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Now a month into the 2022 college football season, I decided it was time to rank the five best players for each position at this very moment. For clarification, these lists are based on where these young men are today as college players. In this exercise, I tried to isolate them from their team and purely judge them on who can win games at the CFB level right now.
Here's a look at the five best wide receivers in college football right now:
#1. Jordan Addison, USC
Similar to running backs, judging wide receivers based on stats is not easy. When I took production, level of competition and what I see on tape into account, the choice for number one was a pretty easy one. In 2021, Jordan Addison won the Biletnikoff award for best receiver in the nation. He recorded 1,650 yards and 18 touchdowns on 107 touches.
After transferring over from Pitt to join Lincoln Riley’s explosive USC offense, he’s now up to 21 catches for 337 yards and six scores. He could have had a couple of other big ones in the Oregon State game this past Saturday night, but Caleb Williams just didn’t see him.
This guy smoothly gets off the line and quickly gets up to top speed. He can really challenge safeties with the way he beats them across their faces or split two-high looks. When he’s in man-coverage, he can also freeze defenders at the break point and consistently create separation. Drops and playing through contact were areas of improvement for Addison last college football season, but they haven’t been issues for him this year.
#2. Xavier Hutchinson, Iowa State
The battle for number two here was a tough one to figure out. However, Xavier Hutchinson has been a highly consistent receiver for the Cyclones and he’s off to the best start of his college football career. After touching the ball 85 times for 1,005 yards and five touchdowns last year, he’s already matched that TD total and is up to 403 yards from 36 grabs in 2022.
At 6’3”, 210 pounds, Hutchinson may not be somebody who’ll just blow past the coverage in college football. But he’s surprisingly sudden off the line and can really sink his hips, in and out of breaks. He can vary his approach off the line to set up routes and has an awareness for ancillary coverage. When the ball is in the air, his long arms and leaping ability give him a large catch-radius. In my notes, I also marked “smart and invested” blocker, as he helped free Breece Hall on multiple occasions the two prior seasons.
#3. Marvin Mims, Oklahoma
Not getting to play with two top-ten recruits at the quarterback position and arguably the best offensive play-designer in college football would lead to major regression for most receivers. However, the opposite is true for Marvin Mims.
After combining for 69 catches worth 1,315 yards and 14 touchdowns in the prior 24 games combined, he’s already just three yards short of the 400-mark. He has scored three times on 18 grabs, giving him a stupendous average of 22.1 yards per catch. Primarily operating out of the slot, his speed has really opened up room underneath by pushing down the seams. If the safeties decide to play flat-footed, he’ll quickly blow past them or run away from them on corner routes.
He understands when to pace himself and is ready for the ball as he enters soft spots in zone coverage. While his size won’t allow him to overpower guys at the catch-point, he shows great focus tracking the ball when contacted. He made a couple of acrobatic grabs against Texas in the 2021 college football season, helping pull off a late comeback in the Red River Rivalry.
#4. Josh Downs, North Carolina
This brings us to number four, with what I believe is a very similar type of player in Josh Downs. After hauling in 101 passes for 1,335 yards and eight touchdowns from Sam Howell last college football season, he has already missed two of four contests but still has caught 14 passes for 110 yards and four TDs.
The way he can threaten deep coverage is a huge asset for the Tarheel offense, plus if given too much room, he’ll stick his foot in the ground and become a dangerous target on dig routes. UNC also made him sit down a bunch of hook routes once defenses had to respect the speed. This took advantage of his skills with the ball in his hands, as he averaged 7.5 yards after the catch last season. He displays excellent spatial awareness in that regard. The reason I have him just below Mims is that his size limits him slightly.
T-#5. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State & Kayshon Boutte, LSU
And finally, I couldn’t put a list together without at least mentioning who I believe were the top two receivers in college football heading into the year. Jaxon Smith-Njigba hasn’t really done anything to be pushed off the podium, even if Jordan Addison may have made him move down a spot.
He’s bascally only played one full game, as he was forced to leave the season-opener against Notre Dame with a hamstring injury and then gave it a go for a limited time against Toledo. He led Ohio State (who had two top-twelve picks this past April in Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave) with just over 1,600 yards and nine touchdowns on 95 grabs last season. His combination of speed, ball-tracking and ability to instantly turn upfield once the catch is secured is still special and among the best in college football.
Kayshon Boutte may have a tougher job, primarily lining up outside and beating some of the top corners in the SEC. He had a rough season-opener against Florida State, then famously deleted all LSU-related stuff from his social media channels and has less than 100 receiving yards through three games. But I really like the way he attacks blind-spots of defenders, his elite ball-skills and his juice to take a slant to the house. But I need to see him turn his season around.
Honorable mentions: Charlie Jones (Purdue), Nathaniel “Tank” Dell (Houston), Marvin Harrison Jr. (Ohio State), Quentin Johnston (TCU), Xavier Worthy (Texas), Zakhari Franklin (UTSA), Rashee Rice (SMU) & Jacob Cowing (Arizona)
You can check out all my other college football positional rankings here or as one piece on halilsrealfootballtalk.com
