The NFL has always had a fascination with explosive playmakers, particularly the young ones. Though not widely noted before the draft the rookie wide receiving group was incredibly deep coming into this year’s season.

With the recent history of receivers such as Megatron, AJ Green, Alshon Jeffery and Josh Gordon coming into the league and simply shredding defenses immediately, it’s hard to believe that the best young wide-outs may be yet to come.

One stand out rookie is former Florida State and current Panther’s receiver Kelvin Benjamin. The No. 28 pick in the draft came into Carolina with big shoes to fill given the departure of Steve Smith to Baltimore, and he has yet to miss a beat.

His 8 touchdowns are tied for the lead amongst rookie receivers, and he uses both incredible size and athleticism to pull in the ball.

He has shown explosiveness in this season that not many expected coming off a lack luster combine, and is clearly Cam Newton’s new favorite target.

From one NFC South rookie to another, Mike Evans is using pure size to dominate defensive backs. In week 11 he beat the Washington Redskins on seemingly every play, scoring 2 touchdowns while amassing 209 yards averaging almost 30 yards per catch.
A true deep threat due to his size and leaping ability, Evans has proven to be a bright spot in a Buccaneers offense that has struggled throughout the season.

Even with the future of certain pieces in Tampa in question, Evans has shown that he very well could be here to stay.
The far and away best receiver graded in last year’s draft was Clemson’s explosive Sammy Watkins. The former Tiger was quickly taken by the Buffalo Bills No. 4 overall in the 2014 draft but has shown a bit of inconsistency.

In the two weeks after the bye Watkins has had an underwhelming 59 total yards and no touchdowns in two Bill loses.
Though the last few weeks have been rough for Watkins he has shown play making ability with an 84 yard touchdown against the Jets and over 100 total yards and 2 touchdowns against the Vikings.

The flavor of the week has been Giant’s rookie Odell Beckham Jr. The formwer LSU Tiger’s one-handed (or better yet three fingered) touchdown catch against the Cowboys went viral within an hour and has been being speculated as one of the greatest catches of all time.

Second round pick Jordan Matthews of Vanderbilt has quietly proven that he is of value in Chip Kelly’s high tempo offense. With two-thirds of his catches coming in for first downs he has shown to be a solid down the field reciever.

An impressive 7 touchdowns and nearly 700 yards through this season gives opposing defenses something to plan for on the opposite side of All-Pro Jeremy Maclin and with one of the NFL’s best tail backs in LeSean “Shady” McCoy.

All in all this class of rookie wide outs had given an exciting array of plays and want to prove that in this pass happy NFL that they belong.