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John Johnson shares who the best wide receiver is in the 2025 NFL Draft class. Which rookie is WR1 in the 2025 class and what makes them stand out from the pack?
Accurately predicting who is the best wide receiver in each draft class can give you a massive advantage in both dynasty and redraft fantasy football. Yet, rather than attempting to do so, the vast majority of fantasy managers just follow whatever consensus tells them to do, no matter how many times they get burned doing it. Last season, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was nearly unanimously selected with the first overall pick in rookie drafts.
He was touted as one of the best WR prospects of all time and a generational talent. It didn't take long for him to be outperformed by Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., and Ladd McConkey. There was a significant gap between Harrison and those three. Yet, with 2025 rolling around, everyone's still blindly buying into the idea that Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan is the best wideout in the draft.
Not everyone has the time to break down film for each prospect and develop their rankings. Those who do in the community are often afraid to be too "different." Credit to those analysts who are. I completely ignore consensus and judge players based on a complicated system I've developed that I have yet to share. I suppose time will tell how accurate my final preseason rankings end up being. For now, I'm here to tell you that the WR1 is not McMillan. Let's dive into who it is.
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Why Colorado's Travis Hunter is the WR1 of the 2025 NFL Draft Class
Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter is the best WR prospect in the class. Obviously, he's regarded as a remarkably talented athlete, but the problem is that many believe he won't play enough snaps at WR to be fantasy-relevant, or at least will be extremely inconsistent.
Hunter will play a lot more WR than people think. I'm convinced of this, in part by having looked at the exploding salaries of wide receivers and how desperate teams are for wideout talent.
It's odd to me that people don't seem to be applying understanding of the discrepancy between how valuable an elite receiver is as opposed to how much a great cornerback matters. It really isn't close. Elite wideouts completely transorm the offenses that they're on for the better. For example, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase was the catalyst for his team's run to a Super Bowl appearance in his rookie season.
Anyways here’s rookie Ja’Marr Chase going for 266 yards & 3 TDs against the Chiefs pic.twitter.com/EXuKm7uxlZ https://t.co/kww7Lhuqx9
— Nico (@elitetakes_) August 17, 2023
The best NFL offenses usually have elite receivers. The Los Angeles Rams have Puka Nacua, the Minnesota Vikings have Justin Jefferson, the Bengals have Chase and Tee Higgins, the Detroit Lions have Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have Mike Evans, and the Dallas Cowboys have CeeDee Lamb. The offenses that don't have elite receivers but are at the top usually have elite offensive coordinators and coaches or hyper-mobile quarterbacks.
It's hard to find a legitimate franchise quarterback in the NFL. It's also tough to find elite coaches because they tend to keep their jobs for a long time after being hired. So, the next best option to immediately elevate your offense, whether or not you have your franchise QB (and even better if you do), is to get an elite WR talent. And every few years, a receiver with unbelievable athletic upside comes out of college and into the NFL.
Shedeur Sanders is very, very lucky he had Travis Hunter pic.twitter.com/OzdOgEcVqm
— Dynasty Zoltan (@DynastyZoltanFF) March 15, 2025
In 2020, it was Lamb and Jefferson. In 2021, Chase. In 2024, Thomas and Nabers. All of them massively elevated their respective offenses' ceilings. So, what's the point? The point is that any team that drafts Hunter has a LOT to lose if they mainly play him at cornerback. That would be a terrible idea.
An elite CB simply can't have as much positive impact on a team as an elite WR can. This is simply because wide receivers are more individually involved in their offenses than CBs are on defense if their team lets them be. Opposing QBs can just avoid throwing toward certain cornerbacks, but defenses can't ignore when a receiver is being targeted.
Travis Hunter pic.twitter.com/RP4sBjdMBk
— Savage (@SavageSports_) March 16, 2025
Much of what happens in the NFL is dictated by necessity. The team that drafts Hunter will probably be forced to develop him as much as possible at WR and have him play limited snaps at CB if the staff doesn't want to get fired en masse.
Hunter is by far the best receiver in this class at making "absurd" plays that aren't just absurd because the guy is 6-foot-5 and can move. Hunter's explosiveness, change-of-direction skills, short-area quickness, and ability to manipulate his body so handily will make him a nightmare coverage assignment.
