Are Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill & Jaylen Waddle among NFL’s top-10 WRs?

The summer of the offseason is winding down, and a new season of football is on the horizon. With teams starting to report to camp, it’s feeling real again. The optimism going into a new season is something that all fans can celebrate.

New faces and established players are tying their cleats and will hit the field before you know it. Every beginning of a new season just feels refreshing, and I’m here for it.

With that, some players broke out the year before or dropped down the rankings, and it’s time to rank the best players at each position among the most trusted sources.

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN has released the best players at each position over the last week and a half, ranked by executives, coaches, and scouts.

Yesterday, the rankings were for the position that gets the most coverage behind quarterbacks obviously, but are not short of headlines and stories. They may be the divas of the NFL, but at times steal the show, especially down here in Miami with the way they air out the ball.

That, as we all know, is the receiver position, and Miami has two of the league’s best in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, but are they in the top ten around the league? Let’s find out.

The Game Plan Wrecker

As we all assumed, Tyreek Hill didn’t just make the top ten list, he nearly reached the top. Coming in second among all receivers in the NFL, the ranking is justified.

Spending his first six years with the Kansas City Chiefs, mostly with the “Baby Goat” Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, Hill went from fifth-round return specialist/utility player to receiver and ultimately to one of the most dangerous weapons in the league.

Although Hill was classed as a star receiver with a Super Bowl ring, he turned his game up to another level with Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and head coach Mike McDaniel.

Hill put up back-to-back 1,700-yard seasons with the Dolphins and has the most yards in the league over that span. The Tua to Tyreek pairing faced criticism when they first got together, but have since become the deadliest downfield connection in all of the NFL.

When you look at the stats, it’s understandable to question why Hill isn’t the number one receiver in the NFL, especially when he’s apparently so good that Tagovailoa naysayers use Hill as a detractor of his play. I have only one reason why, and that’s clutchness.

I’m not saying that Tyreek Hill isn’t clutch. You ask Bills fans if he’s clutch, and they’ll probably hold back a few tears, but going from last year to this year, there were too many plays he left on the field. Justin Jefferson doesn’t leave those on the field. He makes those plays and then some.

If Hill made more of those game-defying plays that were there for the taking, we’d be talking about him as the undisputed best receiver in the league. Until then, he’s the most dangerous, and as Fowler said, “he wrecks a game plan,” but he’s still not the overall best… yet.

Don’t Forget About The Penguin

I love the Penguin nickname for Jaylen Waddle in this context because it reminds me of the villain in Batman. He may not be the Joker, Bane, or Ras Al Guhl, but he’s dangerous, and if you forget about him, he’ll beat you just as easily as those other top-tier villains.

He’s great, but in my experience when you ask other fans, and media about Waddle, the echoed sentiment is that he’s not top ten, but maybe a top fifteen receiver.

Waddle being primarily a body catcher, along with his frame and injury history, puts him in a box. That box is a speed guy who avoids being hit and doesn’t make tough, contested catches.

When you put Waddle in space with the ball, he’s as fast as anyone and can outrun the defense. He’s put up consistent numbers and has highlights that pop out of the screen. Although he’s done that as second fiddle to Tyreek Hill, he’s not ranked in the top ten but does show up as the fourth honorable mention. That would put him at fourteen, and that feels right.

The paise given to him is “elite speed and an underrated route runner.” I’d change underrated to excellent when it comes to his route running, but he does have room to grow into a WR1, and become a top-ten receiver.

A little more muscle on his 5’10, 185 lb frame could help him absorb hits, and keep him on the field more. There were more than a handful of times when he got hit and left the game immediately in 2023. It may not have been reported as injuries because he returned after a few plays or a series, but Dolphins fans saw it.

More muscle, along with working more on catching the ball with his hands rather than his body can help with yards after catch and finishing plays.

If those are corrected, his ceiling is a top ten to maybe a top five receiver in the league.

The Dolphins have two of the top fifteen receivers in the league according to execs, coaches, and scouts. It’s been a fireworks show for the last two years and should continue in 2024.

Let us know in the comments if you agree with where Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are positioned in Jeremy Fowler’s rankings.