RP Clips: Let's Assess the Early Season Top 10 Receivers

Matt Harmon (0:00)

This is Reception Perception The Show. Now, James Koh and Matt Harmon.

James Koh (0:06)

Taking a look here at the top 10 wide receivers. I wanted to get your take on the top 10 Who stays and who goes?

There are a couple names in here in the top 10 that I think are a little bit surprising. That being said, the thematic structure of the top 10, Matt, is you need to have one just killer game, or your name is Jackson Smith and Jigba. But the top 10, you got CD Lam, is your number one wide receiver. He's actually on pace for 2,100 receiving yards. He actually leads the NFL in total receptions as well. Number two in both categories, in both receptions and receiving yards, it's actually Chris Olave, believe it or not. JSN's at number three in terms of yards. T Higgins at four, Devontae Adams at five, Tett, who had one just monster game at six, Drake London at seven, Zay Flowers at eight, Christian Watson, a surprise at nine, and Amon Rossaint Brown here at 10 Who stays in the top 10? Who leaps?

Matt Harmon (1:12)

Yeah, you love when a list is clean, by the way, because all these dudes are over 300 yards. 11th, by the way, is Denzel Boston at just under. Under 300 yards, so he has been balling out to start the season. Yeah, for the most part, one of these guys have one big blow up game. I mean, T Higgins 157 yards last week against the Jags. Now, of course, he might miss some time after this, but he had 59, 95 and 90 So you kind of have to be a little consistent and then have that eruption game. Even Tetero McMillan had the one down game in week three against the Browns. Was perfectly solid the first two weeks and then got it all back against the line. So that's kind of how the production goes. We talked about Zay Flowers earlier in the week. I mean, I think all of these guys, the ones that will probably drop off, Higgins is dealing with injury. So he's a guy that can, and obviously Jamar Chase is there. He could drop off. Devonte Adams kind of goes right back to a bit of a bit roll once Pukka Nakua gets in the mix.

This past week, that's obviously a bummer, but pretty reasonable to expect that to happen. I think Drake London is sustainable. I think Zay Flowers is sustainable. I think Aman Rasim Brown would actually be shocked if he finished 10th and not closer to 6th. So Watson is an interesting one, just because can he stay healthy? If he stays healthy, I think he's got a shot to be top 10 in receiving yards because they're just going to have to throw that ball all over the place. They cannot run the football at all. So there's some sustainability there, but Higgins and Adams are the ones I can see kind of dropping off. McMillan probably won't be 6th by the end of the season. But I don't know, Bryce Young in this offense has looked so damn good as we talked about earlier in the year, earlier in the week. So it's definitely possible. It's definitely possible. The interesting one is Olave at second. I'm so in on the way Olave is playing right now. I think he's been an All-Pro this year. I think him and Drake London have been All-Pro worthy, both of those guys.

And by the way, London didn't do anything statistically in his first two games either. This is a get that comes back to the Michael Penick's effect here. But yeah, Chris Olave has been incredible this season. I know they have Jordan Tyson theoretically coming back and people are still kind of wondering like what happens to Olave when Jordan Tyson comes back. Nothing happens to Chris Olave when Jordan Tyson comes back because Tyson, number one, probably won't come back until week nine. They have an international trip to Paris and then a bi-week, and then I believe in week nine.

I would guess that's when he comes back. He's eligible to come off IR, but he's not ready to come off IR. So, and they have no... Their number one goal with Tyson this year is, how do we fix the hamstring issue? How do we make sure that 2027 and beyond is not a hamstring situation? And by the way, they have no reason to rush him back because Devon Vellay is a damn good player.

I feel like Vellay still people don't take him seriously because he was kind of a punchline in Denver because he was an older prospect, right? He was a 26-year-old rookie, and then he got traded for a fourth round pick and a seventh round pick, and people made fun of the Saints for that trade. And look, we can go back and re-litigate that. That's fine, but he's a damn good receiver. Kind of like, I remember writing about this in the rookie report. I just wrote him up for the tracker too. So he's in the charting tracker that is on the website for Prime and Sicko subscribers. You guys should obviously, of course, would love it if you check that out. But Devon Vale, I wrote him up, that I remember writing about him for the rookie report that season in 2024, that he looked like the next kind of power slot receiver, because he's a big dude, but he was playing as the inside receiver in Sean Payton's offense. And he gets traded because they drafted Pat Bryant, and then he just can't really stay healthy that first season with the Saints. But so far this year, 56 percent snaps on the ball, 44 percent off, and then he's been in the slot over 50 percent of his snaps, 40 to 50 percent of his snaps every single game. And he's a solid zone beater. I'm not going to say he's great separating, pulling away from guys down the field. He's not the fastest receiver in the world, but he does get open on the quick slants against man coverage. You saw that, I think there were three catches on quick slants and crossers against the Falcons where it's just Shuck hits the top of his drop back, and just hits Vailay on these kind of throws consistently when he's on the outside too. So big slot Z receiver who's playing well. He also, James has 90th percentile arm lengths.