Rookie WRs with massive upside
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LAB REPORTS
Jordyn Tyson (New Orleans Saints)
I truly believe that if it wasn’t for the injuries, Tyson would have easily been the WR1 drafted from this class. No disrespect to Tate, I just think that talent wise he is a step above. His numbers show he isn't just a product of a scheme, he is always commanding targets and thrives down the field. The Saints used premium draft capital to select him 8th overall, making him an immediate starter next to Chris Olave.
With defenses forced to respect Olave's route running, Tyson is going to be getting a ton of single coverage on the outside. He wins 50/50 balls at a very high rate, meaning he will have a path to high value targets and touchdown opportunities in Kellen Moore's offensive led by Tyler Shough who has spoken very highly of Tyson this offseason👇🏼
The Stats: Last year at Arizona state Tyson had 61 catches for 711 yards and 8 touchdowns. Now I know those numbers are not CRAZY but he did that while dealing with multiple injuries. The year prior in 2024 Tyson had 75 catches for 1,101 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Denzel Boston (Cleveland Browns)
Boston brings a lot of size to the table standing at 6'4", and he plays like a BULLY on the field. I love a player who is not afraid to get physical to make a play happen. The Browns paired him with First round pick KC Concepcion. And while KC is the type of player that is super fast and will burn you off the line. Boston will be the physical anchor for the team and has the ability to be a massive redzone threat. I think that they will be a very nice compliment to each other.
Boston was also the highest graded WR vs man coverage last season (89.7)
The Stats: Last year Boston had 62 catches for 881 yards and 11 touchdowns. The years prior to this Boston had limited production because of players like Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan also being on the team. I love that he was really able to step right up when they left.
Zachariah Branch (Atlanta Falcons)
Branch is such a fun player to watch. I am targeting him because fantasy scoring rewards players who can gain yards after the catch. Atlanta now has Kevin Stefanski as the head coach and Tommy Rees as the OC. Rees worked with Stefanski in Cleveland and I trust them to be able to utilize Branch in so many different ways to get open against slower linebackers and safeties. He has legitimate home run speed, meaning he only needs a handful of touches per game to deliver a week winning fantasy performance. I see some shades of Tyreek Hill in the way he plays.
The Stats: Last year he had 81 catches for 811 yards and 6 touchdowns. He had 533 yards after the catch. I also want to mention that he had a very impressive 79.4% catch rate.
Ted Hurst (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Hurst is my swing for the fences pick. I watched some of his film from college and let me just start by saying that he is HUGE and he has speed as well. Posting a 4.42 second 40 yard dash At the NFL combine. Something really interesting. I found out was that 70.9% of his catches resulted in a first down or touchdown. He also had 34 catches of 20 or more yards over his last two seasons in college, this ranked number 1 in the FBS. I will admit that he is still a bit raw but the type of profile that he has usually translates really well over to the NFL level.
If Hurst played at a bigger school in college I would make the bet that he would have been drafted much higher than the 3rd round. I love the landing spot in Tampa, with big Mike leaving there is a real chance Hurst can make a statement when given the opportunity and prove that he can be a reliable target.
The Stats: Last year at Georgia State he was a straight up target machine. Had 71 catches for 1,004 yards and 6 touchdowns. He even had a game with 172 yards against Murray State. If you combine his last 2 seasons he had 1,965 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Germie Bernard (Pittsburgh Steelers)
The Pittsburgh Steelers valued Bernard's profile enough to trade up in the second round to select him. That draft capital combined with the Steelers trading up to get him is a huge sign of early career opportunity.
He is an elite run blocker, which will usually keep players on the field for a lot more of the team's snaps. Bernard can play the slot, win on the outside, and win after the catch, so you could say he is far from being one dimensional. I think the Steelers really needed a WR with this type of skillset to go along with DK and Pittman.
The Stats: Last year at Alabama he had 64 catches for 862 years and 7 receiving touchdowns. I say receiving because he also added in 2 rushing touchdowns, while also getting 101 rushing yards on the year.
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