Welcome back to the 2025 Dynasty Rookie Rankings Battle. After wrapping up the tight ends last week, this week it’s time to begin ranking the wide receiver class.
The wide receiver position can often be difficult to rank because the roles and athletic profiles within the position can differ so much. Nowhere else can you find the 5’10” 154 lbs Tez Johnson playing the same position as the 6'4” 238 lbs Chase Claypool.
The overwhelming diversity of skill sets at wide receiver means it’s useful to organize the class by role, so this week, we’re starting with the X receivers. The X receiver lines up on the line of scrimmage and is the wide receiver who receives the least schemed-up help from alignment or motion. Because they line up on the line of scrimmage, X receivers have to be able to beat press coverage and play through physicality.
In the current NFL landscape, there is a shortage of strong, physical wide receivers who are also skilled and nuanced enough to be their team’s main outlet in the passing game, which means good X receivers are extremely prized assets. Teams get very excited whenever somebody comes up through the NFL draft cycle who legitimately profiles to the X.
Today, we’re going to discuss how Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, and Jayden Higgins fit this role. These players are all quality prospects in their own ways, but we’ll find their play styles differ greatly, even within this archetype. Read on to see where and how these guys win.
This article will rate each player using the categories in the Get Better at Dynasty Series, copied here for your convenience. Please remember that the highlighting in the template reflects the relative importance of each trait, whereas the actual prospect report represents how strong they are in that skill.
Travis Hunter
Colorado
6’0” 188 lbs
Travis Hunter, despite being comfortably the smallest player in this article, actually lined up on the line of scrimmage very frequently at Colorado and faced a good amount of press coverage. While he’s not dominant against press, he showed on film that he’s capable of winning against it.
Additionally, Hunter is tenacious at playing through physicality and sometimes absorbed extremely aggressive jams before shifting his body weight and continuing his route on schedule, leaving behind a very bemused corner whose momentum took him out of the play.
For this reason, I think he can play X receiver at the NFL level. While he’ll probably line up all over the field, his downfield skillset is great for this role.
Intermediate Usage
Right off the bat, Hunter is absolutely outstanding in the scramble drill. Whenever he saw Shedeur Sanders in scramble mode, Hunter shows a tremendous motor, making second and third efforts to work back to the ball, each time snapping off his previous path to get several steps of separation against the cornerback. Combine that with his sublime hands and body control, and Hunter will make music if paired with a quarterback who has some ability out of structure.
As mentioned previously, Hunter’s release is surprisingly functional against press, considering he’s on the skinnier side. To win against the press, you need to either excel at hand-fighting or at side-stepping the jam. Hunter has put both kinds of wins on tape, and I like his chances of developing an advanced release package if he’s allowed to focus on playing wide receiver full-time.
However, Hunter’s biggest weakness also shows up in this area. He’s too easy to herd on vertical routes to the sideline, giving his quarterback no throwing window. Hunter needs to be more deceptive in the first couple of steps of his release to get the defensive back to turn his hips the wrong way.
While Hunter is a fine route runner, he could be more crisp and sudden on breaking routes. However, he is a highly fluid athlete and sinks his hips very well to get into his cuts smoothly.
Additionally, Hunter has begun showing nuances at the top of his stem, namely by selling a different break with his head and eyes before starting his cut in earnest. In the middle of the field, he shows excellent awareness by adjusting the depth of his route to maintain a cushion between him and the layers of the defense, keeping the throwing window clean.
Hunter excels at the catch point. He is a natural hands-catcher, equally comfortable plucking the ball away from his frame as bringing in a perfectly thrown ball.
Short Usage
Hunter shows a burgeoning awareness of how to create throwing windows against zones. When his first cut doesn’t make a clean window, he works to find an alternative window for his quarterback to throw into. Additionally, despite having a slimmer frame, his use of leverage plays up because he’s so comfortable snatching the ball out in front of him.
One area for Hunter to improve on is his comeback route. While he stops on a dime pretty well, his footwork isn’t optimal for returning to the ball before the corner has reacted. Instead, it was a little too familiar to see corners jump in, breaking routes against him.
Run After Catch
While Hunter is not elite at making defenders miss or breaking tackles, he is extremely dangerous if given a crease to run into. He accelerates smoothly and has a nasty dead leg that he can use to cut downhill at full speed.
While run-after-catch isn’t Hunter’s bread and butter, he’s a dynamic enough mover to break off a long one occasionally. As a bonus, he is solid at catching with his back to the defense and twisting to evade the first tackler.
One negative of his run-after-catch game is that he tends to go backward to evade tackles, sometimes leading to negative plays.
