- 11 hours ago
The Washington Commanders have their WR1 in Terry McLaurin, but is he falling behind as he gets older with the new and younger WRs emerging in the NFL? Kevin Sheehan goes around the NFL to rank the current top wide receivers and see where Terry McLaurin lands.
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00:00Pete writes, did you see the contract for Drake London?
00:04I'm assuming you now think he's the third best receiver in the NFL.
00:10Ha, ha, ha.
00:12You can't possibly think that he's better than Terry.
00:18It's that time of the year, isn't it?
00:20Wide receiver talk.
00:23Yeah, I actually do think London's better than Terry.
00:26I do.
00:27Uh, Drake London signed a contract extension in Atlanta, a four-year, $141 million contract extension,
00:37which includes $100 million in guaranteed money.
00:42Um, that is going to put him, uh, in terms of the guaranteed, uh, right in that top three.
00:50The average annual does, as Pete wrote, put London at number three behind Chase and Njigba.
00:57Remember Njigba, uh, just signed that deal.
01:00Uh, his average is $42.15 million per year.
01:04Chase is at $40.25 million per year.
01:07And London is now at $35.25 million per year, followed by Jefferson and Lamb, uh, to round out the
01:16top five in the NFL.
01:19Yeah, I'm a big Drake London fan.
01:21Um, I, the only problem with London is that there are some knicks here and there that he ends up,
01:28uh, having.
01:29Um, he had a great year with Kirk in 2024.
01:34Uh, he caught a hundred balls for nearly 1,300 yards, nine touchdowns.
01:39Last year, he was banged up a bunch and missed five games, but I don't think he finished another two
01:45or three, um, and ended up with 68 catches.
01:48But Drake London is one of those guys you can, you know, look to, to dominate a game.
01:55I, I do believe that he's six, four, he's two 20.
01:59He's a team guy.
02:00He will block.
02:02Um, I like Drake London.
02:04He was the guy that Washington really wanted in that 2022 draft mentioned it many times.
02:12If he doesn't go number eight to Atlanta, Washington selects Drake London.
02:16And I had Scott Turner on the show, not that long ago, a few weeks, uh, maybe it was a
02:20week after the draft.
02:21And Turner said, I said, wasn't London your guy?
02:24And he said, yes, Drake London was our number one guy.
02:28We weren't, you know, very confident he would make it to us.
02:31Uh, but we really liked Drake London in that draft.
02:35Yeah, I would, I would definitely be take Drake London over Terry McLaurin.
02:39But again, that doesn't mean I don't think Terry's good.
02:43Like I just, this isn't binary.
02:46Like I, to me, I'm, let me just look through the standings here and I would go, I got to
02:55write some of these down.
02:56I would go, first of all, I do think Jefferson is the best receiver in the NFL.
03:02Okay.
03:02I think Justin Jefferson is the best route runner.
03:05I think he scares the defense the most.
03:07I think chase is better after the catch.
03:11And I do think that there are three here.
03:15The three, actually there are four now, because I think I've got to put JSN into the conversation of the
03:21elite receivers, the truly elite receivers.
03:23To me, it's Jefferson, Chase, Nakua, and Smith-Najigba.
03:32Those are, I would go in order, JJ, Chase, Nakua, JSN.
03:38That would be my top four.
03:41Do you have a problem with that, Max?
03:43Or do you want to put somebody else into that mix?
03:45In terms of the top four in the league, you can move the elite line down to six or seven
03:52if you want, but those are my top four in the league.
03:55So give me your top four one more time, because I was doing the, I was running the gill thing.
03:59Jefferson, Chase, Nakua, JSN.
04:05I can't make an argument against any of them.
04:07I mean, I, there are guys I would throw into the conversation.
04:09Like, I'd probably put Seedy in there.
04:11I know you're not a huge fan, but.
04:13I'm not.
04:14But, but you know what?
04:15I've come around to understanding what he does to defenses.
04:19He just drops too many balls for me.
04:21Yeah.
04:21His body language drives me nuts.
04:24Understood.
04:24There's a lot about Lamb that I don't like, but I do get the fear that he puts in two
04:30defensive coordinators in their lead up, especially with Pickens on the other side.
04:35Now, I'm not, I mean, I would have Lamb ahead of Terry now.
04:39I would, you know, he's younger too.
04:43I'd have, so you, you'd put Lamb into that mix.
04:46I would throw Seedy Lamb and Amon Ra into the mix, but I wouldn't necessarily put them in my top
04:52four.
04:52Amon Ra was the one that I was like contemplating, because I think he would be next in line for
04:57me.
04:58Like, I would take those four and say, that's a tier.
