The NFL is a passing league and has been for a while. That’s why Dak Prescott got $40 million per year to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
Wide receivers aren’t in that neighborhood, of course (Atlanta’s Julio Jones is slated to have the highest cap hit among receivers in 2021, at just over $23 million), but the game changers have certainly started to push the market.
This year’s group of wide receivers is particularly strong, with several players likely to change teams and make a dramatic impact on how the league shapes up next year. Plopping the players listed below into an offense orchestrated by Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen likely moves the Ravens and Bills closer to a Super Bowl. Giving Kyle Shanahan one of these guys to plan around makes the 49ers much more difficult to stop.
But it’s worth breaking down how each of these players has found success to try to determine the best possible fit moving forward. That’s what I’ve attempted to do here: Study enough film to get a sense of what makes each player special while predicting which new teams would both 1) have a need and some cap flexibility to sign them while 2) running an offense that will allow them to thrive.
Doing this exercise led me to a surprising conclusion on who I rate as the second-best value in the class …
