Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel annually runs a series on the top college prospects at each position. He polls a dozen or so NFL scouts and executives and has them rank the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. It's an interesting glimpse into how the players might go in next weekend's draft (which starts Thursday night).
Anybody reading anything about the draft knows that it's considered a strong group of tight ends, but was interesting to read that scouts seems fairly cool on the wideouts. “It’s the worst wide receiver draft at the top I’ve seen in a long time,” said an NFC executive.
Unlike with the tight ends, there's no consensus top prospect. Corey Davis, Mike Williams and John Ross each got 4-6 votes as the No. 1 wide receiver in the class. Next up were Zay Smith, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Cooper Kupp. Those are probably the wide receivers who will come off the board in the first couple of rounds.
The discussion is paired with the tight ends, which makes sense since one scout said "some of these tight ends are just big wide receivers." Evan Engram actually got a vote in the wide receiver poll, and is compared to Marques Colston and Demaryius Thomas. (Also Devin Funchess, which isn't quite as flattering.)
From the linked article you can also find McGinn's pieces on quarterbacks and running backs.
--Andy Richardson