05:02Okay.
05:03For sure.
05:03I mean, look, last year, I think in the year before I was like, look, JJ and Chase, Jefferson and
05:09Chase are kind of on their own island.
05:11Yeah.
05:12One A, one B.
05:13Yeah.
05:13And then we can talk about, you know, the next tier.
05:16And then I think I would say the next tier included five, six, seven guys.
05:20And then I had Terry in the next tier, like sort of tier three.
05:24Sure.
05:24If my tier one now is Jefferson, Chase, Nakua, and JSN, my tier two would start with Amon Ra, St.
05:32Brown.
05:32I think he's borderline uncheckable in the same way that JSN, you know, playing almost similarly in terms of where
05:40they line up formationally.
05:42I mean, there's not a lot of difference.
05:45JSN just seems to get a little bit more separation.
05:48That could also be scheme.
05:50Who knows?
05:51I, Amon Ra's there.
05:55So, so where would I have London?
05:57Uh, so Lambs in that next tier, I can't put Pickens in that next tier.
06:03He's just too much of a wing nut.
06:05I don't trust him.
06:07I'd still put Evans when he's healthy in that next tier.
06:11I would.
06:13He's still great when he, he's going to be, he's going to be a problem in San Francisco with Kittle
06:19on the field when Kittle gets back.
06:22Um, whenever that is, I don't know if Kittle's going to be ready for the beginning of the season,
06:25but with McCaffrey and Kittle and, uh, and Evans and what they have, uh, he, he's going to thrive even
06:33more.
06:33AJ Brown talent wise certainly is in the, in that next tier.
06:37London's in that next tier.
06:39Nico Collins is in that, is in that next tier for me.
06:44And then maybe we get to the third tier again, where guys like Higgins and Terry and Devante Adams at
06:53this point,
06:54you know, because he's older.
06:56Um, although Jesus, I didn't even mention Garrett Wilson.
06:59He's probably in tier two as just a pure wide receiver talent.
07:03He needs somebody throwing to him.
07:04Yes.
07:05I know.
07:07Who am I missing?
07:09I'm looking through, um, this was, uh, it depends on where you want to put AJ Brown in that tier
07:18list.
07:18Along with like, yeah, I mean, AJ Brown's in tier two talent wise.
07:21I I'm telling you this AJ Brown in new England thing.
07:25He, he was a problem at the end of last year.
07:28I think that his performance against the 49ers and a couple of other games,
07:33I think he checked out at the end of last year.
07:36And to me, you, I don't care how bad it's gotten for you and how bad it is.
07:43You're a professional and you're playing playoff games.
07:47Yeah.
07:48And he was absolutely embarrassing to himself in that playoff loss to San Francisco.
07:56Um, who are we forgetting of the young guys?
07:59Like, I mean, so like Alec Pierce is kind of coming on for the Colts.
08:02We'll see if he can kind of build off of these last couple of seasons.
08:04Jalen Waddle is a Bronco now, which I forgot about.
08:07Um, so he'll have bone hits throwing to him instead of Tua.
08:10So that'll be interesting to watch.
08:12Um, but those are kind of like the, the tier three guys, but I think have a lot of opportunity
08:18to climb that, uh, ladder.
08:20I think Pickens as well, uh, deserves to be in this conversation.
08:24Probably another tier three, Terry McLaurin tier type guy, um, with the opportunity to kind
08:29of advance further.
08:31If I go JJ, chase, Nakua, JSN, a Monra, that's five lamb.
08:37Okay.
08:37I'll say six Brown Evans, London.
08:41I'm up to nine.
08:42Um, Collins.
08:43I would have in there at 10.
08:46I Terry's a post 10 group of receivers and we're not even thinking about the young guys
08:51here.
08:52Like, you know, who was really good as a rookie and it surprised me.
08:55Tett McMillan, you know, who's really good as a rookie.
08:57Your guy, Buka.
08:58That's right.
08:59Um, you know, Luther Burden was good as a rookie.
09:02I'm not putting him into that category yet.
09:04We have Malik neighbors would be on this list if he hadn't played, if he hadn't gotten hurt
09:09last year.
09:09Let's not forget.
09:11There's no chance that right now you would take Terry McLaurin over Malik neighbors.
09:16If both players were healthy, of course not.
09:18You'd be an idiot to do so.
09:20Now Malik neighbors injury was a very serious injury.
09:23We'll see, uh, what happens, but you know, what is Marvin Harrison going to be in year
09:28three, which is going to be interesting.
09:30Um, yeah, some of these young guys, you know, we didn't even mention Jamison Williams.
