2026 Draft Board: Pass Catchers

The below information I included in the QB draft board earlier in the week, I'm going to include it for every board, but it will be identical on each.

If you've ever read one of my draft board articles before then you have an idea of what you'll see below, but I did overhaul the system a little bit. Basically I just moved all of my formulas over to using a z-score method. If you haven't read them, quick explanation, I use stats, athletic testing, past performances from current pro players, and formulas to try and determine the chances a prospect in the current draft has at succeeding as a pro. In the past I used a "PSR", and an "A Met" and "S Met" to give every player a round grade. Now, it all comes down to a Score. The scores differ by position, so before each draft board I will put what the high score was between the 2020-2023 drafts at that position (those are draft years that I've done this for, as well as ones that have been in the league for at least 3 years). And at the bottom you will see a small blurb I wrote up for each position.

Real quick additional note: I'm including a "My Top 5" section this year. You will notice with some positions that the top 5 doesn't line up with the top five on the actual draft board. There's a reason for that. When I grade out the pros to determine the "success rate" factor, I actually give them a grade (A = Superstar, B = High-end starter, C = Solid Starter, D = Rotational at best, and F = Fail). I hadn't considered using that in the past, but I realized I can use it to get a little more granular when it comes to ranking them. Sometimes a guy that is lower on my draft board than another guy, actually has a higher chance of being a high-end starter or better. So along side the name of the player and their school, I will include a B+ which is just the percent chance they have of being a high-end starter or better, and a C+ which will be the percent chance they have of being a solid starter or better.

NOTE: Unlike in season's past, with the addition of the Slot WR group, you will see a third board below. How I decided what players ended up on what board is simple: If a player received an undrafted grade on one board, but not the other, then they only show up on the board they received a "Day" grade on, if they got an undrafted grade on both boards, then I listed them on the board that they played the majority of their snaps at in college.

This will be updated as pro day results become available.

High Score for WR: 82.69 (Ja'Marr Chase - 2021)

My WR Draft Board

High Score for Slot WR: 73.42 (CeeDee Lamb - 2023)

My Slot WR Draft Board

My Top 5 WRs:

1) Elijah Sarratt (Indiana): B+ = 29.89, C+ = 51.09

2) Antonio Williams (Clemson): B+ = 18.31, C+ = 35.47

3) Bryce Lance (North Dakota State): B+ = 12.48, C+ = 18.80

4) Zachariah Branch (Georgia): B+ = 18.31, C+ = 35.47

5) Omar Cooper Jr. (Indiana): B+ = 18.31, C+ = 35.47

High Score for TE: 83.33 (Kyle Pitts - 2021)

My TE Draft Board

My Top 5 TEs:

1) John Michael Gyllenborg (Wyoming): B+ = 19.40, C+ = 49.94

2) Oscar Delp (Georgia): B+ = 19.40, C+ = 49.94

3) Tanner Koziol (Houston): B+ = 19.40, C+ = 49.94

4) Kenyon Sadiq (Oregon): B+ = 7.14, C+ = 76.31

5) Eli Stowers (Vanderbilt): B+ = 12.45, C+ = 53.24

Things worth noting:

-The DB board will be out in a few days, but you're going to notice that I included their Slot B+ and C+ categories for the Top 5. I didn't for Receiver because it really is an all or nothing kind of thing. Either you're a Day 1 Slot and have a C+ of 100% and B+ of 80%, or you're a Day 3 guy with a 2% C+ and a 0% for B+, or you're Undrafted. So, I used it more as a tiebreaker. If a Day 2 WR (i.e. Williams and Lance) had a Day 1 grade for slot, and a different Day 2 WR (i.e. Branch and Cooper) had a Day 3 grade for slot, then I gave the edge to the former. Also worth noting that you can't be solely a slot guy as a pro and make a high-end or superstar impact. Teams don't run 3 wide sets all game long, so you have to be able to move outside. For example CeeDee Lamb and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are two guys with high grades at Slot. Per PFF, Lamb has played 56.8% of his snaps out of the Slot and JSN has played 60.1%. By my numbers, the player with the highest slot percentage that currently carries a C or higher grade is Jayden Reed with 75.4% of his snaps coming out of the slot, and he's at a C.

