Which Wide Receivers Will Break Out In 2026? (Episode 1005 with Matt Harmon, Evan Silva, Adam Levitan)

**Adam Levitan** (0:06)
Go and look for episode 1005 of the establishtherun.com podcast. My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR, as always joined by fellow co-founder Evan Silva. And today, we have a very, very special guest. This is a young man who has watched thousands of hours of wide receiver hip swivels. He's dedicated his life to the wide receiver position all, so he can tell us who is actually good and who isn't.
It is one of the oldest friends of the show, Matt Harmon of Yahoo and Reception Perception. Appreciate the time as always. Matt, how's it going?

**Matt Harmon** (0:47)
Adam, Evan, good to see you guys. Yeah, every year I feel like you intro me, Adam, and you say something in that regard about how I've dedicated my life to this, which at least brings me about like 30 seconds of an existential crisis. But you know what, I'm happy to have dedicated my life to this. I think it's worked out well so far.

**Adam Levitan** (1:04)
Indeed it has. I am glad that you dedicated your life to this. Evan, how's it going today?

**Evan Silva** (1:09)
Pleased and privileged today to be with the premier wide receiver analyst in sports media.
Excited for this one. People love this show.

**Adam Levitan** (1:18)
Indeed.
On today's show, we are going to discuss 21 of the most interesting wide receivers for fantasy football this season. We'll hit on a few categories. Guys in new roles, year two breakout candidates, we'll check in on aging veterans, and of course, we'll talk about the important rookies. Be sure to stay tuned to the end of the show as we will get Matt's two most overrated and two most underrated NFL wide receivers. Before we get into it here today, reminder peak drafting season is nearly upon us. If you have a fantasy draft coming up, we can certainly help. The Early Bird bundle product on ETR is now live. Combines Draft Kit Pro, aka Silva's Top 150, all our ETR ranks, Thorman's in-season rankings, tons more combines that with our in-season product, aka all our projections, premium shows including Man vs. Machine in-season, Silva's matchups, Thorn OLDL mismatches. For details on the bundle or just Draft Kit Pro, head to the subscribe tab on establishtherun.com. That is the subscribe tab on establishtherun.com.
All right, Matt, we have a bunch of guys in new roles this season. I want to start there because I think it's really interesting. The first one to me is the guy with arguably the biggest role change this year, and that is Devonta Smith. We have not seen Devonta Smith really in the Alpha role in a long time. Obviously, he did it back in college when he won the Heisman. On a per-route basis, we can look at this when AJ. Brown has been off the field, Devonta Smith has been very, very, very good, showing Alpha-like underlying metrics. That is a smallish sample, though. Matt, what say you about Devonta Smith's ability to become the Alpha here for the Eagles?

**Matt Harmon** (3:09)
Yeah, I'm really excited about Devonta Smith this year. I think he's a guy who's probably overdue for promotion from the secondary receiver to a number one receiver role. And I mean, we have seen him, at least in his rookie season, be the number one guy on the team. And I think the interesting part for him this year is obviously the Eagles are transitioning to a new offensive environment. I think there's no question things will look different with Shawn Manion this year than some of what it's looked like with Jaylen Hurts just throughout his tenure. Obviously, it was like the most exaggerated version of this last year, but the very static, like spread and shred world in which they've lived in with Jaylen Hurts. But the good news for Devonta Smith is that I think he can live in both worlds, which is probably what they'll try to have a foot in each camp this year. From 2021 to 2023, Smith took 79.8% of his sample snaps outside in reception perception and 70% snaps on the ball. So we've seen him be a primary outside ex-receiver in the NFL before, even if he has been in the slot the last two years. But if you want to kick him inside and you want to have him run, you know, quick patterns and everything like that, or some of the more long developing like big dig routes or outcuts you want to have in your Shawn Manion style, what I'm imagining to be a green bay type of offense, he can do either one of those things. So this is one of the best separators in the NFL.