2025 Rookie WR Preview (Fantasy Football)

We’re already in April, and that means the NFL Draft is just around the corner. Andy, Mike, and Jason know this, and that’s why they have been covering every relevant rookie prospect in this draft class. In their latest episode, they highlighted their favorite rookie WRs, sharing which strengths and weaknesses they saw in each one of them during their scouting process. In this article, you’ll find the main fantasy takeaways from this analysis. 

For a more in-depth look at each prospect, check out our Rookie Profile series, going on until the 2025 NFL Draft. For more on each rookie, check out Andy, Mike, and Jason’s exclusive rookie rankings and production profiles found only in the Dynasty Pass, part of the UDK+ for 2025.

Also, you can watch the full episode on YouTube here: 

Even though this is not a particularly brilliant WR class, there are some teams like the Patriots, Cardinals, Chargers, Giants, Broncos, and Saints with good reasons to invest high draft capital in the position. So, the opportunity will be there for some of these players to become fantasy-relevant. Let’s start with the consensus WR1 among Andy, Mike, and Jason:

Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona

He is not guaranteed to be the first WR to go off the board. He might not even go in the top 15. But he is one of the few who can be projected to be a true Alpha WR. The Ballers compare him to Drake London: big body, outstanding athlete, huge catch radius, and exceptionally good hands. He can work both as an outside WR and from the slot. His contested catch numbers are good: 25% of his targets were contested, and he caught 53% of them, even though he didn’t play with a very good QB in Arizona.

But Mike highlighted a worrisome fact on the show: when someone asked him about watching film, he said he doesn’t do it because he doesn’t know how to. McMillan might have been too confident in his size and athleticism, which is fine when you’re bigger than anybody else in college. But everyone is huge in the NFL. If McMillan doesn’t start studying opponents and watching film, he could lose his edge and have a hard time adapting. Also, saying something like that before the NFL Draft can be kryptonite to a player’s draft capital.

In a draft full of star RBs, there are still some solid WRs out there. Tetairoa McMillan might be the 1st WR off the board this year, and there are some clear reasons why…

big boy size
fights for every ball
1⃣ an Alpha WR

Check out my rookie profile on the U of A stud…

— Julia_Papworth (@juliapapworth) March 11, 2025

Travis Hunter, Colorado

These are only his WR numbers, but you must know that Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter played both WR and cornerback in college. Some weeks ago, it seemed he would be drafted as a CB, which is why many fantasy analysts consider him a wild card. If he were a pure WR, he would have probably been the best WR prospect of this class, but Hunter has said he wants to play both positions. Whoever drafts him should take advantage of having such a difference-maker on their roster and build specific WR packages for him. Currently, Vegas has him as the favorite to go to the Giants with the third overall pick, meaning he could be drafted way higher than the rest of this WR class.

Drafting Travis Hunter could mean getting a two-position star athlete who can make big plays on both sides of the ball. He was a five-star recruit with fantastic hands (only four drops in three years), quick release, and excellent separation. He’s shown versatility, playing 65% of his snaps from the slot in 2023 and then 95% from the outside in 2024. In his final college year, he led all FBS WRs in missed tackles forced. Of course, getting used on both sides of the ball would increase his injury risk and the chances of him having a shorter career than average. But he is young, breaking out at 19, and is still just 21 years old. There is really no player like him, and it will be very interesting to see how this story unfolds.

Luther Burden III, Missouri

With a kick returner background, Luther Burden III is another five-star recruit, although a smaller prospect than McMillan. He has really good hands and was used all over the offensive formation, excelling at screen passes, jet sweeps, and quick passes. He broke out at 19 during his sophomore campaign, but his production decreased almost in half during his final year, which might raise some alarms. Looking at his 2024 season, he’s shown great athleticism and playmaking ability after the catch but not a lot of long-route running, which can hurt a player’s production.

However, he is such a Swiss-army-knife of a player with amazing yards-after-the-catch ability that if he lands at the right spot with an OC who knows how to use his skills creatively, things could really go his way. Once the ball is in his hands, he might be the best WR in this whole class. 

Emeka Egbuka, Ohio State

Egbuka is probably the safest WR pick in this NFL Draft. He was the #1 recruit of the 2021 class, ahead of players like Brian Thomas, Jr., Xavier Worthy, and Malik Nabers. He has the Ohio State pedigree, and he broke a lot of records there, so it would make sense for him to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft. He is very athletic, excellent at running routes, and knows how to find soft spots in coverage to help the offense sustain drives. He played 73% of his college snaps from the slot, where he proved to be very willing to block in the run game, which is something NFL coaches love to see in a WR. 

He is a solid receiver in general, but he is not as explosive as Thomas Jr. or Nabers, which might make him more of an ideal No. 2 for an NFL team. This might make him a very trustworthy player in real football, but not necessarily as steady for fantasy.

Matthew Golden, Texas

He has been rising in mock drafts recently, and the first round looks like a possibility for Matthew Golden. His production profile is not great (apart from big games in college football playoffs), but he is quite the speedster. He ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.29 seconds) among all WRs at the NFL Combine. 

Having a great playoff game against LSU and shining in the Combine skyrocketed his projections from the fifth or sixth round all the way up to the first one. We saw the same kind of reaction to Xavier Worthy’s 40-yard dash, and some people are expecting Golden to be the next Worthy, but we have to be careful with this. His individual skills are good, but he doesn’t profile to be a difference-maker in the NFL. His film has great highlights, but watching full games shows he also has the ability to completely disappear. Being fast is not everything.

Tre Harris, Ole Miss

Tre Harris is another big receiver (6’3”, 210 lbs) who can become an NFL team’s Alpha WR. His college production was pretty good, breaking out at 19. Harris could have declared for the draft a year ago because he has an NFL-ready body. He is good at breaking tackles, quick in short-area plays, and has been used in long routes, making him a versatile prospect. He has the highest yards-per-route-run of any WR drafted in the first three rounds over the last decade.

Playing for Ole Miss makes him a bit of a question mark for some people, given how different this offense plays to an average NFL team. But many OCs would benefit from having such a big and athletic WR on their offense. Think of him as a modern-day Michael Thomas: a big receiver whose body makes him look like an outside X receiver but moves smoothly enough to play like a Z receiver. It will be very interesting to see where he lands.

There are many other interesting WRs in this draft class, like Jack Bech (TCU), Elic Ayomanor (Stanford), and Jalen Royals (Utah State). If you want to know more about them or get a deeper analysis on the ones mentioned in this article, don’t forget to check out the UDK+ and, of course, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast.