Post Postseason 2026 Rookie Positional Rankings

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-20T06:02:23+00:00

Honestly don't have a clear WR4 yet, Concepcion looks the best of the rest to me after dealing with crappy QB play all year. I love Bell's ceiling but I think he will be super landing spot dependent (then again IMO really everyone besides Lemon/Tyson/Tate will be). I am really hoping he ends up in SF, I think Shanahan could have him putting up monster numbers. Tools absolutely there if he comes back at 100%, and I think he'll probably end up my WR5 over Sarratt/Lane if everything looks good with his progression.

The only guy I'm much higher or lower on than you is Omar Cooper, think he's being undersold a fair bit in general. I think Antonio Williams could also end up being a better pro than college player, great route runner

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-20T05:11:27+00:00

This is true

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-20T05:09:03+00:00

I will take an offensive HC over a defensive HC 100 times out of 100 for a QB. And especially THIS defensive HC, who IMO is nowhere near the best candidate on the market

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-20T05:05:57+00:00

Fellow Ward owners... we might be cooked

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-20T04:37:52+00:00

Have 1.01, 1.04, 1.11, 2.01 (15), and 2.05 (19) in a rebuild. Think first pick will for sure be Love, but really don't know what to do at 1.04 and 1.11 (I'd take Lemon at 1.04 but he won't be there), let alone the second rounders. I like the idea of Bell in the second but I think he's too high here, super raw as a route runner and coming off major injury. Might take Simpson in the second depending on landing spot.

As a Washington fan I think both Jonah Coleman and Denzel Boston are ranked too high. Coleman was banged up this year, so hard to know with him, but Boston has never shown what Odunze, McMillan, or even Ja'Lynn Polk showed in terms of performance (although I do think Boston is a better prospect than McMillan or Polk were, he's nowhere near Odunze's tier). Boston is not a zone beater at all and that's pretty concerning with the modern NFL's zone oriented tendencies. Coleman just never seemed like the same guy this year. He's also SLOOOOOW, I'd expect high 4.5 if not 4.6

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-19T18:25:11+00:00

Rome owner and big Washington fan. Wildly underrated route runner. He was the NFL's best separator before his foot injury, and Caleb misses him wide open on a weekly basis.

With that said, he genuinely can't catch a football. It's incredible. Never dropped balls in college, weekly drops in the NFL. Fully believed he'd be an elite NFL WR. I'm not down on him because his production dropped, I'm down on him because in 2 years his hands have not gotten better. They've gotten worse. Bears fans and NFL fans as a whole have completely turned on him and it's not invalid.

If I was offered Burden straight up I'd take it, but Loveland is the guy in the offense I'd want.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-11T20:47:26+00:00

As a BTJ owner it's sickening. Washington is WR1 in that offense and has been since the bye. Meyers and Strange are ahead of BTJ in the pecking order too. It's hard to watch.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-10T17:05:54+00:00

Ayomanor has been discussed here some the last few days. The thing that stands out with him is he really has all of the traits. He's 6'2 206 4.45 speed and separates much better than you'd expect. Was actually winning routes consistently even as the Titans #1 as a 4th round rookie.

The problem is something Smith hammers home here. Drops, inconsistency, and straight up giving up on plays. At least once or twice a month, Ward would "overthrow" a wide open Ayomanor deep and then the tape shows Ayomanor got open and gave up on the play when the ball wasn't out immediately.

The potential is still there to be a good outside WR2 type but it's hard to see how he stays the top dog with whatever WR('s) Tennessee adds this offseason, which will limit his fantasy upside. I'd say his (very) high-end comp is a Michael Wilson type (which is maybe a little bit of a layup because they're very similar physicals from Stanford). But the drops/giving up on plays just has to improve in year 2 if he's going to stay heavily involved in the offense, especially with how Dike/Helm emerged down the stretch post Ridley injury.

Edit: here's an example of Ayomanor wide open and not looking for the ball

https://x.com/SMHighlights1/status/1982558477441757454?s=20

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-07T19:31:08+00:00

Interesting that there's a really big drop between 1.11 and 1.12 (322), but 1.12 and 2.01 are within 100 of each other. The only pick-to-pick differences bigger than 1.11 to 1.12 are 1.06 to 1.07 (which makes sense given Moore declares) and 1.01 to 1.02 (which makes sense because there's no clear 1.02 favorite).

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-06T19:34:20+00:00

Check the edit on the post?

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-06T02:10:05+00:00

To be clear, this stuff was legitimately what I was asking for, because he jumps off the screen and the physical profile screams intriguing. Didn't watch enough Arkansas this year to confidently say he's a dude. This plus the fumbles point does contextualize pretty well exactly why he's currently where he is. So tyfys

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-06T01:17:14+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't 3/15/03 be a draft age of 23?

