. But he's a guy that I don't like, you want to talk about Galaxy Brain Picks at 52? He's our 55th ranked player in the guide and he's a particular one fit. So, yeah, I just think, I think with with Bernard, man, they'd rather take historically. North Dakota State, Western Michigan, Fresno State, San Jose State, they would rather take a 1200 yard receiver from nowhere than a, than a 700 yard receiver from Alabama. Like, productivity, productivity is one of their benchmarks and they broke it for Watson, who was just on a team that ran the ball and beat everybody by 70 every week. So, yeah, you will. That was a turn the film on thing with Watson, but right in normal in normal times, they would rather take an 1100 yard kid from directional university than, than a low production kid, but I guess golden wasn't particularly productive either. So, yeah. But he was, I mean, he's kind of the same thing where it's like, okay, the production score, it can get a little like there's like with anything there's kind of always like, a little bit of gray area, like you'd always want to see like production score for like Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Devonte Adams, even like James Jones, Randall Cobb, like those guys all like led the NCAA and something at one point. Like, I think Jennings and Devonte were like the leaders in receiving yards or something Jordy definitely was. I think Bob was like the all purpose leader. James Jones maybe didn't, but he was productive at San Jose State. And so you look at that but then there's a guy like Jeremy who's like I'm looking at him okay he had 860 to receiving yards and 794 for you know that's back to back pretty productive, pretty productive years at Alabama. So, like you have to give him a production score like that's good. Yeah, like to your point. I wonder if there's anything actually to that, or if that's just the way that it's kind of been that that's life in wanting to draft receivers in the second round when you typically have a late second round draft pick is you're looking at some of these smaller school guys and saying well if you would have played at Alabama you probably goes in the top 20. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'll buy that. I'll buy that I just was it was interesting to me. Let's see. Green Bay's need for the position. Probably high. Like, so everybody seems to say and and I'm not going to claim to have talked to him or his family or like that's not what this is about. But seems like he's going to be in Green Bay for a while. I think the Alec Pierce contract provides a good benchmark for what they might want to do there. And he's just so unique. I mean, they do not have and that by the way shows when he gets hurt. Man, they don't have a second one of him. And I think there's going to be, you know, I've said from the beginning, man, I would do for four years 100 tomorrow. I just would like four years 100 is is what makes sense. I think it's always made sense. I bet he thinks it makes sense. I mean, I guess he probably maybe thinks he can get more. But, you know, for a guy that's made a decent amount of money now, you know, $100 million is generational wealth that sets up your family forever. So, you know, that's something I think that that that makes a ton of sense. And then you have a golden and save you on long term talks that they want to extend read as the slot long term. So then you have two guys making money in Watson and read two guys not making money in golden and save you on. Then are you, you know, I don't think there's any planet right now. And it sure seems like I don't think a Dante, Vian Wicks extension exists. Unfortunately for for for guys like you and me that have liked Wicks that that is not happening. More likely he gets traded than a right. Yeah. And and and if he gets traded, well, that that then creates a 2025 need or excuse me, yeah, 2026 need because this wide receiver group and golden is in there and Watson is in there and read is in there and even maybe save you on. I did save you on mistime. Yeah, he did. And then he had the the payment of the foot. Right. So there is not some, you know, rule that that like, I mean, you're if you trade Wicks, you're one injury away from from kind of being worried about who you're throwing out there. And I'm not saying like a fourth round wide receiver answers a lot of those concerns either like a stribling or, you know, what have you. But I think there's a chance it's a real need because then that I mean, this is a turn to negative town too. But if they just whiffed the Savion pick, I'm not saying they're going to try and fix that the very next draft. But you know, yeah, you could think I don't think I don't think they think that. Okay. I know what you think I know what I think. I mean, I know what I think my rankings are public, but I don't think they think that about Avion already after one year of him being up and down and hurt a lot. We'll see. I mean, crazy. I hope I hope we're wrong. You know about saying I hope I did too. But he's in Ranny. Man. Yep. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I just I would not. Okay. I would not move forward as the Green Bay Packers thinking we got it. Savion like that that work Savion is good. That pick worked. Move forward with our plan as him as you know, potentially the if if your starters are Adams, Nelson and Cobb, then okay, Savion is great as James Jones. That that's an elite fourth receiver or third receiver if somebody gets hurt. Because that's what James Jones Jones was like one of the greatest. I hate this term but like one of the greatest WR fours in history, whether it was, you know, after they are acquired Devonte or while driver was still there. James Jones was just this dude that made plays and I don't know that you're ever going to be four deep in that way like they were. But anyway, it doesn't matter. This is too much time on this. I think it's a need. I think the last thing you can say to is like, I think they