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Ranking NFL's top 10 offensive position groups for 2024: Texans' WR room takes No. 1 spot
By Tyler Sullivan,
14 hours ago
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
We are knocking on the door of training camps opening up throughout the NFL and soon enough the regular season will be upon us. While we are still in the final moments of the dog days of summer, we're continuing to take stock of what teams have built this offseason and how each club could look once we get to Week 1, thus beginning the mad dash to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX.
Throughout the past few months, we've rolled out various individual player rankings within specific position groups, pitting the best of the best against one another. Now, we're lumping them together and attempting to identify the best offensive position groups in the league.
As you might expect given the talent in the league, this is no easy task and some high-profile players and groups were left off this top 10 list. For example, the 49ers backfield was one that just missed the cut. While they may have the league's best offensive skill position player in Christian McCaffrey , the guys that make up the rest of the Niners backfield lacked the ability to lift the unit higher. Meanwhile, the Vikings wide receivers were also on the outside looking in. While some two-headed monster receiver units made the top-10, it was thanks to their No. 2 options besting Minnesota's, raising their respective teams' ceiling at that spot. Again, this is about position groups rather than the immense talent of a single player.
Now that we have a rough idea of the ground rules, let's dive in.
When it came to the wide receiver position, we gave some extra credit to those clubs that could go three deep or more. While other units outside of this list may have a single player that is far superior (ex. Justin Jefferson ), the ability to have multiple players that can pop off at any moment is the genesis of these rankings and why Chicago finds itself on this list.
The Bears did an excellent job building an offensive skill group this offseason to help No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams ease into the league. Key among that renovation project was adding multiple receivers to pair with D.J. Moore , who had a career year in his first season with the Bears despite inconsistent quarterback play. Now, Moore finds himself lining up alongside veteran Keenan Allen and first-round rookie Rome Odunze . Even as he enters his age 32 season, Allen has proven to be a reliable target who has the ability to take on a high volume of targets. In his last season with the Chargers in 2023, Allen posted a career-high 108 receptions to go along with 1,243 yards and seven touchdowns.
Meanwhile, we are admittedly projecting a bit here with Odunze, but there's a reason why he was a top-10 pick in the draft earlier this spring. The Washington product has immense talent that could arguably have him ascending to being considered the best receiver in this trio when the 2024 season is done.
Similar to the Bears, Tennessee is another team that had an overhaul at the wide receiver position this offseason. DeAndre Hopkins is the mainstay and the headliner of the group, despite entering the year at 32 years old. Hopkins and quarterback Will Levis did seem to have some solid chemistry during his rookie campaign. In eight starts that Levis earned from Week 8 to Week 15, Hopkins pushed the ball down the field with a 16.9 yards per reception average and the two connected for six touchdowns during that stretch.
Hopkins should continue to take the bulk of the attention from opposing secondaries, which will make life easier for fellow receiver Calvin Ridley . The former Jaguar signed a four-year deal with the Titans in free agency and should be another big weapon for Levis as he enters his first season as the full-time starter. In his lone season in Jacksonville after returning from suspension, Ridley caught 76 balls for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns.
Tyler Boyd was another free-agent addition and one that shouldn't be slept on either. While Hopkins and Ridley may be looked to extend the field on the boundary, Boyd may find himself a heavily involved pass catcher over the middle on short/intermediate routes from Levis.
Overall, the depth and relatively high floor are what gets this Tennessee receiver room inside the top 10.
Seattle's offense took a bit of a step back in 2023, but this is still one of the best receiver rooms that the NFL has to offer. From a physicality standpoint, D.K. Metcalf may be in a class of his own and is coming off the third thousand-yard campaign of his career and second Pro Bowl nod. At any moment, he can break open a 70-plus-yard touchdown, making him one of the more feared pass catchers in the league. On the other side, Tyler Lockett continues to be massively underrated. Even as he failed to record a thousand-yard season for the first time since 2018, Lockett still led the team in targets and receptions.
The X-factor for this group possibly taking another leap will be the projection of second-year receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba . The 2023 first-round pick's rookie season was somewhat muted as he didn't record a 100-yard receiving game in any of his 17 contests, but he was solid overall with 63 receptions, 628 yards and four touchdowns. The talent is there for us to buy low on him as he enters Year 2 in what could be a breakout campaign.
Here's where we start to dip into the dynamic duos at receiver. The talent is simply too glaring to not have them on this list and we begin with the Philadelphia Eagles receiver room headlined by A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith . Brown has been among the best individual receivers in the league essentially since he arrived in the NFL in 2019 as a member of the Titans. When he joined the Eagles in 2022, however, he took it to another level, posting back-to-back 1,400-yard seasons. Last year, Brown also registered a career-high 106 catches.
While Brown's talents are utterly apparent, it's the pairing with Smith that makes this room great. Smith is coming off his second thousand-yard season and is one of the most reliable No. 2 options in the league, catching a remarkable 72.3% of his targets a season ago. It should only be a matter of time before Smith starts to get Pro Bowl recognition.
