Last season, NFL quarterbacks dropped back to throw the ball 21,323 times. NFL teams deployed three receivers on 15,496 of those dropbacks (72.7%), so let’s just say that receivers are important. Not only that, but they’re important both outside and in the slot. The 3×1 set, which is the dominant formation in the league today, most commonly has one tight end and three receivers, which means you’re going to have at least one receiver in the slot, and most likely two.
Projecting all that into the 2023 draft class of receivers is interesting, because while there’s a lot of talent — this might be the deepest position group in this class — there are more smaller “move-around” guys than there are obvious alpha WR1 players that you can just put on the field and watch him dominate everybody. This class of targets will require more creativity and trait-matching from their NFL coaches and play-callers, and while that’s not a bad thing, you could wind up with some prospects in less-than-ideal spots.