Travis Hunter = Tempo King
He manipulates his defenders with speed transitions, tempo, and footwork.
Special talent.pic.twitter.com/uGkOR4sn49
— Snoog's Fantasy HQ (@FFSnoog) January 16, 2025
Another fact that's not talked about enough is that while it's important what a player can do, it's also very important what defenders can't do or can't handle. For example, much of the predraft analysis about the Jaguars' Thomas was just garbage in hindsight because NFL defenders simply couldn't handle his combination of length, acceleration, and speed.
He won on routes just by stacking the defender, releasing, and immediately charging forward, with his size allowing him to reach out and make catches where defensive backs simply couldn't reach.
LSU WR Brian Thomas Jr. didn’t even pickup a football until the 10th grade. Calling him a raw prospect is like saying water is wet. He just turned 21. There’s quite a ceiling here, folks. pic.twitter.com/A83wskFqe8
— Kyle Lindemann (@LuckIsMadeFF) February 19, 2024
All the talk about how raw he was, how he would need a ton of time to develop, and the like was simply completely wrong, and he easily finished as the top rookie WR and was a league winner. The reality isn't dictated by consensus.
Thomas is a nice example for us to learn from our mistakes and put more stock into WR prospects who are so elite in some areas of their game that how they play will be dictated by the fact that opposing defensive backs simply can't do anything to stop them.
They had to pray the ball wasn't thrown his way often or that he was just missed. And Mac Jones missed him a lot, so they were lucky.
If Travis Hunter falls to the #Patriots at 4…
Belongs in Conversation for
💥WR1 in the class
💥SF & 1 QB 1.02
💥Top 12 Dynasty WRsHE’s THAT TALENTED & this assures maximum WR usage tied to Drake Maye (video below w guest @Calo_FF)pic.twitter.com/fWJy6WD2m6 https://t.co/3WoP2SmD3x
— Dynasty Dad (@DynastyDadFF) March 13, 2025
The narrative seems to be that you can't defend 6-foot-5 wide receivers anymore, so because McMillan can move decently, he has to be the WR1. Not sure where that came from, but it's objectively incorrect. What you can't defend are Hunter's lightning-quick breaks, his skills after the catch combined with his burst and speed, and his best-in-class, elite ball skills.
TRAVIS HUNTER ONE CATCH = ONE TOUCHDOWN.
FIRST OF MANY THIS SEASON.
SUPERSTAR.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) August 30, 2024
There's also a big disconnect with how prospects are evaluated. Hunter is a contested catch specialist and makes tough catches better than anyone in the past three draft classes. Yet, because he has a smaller frame, he's not credited for it as much.
Last year, Chicago Bears WR Rome Odunze was widely lauded for having elite strength and being a contested catch god. Hunter is better, yet it's not as widely praised. Many of Odunze's contested catches didn't feature anything like I've seen from Hunter.
UNREAL catch from Travis Hunter for his THIRD touchdown 🔥pic.twitter.com/L85aeObzK4
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) August 30, 2024
There's a class of play that I like to term the "Holy Hell, How Is That Possible" plays. Hunter contorts his body to a ridiculous degree here and makes a seemingly impossible play for a touchdown while being interfered with and falling to catch an inaccurate pass that's aimed at the back of the defender. This is a lot harder than grabbing a pass that's not batted at and getting it into your chest tightly while a defensive back is with you but not contesting you much.
Keep in mind that it was "extremely" obvious that Odunze was a better prospect than Thomas. Those who believe that's still true should just go check the dynasty fantasy football rankings. Zero people on the planet are drafting Odunze anywhere near Thomas. Yet, it would've been wild to draft Thomas ahead of Odunze in rookie drafts because consensus rules all. I don't think I'll sway many people, so I'll have to gloat after the fact, I guess.
Travis Hunter with his 3RD TOUCHDOWN of the day 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cJq3uoIUlX
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) November 29, 2024
Hunter has a combined skill set and athleticism that will be the most difficult to defend of any of the WR prospects at the next level. And if his coach decides to play him mostly at cornerback, he'll be making a serious mistake and committing a fireable offense. For these reasons, he's my WR1 in the 2025 NFL Draft class.
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