Who is the best WR in the NFL? How Puka Nacua stacks up vs. JSN, Ja'Marr after historic 'MNF'

Revisiting our list of the top 10 wide receivers in football

Oct 13, 2026 at 11:09 am ET • 6 min read

Before the season started, CBS Sports rolled out its top-10 rankings for players at every position on both offense and defense. Some of those rankings look extremely prescient five weeks into the NFL season. Others do not. That's just the way it goes. Football is an unpredictable game, and even those of us who observe it most closely and get a lot right still get a lot wrong a lot of the time.

We're not necessarily here to debate what we got right or wrong, but to revisit our lsit. Because so many wide receivers are off to such great starts this season and delivering jump-off-the-screen performances in big-time games, we wanted to see if there are any updates we can make just under a third of the way through the season.

So in the space below, we'll detail the updated top 10. Enjoy.

Honorable mentions (in no particular order): Malik Nabers, Tetairoa McMillan, Davante Adams, George Pickens, Garrett Wilson, Parker Washington, DeVonta Smith, Mike Evans, Christian Watson, A.J. Brown

10. Zay Flowers, Ravens

• Preseason Rankings: Also receiving votes

Flowers is off to an insane start to the season. He's only played two full games so far (he missed one, left one early and played only 33% of the snaps in another), and he's yet to play a full complement of snaps with Lamar Jackson under center. Yet, he already has 26 catches for 405 yards and a pair of scores. He leads the NFL with 4.45 yards per route run, per Tru Media, and that number was even higher before he had to play a game with his backup quarterback. He's being used by Declan Doyle in a way that maximizes his skill set, and it's beautiful to watch.

9. Chris Olave, Saints

• Preseason Rankings: Also receiving votes

Olave is tied for the NFL lead in catches with 39, and he's already got 537 yards (second) as well. He is a target vacuum in the Saints' high-volume passing offense, seeing a look on 26.3% of his routes, according to Tru Media. He's also generated an explosive play (gain of 15+ yards) on 20.4% of his targets, which is the highest mark of his career to date. He's worked more often on the perimeter this season than last (73.2% of his routes compared with 61.0%), but it hasn't stopped him from being a target hog. 

8. Drake London, Falcons

• Preseason Rankings: 9

London is a completely different — and absurdly good — player whenever Michael Penix Jr. is on the field for the Falcons. Penix has played in 17 games, starting 15 of them, over the last three years. In those games, London has caught 100 of 154 passes for 1,535 yards and eight touchdowns. He's seen a target on 33% of his routes and averaged 9.97 yards per target. All of those are elite, best-of-the-best type of numbers. Unfortunately, quarterback play has undermined his performance whenever someone other than Penix has been out there, but that shouldn't take away from what he does when he has solid QB play.

7. Nico Collins, Texans

• Preseason Rankings: 8

Collins is a monster-sized receiver (6-foot-4, 222 pounds) with a monster skill set. Utilized most often as a pure X receiver (he lines up out wide on 88% of his routes, per Tru Media), Collins is tasked with doing the hardest work a receiver can do. He makes it look relatively easy. He's only played in three games this year due to a hamstring injury, but he's gone for 19-249-3 and looked dominant doing it.  

6. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions

• Preseason Rankings: 5

I think it's important to note that while St. Brown often gets labeled as "the best slot receiver" in football, he's actually played more often on the perimeter than on the inside in three straight seasons. He does everything, not just the slot stuff. He's obviously absurdly good in the slot, but he's also really good outside. He's gone for 100-plus catches and 1,100-plus yards in four consecutive seasons, and five 10-plus touchdowns in each of the last three. He's on pace to top all of those numbers again this year. He's the model of consistency.

5. CeeDee Lamb, Cowboys

• Preseason Rankings: 6

It's easy to forget what Lamb did the last time he was fully healthy and had Dak Prescott under center for a full season: He led the NFL with 135 catches and piled up 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns while being named a First Team All-Pro. This season, he's reminding people just how good he is. He's tied with Olave for the league lead in catches, and he also has 507 yards and four touchdowns. Had he not suffered a quad injury during last week's game against Tampa, those numbers would be even better. CeeDee does everything, and he does it all at an extremely high level.

4. Justin Jefferson, Vikings

• Preseason Rankings: 2

Jefferson is another one who has missed some time this year, leaving one game after just seven snaps and missing another with an injury. In his other three games, he has 17 catches for 226 yards and three touchdowns. And one of those games came with a backup quarterback forced into emergency duty, and another came in a driving storm where pass volume was limited. We all know what Jefferson can do when he's healthy and has even adequate QB play. We'll likely see it through the rest of the year.

3. Puka Nacua, Rams

• Preseason Rankings: 3

Stop me if you've heard this before, but we have another guy who has missed time here. Nacua sat out two games, and yet, after Monday night's 17-catch explosion against the Bills, he already has 31 grabs for 337 yards and a score this season. He led the league at 107.2 yards per game last year, and he's topping that this season at 112.3 per game. He's a physical force as a pass-catcher, run-after-catch guy and a blocker. The only thing keeping him from the top of this list is reliability. He misses too many games and too many plays due to trips to the medical tent. 

2. Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals

• Preseason Rankings: 1

Chase has also missed time this year, leaving one game after just 15 snaps due to a concussion. But he's still at 27-289-4, and he proves every week how much of a freak he is with some of the most ridiculous catches you can imagine. (See his touchdown grabs against the Texans and Dolphins for examples.) He's elite off the line, at the break and after the catch. There's nothing he doesn't do at the highest possible level. He's gone for at least 100-1,200-7 in each of the last three years, and even if he's not on that pace right now, he'll almost surely get there again. It's what he does.

1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks

• Preseason Rankings: 4

JSN leads the NFL with 583 receiving yards, a year after leading the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards. He's gone for 75-plus yards in every game this season and 100-plus in four of five. He's also scored in four of five contests and has an NFL-high seven receiving touchdowns to date. It's impossible to cover him, and right now, he runs the best routes in the league. He wins so easily both off the line and at the break that it's almost hard to fathom how he's not wide the hell open on every single play. (And he usually is, anyway.) This crown will likely be passed back and forth between the top few guys for a while, but right now, JSN has it.