Deep Usage
Travis Hunter has a rare, game-changing ability at the catch point. He’s incredibly focused on playing through contact, with tremendous body control and the ability to reel the ball anywhere in his catch radius. He plucks the ball away from his frame, making necessary adjustments.
Travis Hunter will be a top-five player at the catch point the second he’s drafted into the NFL. Between this skill and his ability in the scramble drill, Hunter will be an absolute demon in the endzone. Chasing touchdowns is usually a losing bet, but Hunter might consistently bring in 8+ touchdowns at the NFL level year after year, with the rare spike year with 15+.
While Hunter is plenty fast, he lacks the pure game-changing straight-line speed to run past appropriately leveraged corners. However, he should be outstanding at back shoulder throws and might punish single coverage regardless.
Coachability
I don’t mean this lightly when I say Hunter may be such an extraordinary football mind that he’s destined to be a multiple All-Pro at whatever position he plays. Playing full-time on both sides of the ball in college takes more than unique physical ability.
At the highest level of sports, processing information and making split-second decisions is a significant separator between the athletes who can’t play and those who change the game. You won’t catch me betting against Hunter in this facet.
Supposedly, Hunter attended defensive backs meetings in college but practiced like a package player on offense. If this is true, it would be astounding for Hunter to have shown the flashes of nuance he already has, and heaven help the league if he devotes all his attention to a single position.
While their play styles are incredibly different, this reminds me of watching Malik Nabers last year. You could tell he was just a baby out there but already prodigiously talented and effective. The ceiling is sky-high.
Running Route to Correct Depth
Hunter’s willingness to play through physicality helps him get to his landmarks on schedule. However, he could stand to work back to the ball more on in-breaking routes.
Blocking
Hunter is willing to pitch in if the play comes his way, but he can’t hold up against defenders with a head of steam.
Tetairoa McMillan
Arizona
6’4” 219 lbs
Opinions on McMillan are starting to jump the shark. On the one hand, some people overthink him after going through prospect fatigue.
On the other hand, a large chunk of the dynasty community underthinks him by taking mental shortcuts and slapping a “contested catch guy” label on him. These people are tragically missing all the nuances he brings to the position. Others are erroneously claiming he profiles as more of a WR2.
Let me say without any ambiguity whatsoever that Tetairoa McMillan is much, much more than a contested catch guy. He has the toolset of a WR1. I can’t ever predict for sure who will and won’t bust, but this guy has no business being compared as a prospect to N’Keal Harry or Hakeem Butler.
Unlike those prospects, McMillan utilizes advanced nuances in his game and asserts his will on the football field, getting where he wants to go with impressive frequency. He rewards his team for running their passing game through him. Receivers who are 6’4”, use their size well, move exceptionally well at that size, and play with advanced nuance are extremely rare. Somebody should be taking him in the top 12 of the NFL draft.
Intermediate Usage
While McMillan can’t move as suddenly and explosively as a smaller receiver, and his speed is more of the buildup variety, he’s skilled at getting open and creating throwing windows for his quarterback.
Firstly, McMillan is phenomenal at pacing his routes, throttling up and down as needed to create space for himself. McMillan is willing to bide his time and then picks the exact moment the defensive back shifts his weight or flips his hips before starting his break. Additionally, McMillan can run his routes just fast enough to eat cushion and get into a defensive back’s blind spot before once again committing to his route at the perfect moment.
McMillan uses throttling to his advantage when running a vertical route. He starts his routes at ~80%, but when he needs to get past the top of the coverage, he accelerates without warning and earns a couple of steps of advantage from the defensive backs, who must react and get up to speed.
As if those nuances weren’t enough, McMillan excels at selling routes with his head and shoulders, routinely getting defensive backs to flip their hips the wrong way. If you’re not observing, this looks like lousy coverage. McMillan is playing chess with corners, forcing them to cover him badly.
Much like Hunter, McMillan knows where the holes in zone coverages are, he knows if his route isn’t going to be open, and he makes second efforts to provide his quarterback with a new throwing window. Again, like Hunter, he’s disciplined running over the middle of the field, keeping himself between the layers in coverage.
Finally, McMillan is excellent at catching the ball away from his frame and makes tough catches through contact. Between his frame and his willingness to catch the ball out in front of him, it is tough to play through him and break up a pass.
Short Usage
McMillan might be a PPR cheat code with his effectiveness on short routes. In particular, McMillan shows solid separation ability on comeback routes. While Hunter is better than him at stopping on a dime, McMillan’s footwork is more intentional in terms of taking him back to the ball.
