Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill Top NFL WR Rankings by Coaches, Execs

After becoming the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL earlier this offseason, Ja'Marr Chase is also regarded as the best player at the position going into the 2025 season by talent evaluators across the league.

In a survey of coaches, scouts and executives conducted by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Chase finished ahead of Justin Jefferson and Tyreek Hill to be named the NFL's top wideout.

ESPN NFL WR Rankings

1. Ja'Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
2. Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings
3. Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins
4. CeeDee Lamb, Dallas Cowboys
5. A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles
6. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
7. Malik Nabers, New York Giants
8. Nico Collins, Houston Texans
9. Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
10. Garrett Wilson, New York Jets

Somewhat surprisingly, the race between Chase and Jefferson for the top spot didn't seem to be all that close. Fowler pointed out the Bengals star earned around 70 percent of the first-place votes.

There's no wrong answer when deciding between Chase and Jefferson. If you're evaluating based on what they did in 2024, it's hard not to give Chase a slight edge coming off a year when he won the receiving triple crown with 127 receptions, 1,708 yards and 17 touchdowns.

The argument for Jefferson was he had a huge year (103 catches, 1,533 yards, 10 touchdowns) with Sam Darnold as his quarterback in 2024, while Chase was catching passes from Joe Burrow.

As one high-ranking NFL personnel director explained to Fowler, they favored Chase simply because he "is a b---h to cover" and they have "been torched by him a bunch" over the years.

Jefferson was forced to settle for the No. 2 spot after being atop Fowler's survey in each of the previous two years. The Vikings superstar holds the NFL record for most receiving yards through five seasons by a wide margin. His 7,432 yards is 648 more than the No. 2 player (Torry Holt: 6,784).

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the list is that Tyreek Hill is still regarded as the No. 3 wide receiver in the NFL. He's coming off the least-productive year of his career since his rookie campaign in 2016. His 959 yards and six touchdowns were his fewest in a season since 2019 when he only played 12 games.

Despite the down year in 2024, one NFC executive told Fowler that Hill's speed "hasn't fallen off" and it "dictates so much" of how opposing defenses play against him and the Miami Dolphins offense.

The breakout star from last season was Malik Nabers, who checks in at No. 7 on the list. He put up 1,204 receiving yards on 109 receptions in 15 games for the New York Giants as a rookie.

Making things even scarier for the rest of the NFL is people in the league believe there are areas of Nabers' game that will get better with more experience.

"He can go 0 to 60 in three seconds like a Ferrari, but he's built like a truck," an NFL personnel evaluator to Fowler of Nabers. "And he's not even an elite route runner yet. Just wait until that happens."

Chase, Jefferson, Hill and CeeDee Lamb were the only players on the list who appeared on every ballot cast in Fowler's survey.