go into it and if somebody falls into their lap that they're just like we cannot pass up on this guy at 52 or 84 or whatever it is. I think that is when the phone started ringing on the Octavian Wicks. And that is when they would probably be willing to let him go. I don't think they're like actively shopping wicks like I think people have been calling about him. And I write and if he's mad if he doesn't want to be there and you can get a top 150 pick for him. Yeah, you do it. Yeah. And that's why the way and I wrote about this for the guide. They're not in the comp pick discussion in 2028. No, because they're gonna, they're gonna, right, they're probably gonna do the the Van Ness extension or fifth year option at least because they want to see what they, you know, they're not ready to give up on that. And if things go really badly, you're not nobody else is giving Van Ness a bunch of money either. Nobody's giving Kishan a bunch of money. They're gonna extend read. They're gonna extend to Watson. Read is the only one that would maybe hit the market. Right. But they want, right, but they want to be in the 2027 free agency market, I think, in a real way. I've got money to spend too. Yeah. The thing that's weird about read for me, and we are, we're spending a ton of time on this, but that's okay. Read has been everything that they wanted him to be. You know, he was a, you know, he's on the field. Yeah, right. But he's, but he's battled through injuries. He's been tough. Like, I mean, it's not like he's out there skimming games like he played with broken ribs and, you know, banged up like a heat, but he does get banged up. But he is like, they talk about him glowingly. That's like the leader in that wide receiver room. They say very nice things about him. He was a hydrophic. He's been productive when he's on the field. Those guys get second contracts in Green Bay. Like name a guy. Name a guy that hasn't. Right. I mean, so that would be really weird. But in the same breath, they took Matthew Golding last year who can do everything. You can view as not, you can view them as not the same position. You could, but I don't know. I think, I think honestly, the Reed's contract this year is going to depend more on what Matthew Golden does than what Jane Reed does. So I don't know if they're going to extend him, you know, so we'll see. I think that's an interesting thing just to keep an eye on and watch watch them extend Reed like in two days. I think the biggest, the biggest. So we're moving on from this finally, which is okay. I think the biggest question is, are they looking at a slot? Because if they're not, then you can do two things. You can take the slot receivers kind of off the board. And number three, you can adhere closer to the tier list like our packer people list because the guys that they have, and maybe with the exception of Golden, but the guys that they have broken the mold the most on when we talk about, okay, here's what we think Green Bay likes. They've broken that with a Mari Rogers, Randall Cobb and Jaden Reed, all three guys that they have kicked inside. That those have been the biggest departures. And it's so like, you know, we kind of talked about, well, maybe they have completely different thresholds from the slot now that this is 11 personnel league and maybe they do. But if you think that they're good enough inside with Christian Watson being able to be an elite slot player with Jaden Reed and Matthew Golden also able to play there. And you think they're out of the slot business and they're in the outside Don Tavion Wicks Romeo Dobbs replacement business. It narrows your field. It narrows what you're looking at. And one guy that we didn't even talk about like if they are looking for a slot. We talked about Antonio Williams, but I think that one of the safest players in this year's entire draft class is Skyler Bell, I can, Connecticut, who also is very close. Even if he is the slot, very close to just being a tier one fit and Jaden Reed kind of was to like Jaden Reed was like a couple hamburgers away from being a tier one fit, you know, and a couple hamburgers and a different guy measuring your height. So it's, I think they that's kind of their mold is like we like you in the slot but we don't want you much smaller than this. So that would be an interesting pick that would be like Skyler Bell would be a pick that would I would be very kind of I would I would have a lot of mixed emotions about because it wouldn't make any sense to me, but also in the same breath I'd be like I'm very certain they just got a really good player. So that's that and we could do a whole another podcast Ross on being a GM and what's the difference between building a roster and collecting talent, because there is a difference and yeah, we won't get into that because that is a deep rabbit hole. Um, yeah, let's let's not get any any deeper into it than that we're at Mark a mile marker 28 here. And we're not going to give away any more of the guide we've given you plenty of names to think about guys that fit. Talked a little bit about guys that probably don't. And yeah, this is a fact it's always a fascinating position but I think they're really really in an interesting spot. You know, we think they're going to move forward with Watson. We think they're going to move forward with Golden. All other things really seem to be on the table. Guys, thank you so much for watching or listening. If you're on the podcast side, please subscribe to pack report on the VIP level if you get a chance and by the draft guide, both links are in the video description or podcast with description below. One thing I want to say about the guide. Yeah, shout out to all the people that are going leaving five star reviews and saying nice things. I read them. Yes. So if you do that, do that. If you like it, do that that does that does make a difference. So appreciate it. Appreciate you guys. All right, everyone have a great rest of your week and go pack go. Yeah. Yeah.