McMillan is also outstanding at creating leveraged-throwing windows. Because of his size, he’s excellent at boxing out. Additionally, because he plucks the ball with his hands, it’s hard for defensive backs to play it. For this reason, he’s good on slants, shallow crossers, and against zone.
Run After Catch
Thanks to his surprising fluidity, McMillan is solid after the catch. He becomes a runner when he catches the ball down the field and has a decent change of direction with the ball in his hands. Arizona even used him in their screen game, though I doubt that persists at the NFL level.
Naturally, he is missing the top-end speed and agility you’d get from the best run-after-catch players, and he is lanky enough that he can’t play through contact as effectively either, which caps his ceiling in this facet.
Deep Usage
While McMillan won’t outrun anybody deep, he’s solid at stacking corners early in the rep when they try to press him. However, with him lacking high-end straight-line speed, it is possible to get back into phase with him. McMillan has reasonable body control and focuses when playing through contact along the sideline. Still, he did get a little too dependent on trying to make one-handed highlight-reel grabs. For this reason, I prefer Hunter in this facet.
McMillan excels at throttling his routes, which means he can get behind defenses on post and corner routes. He accelerates at just the right time and takes the defender by surprise. Lastly, he excels at ball tracking, sometimes making extremely impressive adjustments to balls that require him to do a 180 to be in position to make the catch.
Coachability
A lot has been made of this one video in which McMillan very brazenly answered an interview question by saying he doesn’t watch film since the film he watches in meetings with his position group is enough.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. More than saying, “Oh, all players need to be film rats,” it is a little jarring how cavalier he was in dismissing the notion that he could be studying voluntarily outside of the time he’s obligated to watch film by the adults in the room.
This could be nothing, or it could be an indicator he doesn’t love football as much as you’d hope, considering once he starts getting paychecks, he’ll need an internal drive to motivate him to improve.
With how nuanced his game is, I have trouble believing the worst interpretations of this clip. He's too good at the little things for me to think he's apathetic about improving his game. It’s just something that makes me a little nervous, though I think it’s more likely a non-issue.
Blocking
You would hope McMillan would get after it, blocking at his size. While he’s solid when matched up with defensive backs who play him passively, he seemed to play passively himself against tacklers working downhill. I wouldn’t consider this a strength of his game, but at least he can stay on the field.
Jayden Higgins
Iowa State
6’4” 214 lbs
While Jayden Higgins moves incredibly well and fluidly at his size, he’s much weaker at the catch point than McMillan and Hunter and was less successful downfield. Instead, Higgins was more frequently used underneath at Iowa State. Combined with his struggles against press coverage and playing through physicality, he projects better as a “big slot” type of receiver than as a true X receiver.
Overall, Higgins does not profile as a team’s WR1 despite his outstanding measurables and athletic testing. He leaves a little too much to be desired in terms of ball-winning, ability to beat press coverage, and dynamic on-field athleticism. To that last point, he’s impressively smooth, but he doesn’t have a trump card to outclass corners in suddenness or explosiveness.
To understand the “big receiver who excels underneath” archetype, think of a Michael Pittman Jr. type of fantasy football production.
Intermediate Usage
As mentioned before, Higgins's best trait in this area is his incredible smoothness for his 6’4” height. He looks like a 6’0” receiver out there, and he excels at running underneath routes, getting to top speed fluidly, and adjusting his direction without wasted motion.
Thanks to his fluidity, he looks very natural running posts and slants. However, his breaking routes aren’t as snappy as they should be, and he fails to sell the route with his head and hips. Corners seemed to jump his routes too quickly, likely because he missed that nuance to disguise his intentions.
Higgins isn’t as natural a hands catcher as McMillan and Hunter. He tends to basket-catch balls off his frame, and he didn’t reel in balls you need to see completed at the NFL level. Even when hand catching, he lets the ball come too far into his body and gives defensive backs chances to play the ball.
Finally, Higgins release package is lacking against press coverage. While he can get into his routes smoothly, he usually allows the corner’s jam to land too quickly and lets physicality take him off schedule. McMillan and Hunter are both better at snapping off their routes and using their hands to get clean when the corner is being grabby during the route.
Short Usage
Higgins is great in this area and did most of his damage underneath while at Iowa State. He’s highly fluid on short and crossing routes and solid against zone coverage, although his leverage isn’t as effective as you’d like for a receiver of his size.
He does have reps on tape where he wins instantly on a slant, and he has the size/speed combination to get extra yardage from that point.
Run After Catch
As mentioned previously, Higgins brings an impressive size-speed combination to the table. When combined with his fluidity, he can efficiently take the extra yards when they’re there. However, he isn’t exactly a creator.