-The elephant in the room, Carnell Tate. Phenomenal talent, I saw him play plenty last season, I would still take him in the first and fully expect him to hit on the 12.48% chance he has to be a high-end starter or better. His rank dipped on my list because he opted to run just the forty at the Combine. He didn't run poorly, it was just an average time, and when coupled with his 10-split, his score took a hit. If he opts to do more athletic testing at his Pro Day I'd be willing to bet that he improves on that ranking. Adding onto this, because it just happened at his pro day, Makai Lemon just stuck himself into this same situation, and since that was his pro day he won't be moving himself out of it.

-Jordyn Tyson should be less surprising. Injuries limited his playing time in college, which of course effected his score and ranking on my board. The athletic testing he did at the Combine actually helped his score. He would've been about 10 spots lower without it.

-I saw an article about Eli Heidenreich's pro day and how he was only asked to run Receiver drills because teams are very interested in him playing Receiver as a pro. With how light the RB class is this year, that kind of surprises me, but use the weapon in the way you think works best for your team. I decided to go ahead and get him plugged in here now rather than having to redo all this for him three years from now. After his short shuttle and 3-cone times from his pro day were posted, I updated his numbers and he flew up the Receiver boards. He now has a Day 2 grade on the outside and Day 1 grade on the inside. Couple that with his Day 2 RB grade and you have yourself a genuine multi-faceted weapon who should warrant consideration in round 2.

-I was going through adding Oscar Delp's pro day numbers to my board when I realized I had made a major mistake with the Tight End formula. I mixed up one of the base line numbers for the Tight Ends that did the athletic testing. That's why you see such a crazy shift in the board above. Still, there are only 4 with undrafted labels, and there are still 9 with a Day 1 or Day 2 label, both of which are still shocking to me.

-As you can see, the Top 5 for the Tight Ends also shifted because I fixed my mistake. It was difficult to decide which gap meant more. Ultimately I decided I preferred the extra 12.26% chance at the high-end starter possibility for Gyllenborg, Delp and Koziol, over the 30.12% Sadiq held in the C+ category. And on the 4/5 side of that I decided Sadiq' 23.07% edge over Stowers in C+ was better than siding with Stowers' 5.31% edge for B+.

-Let's talk Kenyon Sadiq. His 4.39 forty was otherworldly. And combined with his 1.54 10-split, it actually landed him in a special group. That group is from 2014-2023 and it contains George Kittle, Evan Engram, O.J. Howard, Noah Fant, Kyle Pitts, and A.C. Leonard. Kittle really is the exception in that group though, not to say several of the others haven't had successful careers to this point, but they've been more middling. My concern there is just that, what is it about freak speed at this position that results in average to slightly above average production?

- Sleeper WR: I'll give two because one is due to how his numbers line up as an outside receiver, and the other is because of how his numbers line up as a slot receiver: Germie Bernard and Bryce Lance. For Bernard, it's not a bias as an Alabama fan, although I am a big fan of his, it's because of a combination of his forty, broad jump and 3-cone, but especially because of that 3-cone. It's a key that can lead to a higher success rate at Receiver. And for Lance, his production paired with his 10-split are usually a great combination that point toward success out of the Slot. It does help that he also has a Day 2 grade at Receiver.

-Sleeper Tight End: I'm going with Sam Roush. The biggest hit for him is that the college production was lacking, but I feel like part of that might be due to just how bad Stanford was. His forty time was solid (4.70), even though it doesn't seem that way in this class. It was his 10-split (1.61) and Broad Jump (10'8") that earned him my sleeper label. Day 2 grade from me, but I wouldn't be surprised if he slides to day 3, and someone gets a steal.

I've been tracking the success rate of each position individually based on my grades from 2020-2023, and I'm going to include that for each position. It might help shine a light on some of my "things worth noting." There isn't anything for Slot Receivers yet, since they were new last year, so no board below.

WR Success Rate

TE Success Rate