Tyreek Hill has the most unique skill set in the NFL thanks to his blazing speed. He's coming off a 2023 season where he led the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards and, for a moment, was on pace to exceed 2,000 yards for the year. He is the type of talent that has defensive coordinators losing sleep as he he can break a game open in an instant, giving the Dolphins a tremendous ceiling in the passing game. Meanwhile, Jaylen Waddle's speed shouldn't be slept on either. He is coming off his third consecutive season where he's exceeded a thousand yards and he reached the 1,014 mark in 2023 after playing in just 14 regular season games. At his height, Waddle has the ability to be the No. 1 option on most teams in the NFL and could be a candidate to lead the league in receiving.
While these two alone make for arguably the best pass-catching duo in the league, the Dolphins also signed Odell Beckham Jr . in free agency to deepen the unit. Beckham isn't the player he once was, but as a No. 3 option and not being paid a ton of attention with opposing defenses having their hands full with Hill and Waddle, he should be a factor in 2024 so long as he stays healthy.
For a minute, it did look like this wide receiver room was going to be semi-gutted this offseason, specifically amid the trade request of Tee Higgins . However, it does seem like things have simmered down between the two sides with Higgins signing his franchise tender, so we'll assume he's on the roster in 2024. Similar to Waddle and Smith above, Higgins is talented enough to be considered a No. 1 option on most other teams in the NFL. Even with Higgins limited to 12 games and inconsistent quarterback play with Joe Burrow injured, the wideout was roughly on pace for another thousand-yard season. When he's healthy, he's capable of 140-yard performances like we saw against Pittsburgh last season.
The headline of this group, however, is Ja'Marr Chase , who has a legitimate claim to being considered the best wide receiver in all of the NFL. In his third season in the league, Chase caught a career-high 100 passes last season to go along with 1,216 yards and seven touchdowns. Again, Chase was able to put up those numbers in a season where Joe Burrow was limited to 10 games, which further heightens how impressive the year truly was.
If there's one position group I'm most excited to watch in 2024, it's the Miami Dolphins backfield. In Mike McDaniel's system, we saw both Raheem Mostert and then-rookie De'Von Achane absolutely torch the competition last season. While Christian McCaffrey got the majority of headlines for his stellar production in 2023, Mostert was going neck-and-neck with him in the touchdown department as they were tied for the most scores from scrimmage with 21. Couple that insane touchdown production with his first-ever thousand-yard rushing season and it's not a surprise to see the veteran get a Pro Bowl nod.
Meanwhile, Achane was another shot of lightning that was injected into Miami's offense last year. He was limited to just 11 games, but the former third-round pick did the most with his opportunity, rushing for 800 yards on just 103 carries. He finished the year with 997 total yards from scrimmage and 11 rushing/receiving touchdowns.
That duo alone would have the Dolphins backfield high in these rankings, but the arrival of rookie Jaylen Wright in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Tennessee helps them vault into the top five. Wright was a second-team All-SEC player last year after totaling 1,154 yards and four touchdowns from scrimmage for the Vols.
David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs were the perfect thunder-and-lightning combination that you'd typically like to have coming out of a backfield. Detroit was fifth in the league in rushing last season largely on the back of these two. Montgomery led the way with 1,015 yards on the ground, and Gibbs was right behind him with 945 yards. Each of these backs exceeded 1,100 yards from scrimmage a season ago and tallied double-digit touchdowns.
While Montgomery is entering his sixth season in the league, he's still only 27 years old and the ascension of Gibbs should keep him fresh to continue producing in a major way heading into 2024. As for Gibbs, it's his ceiling that has us bullish on this backfield as a top-three offensive unit in the league. There were plenty of Alvin Kamara comparisons to Gibbs coming out of the draft and if we get one of those prime Kamara seasons out of him in 2024, this backfield will reach a different stratosphere, especially behind the unit we'll talk about next.
Of course, we had to put an offensive line in here! And what better unit than the one that the Lions have put together? When healthy, Detroit's O-line is the best in the NFL and has star players at each starting spot. Right tackle Penei Sewell has been as-advertised since being the No. 7 overall pick in 2021 and was the league's high-graded offensive lineman last year, according to Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, center Frank Ragnow was the highest-graded center in the league.
The unit did lose Jonah Jackson in free agency but did a splendid job replacing him by bringing aboard right guard Kevin Zeitler , so they may not even skip a beat at that position.
The Houston Texans likely would've made this list regardless of what they did this offseason at the wide receiver position. Nico Collins enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023 to establish himself as one of the bright young players in the league. In 15 games, the third-year pass catcher caught 80 balls for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns. On top of his coming out party, the Texans also seemed to hit on rookie Tank Dell , who recorded 709 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns in just 11 games before going down due to injury. Those two alongside Noah Brown -- a solid veteran in his own right -- make up a fantastic group of wide receivers.
However, what put Houston over the top and considered here as the best offensive position group in the league was the blockbuster trade back in April for All-Pro receiver Stefon Diggs . His arrival now makes the Texans receiver room a matchup nightmare as they have four different players who can do serious damage. When firing on all cylinders, Diggs is capable of leading the league in every major receiving category, so his injection into this offense could be otherworldly.
Even in a down year in 2023 amid frustrations within the Bills offense, Diggs caught 107 passes for 1,183 yards and eight touchdowns. With Diggs now in a situation that he's happy about alongside quarterback C.J. Stroud and essentially in a contract year after restructuring his deal following the trade, the 30-year-old should help make this the most feared offense in the league.
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