09:37I don't, I wouldn't take him over Terry right now.
09:39He's too inconsistent.
09:40Yeah.
09:41I wouldn't take Christian Watson over Terry.
09:43No.
09:43Correct.
09:46I don't think I'll tell you what, seriously, Pierce.
09:49I know that if he had signed here, you know, in free agency, I'd be excited to have him,
09:55but I wouldn't consider him to be the one, you know, or he's, he isn't that much better
10:02than Pittman who signed with Pittsburgh, in my opinion.
10:07Um, anyway, uh, man, there are, when you start looking down the list of the young guys,
10:12you know, like, it's like, oh yeah, I forgot.
10:14McMillan was really good as a rookie.
10:15Oh yeah.
10:16I forgot Ibuku was good.
10:17Oh, you know, Matthew Golden finally played, you know, pretty well in that playoff loss.
10:21Luther Burden looks really good as a young player.
10:25You know, is Harrison going to be what everybody thought he was going to be Malik neighbors?
10:29I mean, of all those guys that I just mentioned in the last two drafts, the guy that's actually
10:33done it on the field and looked elite is Malik neighbors as a rookie.
10:38He looked like an elite receiver already.
10:43Anyway, um, Pete, thanks for that.
10:46Uh, yeah, I really liked Drake London.
10:48I'm a, I was a Drake London fan at USC.
10:51Uh, I've been a Drake London fan.
10:53The one season he had a good quarterback, you know, quarterback that can deliver the football
10:58no matter where you want to put, you know, our 35 year old friend, Kirk cousins, 36 year
11:02old now, um, in that one season with Kirk, it was his best season by far, you know, a hundred
11:09catches, 1,271 yards, nine touchdowns.
11:13Um, he was dominant, uh, that year and they didn't have, you know, they had Kyle pits,
11:19but he didn't play well.
11:20Pits was a problem, but they did have Bijon in the backfield backfield.
11:23That makes a difference, you know, Drake London with Bijon and with pits, uh, remaining there.
11:31Um, man, the issue there, of course, right.
11:34In Atlanta is who will the starting quarterback be?
11:38Will Penix jr.
11:39Be healthy and ready to go, or will it be to a Tungavailoa?
11:44It's not a great situation.
11:46I, I was a big believer in Penix coming out, huge believer in Penix coming out.
11:52And it's way too early to throw in the towel on him.
11:56And I, you know, those that love JJ McCarthy, I would tell you the same thing.
12:00It's way too early.
12:01I was not a McCarthy fan at all.
12:04Um, but it's too early.
12:06You just don't know.
12:07I mean, the thing that JJ McCarthy has going for him and now, by the way, Penix and Tua
12:12have going for them as they've got coaches where the schemes are quarterback friendly,
12:16you know, Stefanski now in Atlanta and obviously Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota.
12:22That'll be that team though.
12:24Oh, did you know?
12:26I didn't know this.
12:27Did you know that Jahan Dotson signed with Atlanta?
12:31I did not know this.
12:33This is news to me.
12:36Olamide Zaccheaus signed with Atlanta as well in the off season.
12:41I'm just looking at their, um, depth chart.
12:43They've obviously got Bijan in the, oh, here, here's another surprise.
12:47Did you know that Brian Robinson jr.
12:50Signed with Atlanta in the off season?
12:52Now that you mentioned it, I do remember that because I remember thinking that's very
12:56funny that they're both in the same backfield now.
13:00Who?
13:01Oh, Robbins.
13:02Yeah.
13:02B. John and Brian Robinson.
13:04Just B. Robinson.
13:05B. Rob.
13:06Yeah.
13:07Um, three former skins, uh, are in Atlanta.
13:12Uh, I mean, Jahan Dotson, they don't have an obvious number too.
13:15I'm looking at their, their, oh, you know what?
13:17They, they drafted Zachariah Branch.
13:18God, I loved him out of Georgia.
13:20We'll see if he ends up being what I think he can be.
13:22Um, but right now you look at Atlanta and Jahan is wide receiver too.
13:31You know, Scott Turner, that's another thing he always says when I have him on, he says,
13:36I'm still a believer in Jahan Dotson.
13:38He goes, I think if he gets in the right scheme in the right, you know, situation, he's still
13:43going to, he's going to be a good player.
13:44He, and I mean, look, his rookie year with Scott in 2022 and 2023, he was productive.
13:54He had 11 touchdown catches in his first two seasons in Washington, you know, much more
13:58productive in 22, um, then in, well, no 23, he had 49 catches for 518 yards.
14:07Yeah.
14:08It's hard to write all these guys off.
14:10Always hard to write them off.
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