Deep Usage
Higgins is just ok at the catch point. He does have one highlight reel, one-handed grab, but he did not generally make the most of his catch radius. Sometimes, he failed even to make efforts on balls I thought were close enough to make a tough grab on.
Some receivers bail out their quarterbacks, some don’t, and some actively leave plays on the field. Unfortunately, Higgins is between those latter two categories, and I don’t see a future star. One notable exception would be if the “big slot” usage went well for him in an ideal situation.
Higgins’ deep speed can sometimes sneak up on corners, as it builds up quickly, and his top speed is quite good overall. However, he lacks some of the explosiveness and throttling to win consistently in this area.
Coachability
To this point, I haven’t heard any tidbits about him. Let me know if you have.
Blocking
Higgins is naturally strong but didn’t notably assert his will in the blocking game. I don’t think he needs to come off the field, but he’s not actively earning snaps with his blocking. He could effectively bully nickel corners if he embraced a significant slot role.
Overall
Travis Hunter
Profile
Travis Hunter is a trustworthy alpha WR1 with a massive ceiling, potentially as a multiple-time All-Pro. Regarding his current ability, I would say he’s in the same tier as Tetairoa McMillan. Still, everything about his dynamism on a football field, his mentality, and his current strengths screams “superstar.”
I would not be surprised if, in one year, we’re looking back and thinking, “Man, it was blatantly obvious back in college this guy was going to be on an All-Pro trajectory.” Travis Hunter moves incredibly dynamically, plays through physicality with competitiveness and tenacity, and is a demon at the catch point, on scramble drills, and in the endzone. He makes plays all over the field, turning mediocre throws into explosive ones.
Hunter is conservatively a top-three receiver at the catch point I have ever scouted, and you’d be satisfied if he were just some big, lumbering dude catching 50/50 balls. Instead, he’s a uniquely dynamic athlete showing an early understanding of the nuances of route running and release packages.
Mentally, Hunter is as competitive as an alpha wide receiver and then some. He shows a high motor and a sense of adjusting his route to ensure the window to throw him the ball stays clean. He is also maniacally focused when catching the ball through physicality.
Hunter is a good NFL receiver right now, and he might not even be close to his ceiling if he gets to focus on receiver full-time. If he gets drafted in the top five and announced as a wide receiver, he is worth the 1.02 in dynasty drafts.
Best Case
He is a top-three dynasty receiver who lines up all over the field and is his team’s offensive focal point.
Worst Case
The worst case is that he’s announced as a wide receiver, we draft him high, and then it turns out he’s just a package player on offense. Or that his wide receiver career starts just ok, and then his team moves him to corner to get more out of him.
This is a uniquely frightening risk, and I won’t blame anybody for passing on him for this reason. However, I’d rather draft Hunter and be wrong than pass on him and be wrong.
Tetairoa McMillan
Profile
Tetairoa McMillan projects as a low-end WR1. He has the track record and skills to earn high volume and reward teams for running their passing game through him. Much more than just a contested catch guy, McMillan moves well at his size and brings great nuance to the table when route running.
Best Case
Several lower-end WR1 finishes. McMillan likely doesn’t have the highest end of traits necessary to be a top-five asset at the position. Still, he could eventually get into the second round of redraft leagues.
Worst Case
I consider McMillan very safe. The low end with him would be settling in as more of a PPR scam than a true WR1. That will depend on whether he can generate explosive plays, including working the 15+ yard intermediate parts of the field.
He might not be team-proof, and if he ends up in a bad situation, he may not be able to win instantly off the line of scrimmage often enough to generate easy looks for a beleaguered quarterback.
Jayden Higgins
Profile
Jayden Higgins brings prototypical size and athletic testing to the X receiver position. Still, he is missing the ability at the catch point and physicality to be a legitimate conduit for his team’s passing offense out of the X spot. His best outcome for fantasy would be as a big slot option.
Higgins profiles as more of a WR3 type if he plays a full-time X role, but he has a significant PPR upside as a big slot in a high-paced offense.
Best Case
Thanks to his excellent fluidity and size, Higgins can excel underneath and in the shorter-intermediate parts of the field. He gets to a couple of high-end WR2 finishes, thanks to PPR scoring. He’s viewed as a “key starter” player but not a star.
Worst Case
The high end of Higgins’ play isn’t strong enough to justify running an offense through him, and he becomes a startable but inconsistent option—more of a WR3/4 type.
Or, he is drafted to a team that statically plays him at the X, at which point he likely gets shut down against some of the best press corners. While I was excited to check out his game after the combine, he'll have a middling position in my 2025 dynasty rookie rankings.