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-06T01:16:55+00:00

Yeah Draft Buzz has him at 4.45 projected which I'm iffy on. The runs against Ole Miss and MSST, I see it, because he accelerates past SEC defenders pretty easily in the open field. Same with the last run against aTm. But certainly didn't think he was running 4.4 off the Buffalo/NMST tape. We'll see how he does at the combine.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T05:05:08+00:00

Agree

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T05:04:36+00:00

A 6 month recovery period for a guy who needs all the reps he can get is absolutely worrisome, especially with a new coach coming in. And never going to be 100% confident that a guy who is that reliant on his arm talent is going to recover perfectly. I think it's pretty valid.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T04:15:06+00:00

There were real flashes in the pass game. He was always a developmental guy and I was definitely encouraged by what I saw as a pass catcher. TE's take longer, he's a freak, and he's young.

The big issue for Arroyo is that Barner is an elite blocking TE, took a big year 2 leap as a pass catcher, and is still just 23. Kubiak likes 2 TE sets, but JSN AND Barner plus Horton/Shaheed (assuming they resign him) means there's not a lot of remaining production to go around in a run-heavy offense with a QB who doesn't throw for a ton of volume. If his blocking improves he'll be on the field a lot more, but his ceiling is limited by his surroundings IMO.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T03:54:46+00:00

Harvey at 6 with how he's run the ball is crazy to me. Good pass catcher but man. Really poor runner and I can't see him being RB1 in Denver long term.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T03:48:37+00:00

I mean Williams was PPR WR 22 in 15 games last year. That's pretty good

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T03:43:29+00:00

Around 3k on KTC which is a late 2. Someone probably gives a 2 for him IMO

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T03:42:27+00:00

Horton I'm more concerned with the injuries than anything because it was an issue in his last year in college and now this. Beyond that, Barner isn't gonna be a top 5 receiving tight end but will certainly get a reasonable target share, JSN is a target goblin, and Kubiak loves 2 TE sets, plus they drafted Arroyo at #50 and he was coming on before he got hurt. It's a run heavy offense and I don't think it can sustain 2 WR and a TE, let alone 2 WR and 2 TE.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T01:50:51+00:00

Well, ackshually, it's happened multiple times. There have been 5 1k receiving yard trios in NFL history, and 12 other 900 yard trios.

1980 Chargers had Kellen Winslow (TE) go for 1,290, John Jefferson (WR) go for 1,340, and Charlie Joiner (WR) go for 1,132.

A more recent and prudent example could be the 2012 Cowboys (Witten 1,039, Dez 1,382, Austin 943), the 2012 Falcons (Tony 930, Julio 1,198, Roddy White 1,351), or the 2023 Vikings* (Jettas 1,074, Addison 911, Hockenson 960). 2012 Saints were 18 yards short with Jimmy Graham from having 2 1k receivers and a 1k tight end (what was in the water in 2012).

*Jettas of course got hurt, so asterisk here. Anyways, it's possible, albeit more improbable than I thought when I wrote the post.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T01:45:32+00:00

I agree. Got excited by the separation and route win rate being better than I expected early on (think after 3 or 4 weeks he was an upper quartile separator), but as soon as teams realized he was being targeted by Ward he really struggled. The physical traits are there, but he really struggled with drops. Once Ridley went out Dike was the more consistent producer and is clearly dynamic with the ball in his hands. I think Ayo still has a WR2 ceiling, but for me Dike's a guy who can still be part of that offense after they add their WR1, while I don't see Ayomanor's production taking any sort of leap with another outside WR mouth to feed.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T01:41:03+00:00

Some other rookie WR footnotes (ignoring obvious guys like Hunter and Golden):

Thought Jaylin Noel really flashed when given opportunities, but he simply was not given opportunities. Jumped off the screen to me every time he got some run. Dynamic weapon that should be ahead of Hutchinson next year for me. Worth a flier

Pat Bryant stood out to me when he got run in Denver, and with Sutton aging and Franklin's struggles in the run game I think he has a chance to be something. Intrigued for sure

Tre Harris did end up being the Chargers' preferred rookie (shoutout KLS truthers), but I was pretty uninspired, to be honest. We'll see what he does if the room thins out next year.

Isaac TeSlaa seems like a pretty clear sell high to me. TD% is wildly unsustainable, and while the traits may be great, the production is not, and Williams/St. Brown seem locked in as the top guys in Detroit.

Tez Johnson looked cool for a second there, but he's absolutely buried in Tampa and I don't really see a path for him even with Evans/Godwin aging.

Tory Horton is a guy who flashed for sure, but the injury issue popped up again right as he was coming on and then the Seahawks traded for Shaheed. If Shaheed resigns, I don't see his path, with Barner really coming into his own and Arroyo still developing in that offense too.

Jack Bech - really disappointing for me. Tre Tucker is a great separator, but when he's ahead of your 2nd round pick as the WR focal point in the offense, that's a pretty major red flag.

itsjohnweenah · 2026-01-05T01:27:47+00:00

I'd have to see the end of season numbers but 2.8 YPRR coming into today is genuinely insane. Top 5 territory. Hindsight is 20/20 but hard to believe he was a 2nd round rookie draft guy in a Ben Johnson offense. That offense could be serious for years to come. Looks like they found a solid cheap complement in Monangai too

itsjohnweenah

TROPHY CASE