Clemson football: Still Wide Receiver U?

Anthony Treash of Pro Football Focus endeavored to rank the NFL wide receivers ahead of the 2022 season, listing the top 32 NFL receivers in the league and Clemson football has four alums, or 12.5%, among the group, including numbers 3, 13, 24 and 27.

Treash broke the 32 into tiers and it was interesting to see where the Tigers fell.

Nuk Hopkins comes in at number three and was in tier 1 (Elite) on the list and here’s some of Treash’s take:

"Hopkins finished sixth or better in receiving grade in five of the six seasons between 2015 and 2020, seasons filled with highlight-reel toe-tappers, contested wins and spectacular grabs from off-target throws. Since joining Arizona in 2020, his 1.8% drop rate is the second-best in the NFL."

Hopkins, recently suspended for PED use, is in his 10th NFL season and has four seasons with more than 100 receptions, including one where he tallied 115.

For my money, Nuk is clearly still an elite receiver, though maybe without the top end speed of the younger players.

Tee Higgins (#13) was in the second tier (Young Talents on the Cusp of Tier 1) and is an up and comer in Treash’s eyes.

"The 6-foot-4, 215-pound pass-catcher can make some difficult grabs over the middle of the field and use his large catch radius to reel in slightly inaccurate targets."

Higgins makes electric catches all the time despite being overshadowed by Ja’Marr Chase, but is a very good NFL wide receiver.

Finally in Tier 4 (Maybe not elite, but high quality pass-catchers) are Mike Williams at number 24 and Hunter Renfrow at #27.

Treash sees Williams as a complimentary type receiver, despite listing him as the 24th best receiver in the league.

"Bodying defensive backs in tight coverage is where Williams wins. Since 2018, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound wide receiver ranks third in contested catches (66) and second in yards coming from tight coverage targets (1,016)."

I agree with Treash’s assessment.  Williams disappears at times and isn’t consistent enough to be considered a number one receiver at this point, at least not on a team with Keenan Allen

As for Renfrow, he’s among the league’s best slot receivers, and, stop me if you’ve heard this one, doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.  Part of his take on Renfrow is below.

"Renfrow is among the league’s best slot receivers. He turned in the seventh-best slot receiving grade in 2021 and brought in 96.5% of his catchable targets when on the inside."

All Renfrow does is produce and as a slot receiver, in today’s highlight culture, he’s bound to be underrated as an important piece of the team, especially on third down.

Clemson has recently made its name at the quarterback position with Deshaun Watson going in the first round and Trevor Lawrence going number one overall, but before those two, it was the receivers making the Clemson name a regular in the NFL, including one team that had six wideouts make the league.

Four receivers in the top 27 in the league are Tigers in Treash’s view and that’s a strong statement from this group that at least for now, Clemson is still WRU.