NFL Exec: WR Free-Agent Market Down Because It's Not a 'Good Group of Receivers'

Why haven't there yet been any record-setting contracts handed out to NFL receivers in 2023?

According to a "high-ranking team executive" speaking to The Athletic's Jeff Howe, "the market is down because people didn't think it was a good group of receivers."

The sentiment was agreed with anonymously by "several more team executives," Howe reported.

Free-agent receiver signings so far include Allen Lazard with a four-year, $44 million deal with the New York Jets and JuJu Smith-Schuster with a three-year contract of up to $33 million with the Patriots.

Compare that to last year's free agency, when Christian Kirk signed a four-year, $72 million deal in Jacksonville, or to 2021 when Kenny Golladay inked a similar contract.

And last year, a series of enormous signings—including the $141.25 million deal that made the Raiders' Davante Adams the highest-paid receiver in NFL history—marked a precipitous rise in what top NFL receivers could expect to make.

That competitiveness has not been there in this year's receiver market.

Instead of competing in a relatively weak free agency pool, teams are planning to acquire receivers through trades or the draft, per Howe. Rules encouraging offensive increases in college football mean it is becoming easier to pick out which receivers are likely to succeed in the pros.

"Because of the rules, I think wide receiver is a position you can make an impact early in your career from a draft standpoint," another league executive told Howe. "You can always find wide receivers."