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USATSI

It is a strange time for Dynasty rankings, less than a month before the 2025 NFL Draft. The options for rankers are both bad. One is to rank the rookies at your best approximation of where they will rank after the Draft. The other is to wait until after the Draft to add rookies to the rankings. Because the combination draft capital and landing spot plays an important part in my Dynasty rankings, I have chosen the latter approach, even if I find it dissatisfying.

To try to ease some of that dissatisfaction, I am doing something new this April. I am adding the top rookies at each position to my Dynasty Tiers. While this is still a bit of guesswork, tiers are by their nature easier to project so I have added Tetairoa McMillan, Luther Burden, Emeka Egbuka, Matthew Golden, and Travis Hunter amongst others to the Dynasty Wide Receiver Tiers below.

One of the first things that will stand out immediately is that there are no rookie receivers in the top four tiers below. That is certainly unusual, especially based on the wide receiver classes that have come through the last five seasons. It's very likely at least one of Burden, McMillan, or Egbuka move up after the draft because of draft capital and landing spot. But nothing will impact the wide receiver rankings and tiers like the way that Hunter is employed by his team.

I have written about this before this Spring, but it is a completely unique situation to 2025, so I will keep harping on it until we get an answer. Hunter is arguably the best wide receiver and the best cornerback in this class. He says he wants to do both in the NFL, like he did at Colorado last year, where he delivered 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns. As fun as that sounds, most analysts agree that Hunter will not be able to be a full-time player on offense and defense, so where he's drafted and where they choose to employ Hunter predominantly matters more than anything else in this class.

If Hunter is a full-time wide receiver drafted in the top five, I would view him as the best wide receiver in the class, and he will definitely move into the top three tiers for me at wide receiver. A recent poll of my followers over on X agrees, with 66.9% of respondents saying he would be a top 13 Dynasty wide receiver for them and more than a fifth saying Hunter would instantly be a top seven wide receiver. If Hunter's team prioritizes the defensive side of the ball, Hunter may not be worthy of a pick in the first three rounds in rookie drafts, unless you play in an IDP league where defensive players receive points for both their offensive and defensive production. 

That doesn't actually sound that complicated if your rookie draft is after the NFL Draft, right? Well, there is one nightmare scenario. If a team drafts Hunter and says they will figure out his position at rookie camp, or worse, at training camp, we'll all be guessing during rookie drafts and it becomes an exercise in risk management, not talent evaluation. We are going to hope that doesn't happen, but if it does I will probably rank Hunter as an early Round 2 pick. I won't be surprised if some contenders are willing to risk it late in Round 1.

Here are my updated Dynasty Wide Receiver Rankings: