After stacking up the NFL’s top starting quarterbacks ahead of the 2023 season, a national outlet ranked the top players that catch passes from those quarterbacks.
Pro Football Focus ranked former Clemson stars Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson among the NFL’s top 15 quarterbacks, then included a trio of former Tigers in its ranking of the league’s top 32 wide receivers.
DeAndre Hopkins is the highest-ranked former Clemson receiver on PFF’s list, coming in at No. 12.
After serving a six-game suspension to start last season, Hopkins tallied a team-high 717 receiving yards with three touchdowns and had 64 catches in nine games for the Arizona Cardinals. The 2013 first-round draft pick has posted 221 receptions for 2,696 yards and 17 touchdowns across three seasons with the Cardinals.
Overall, the three-time first-team All-Pro has amassed 853 catches for 11,298 yards and 71 touchdowns over his 10 NFL seasons with the Houston Texans and Cardinals.
“One of the more difficult players to slot on this list, Hopkins was arguably the best receiver in the league at his peak, but injury and suspension have limited him over the past couple of seasons in Arizona, along with playing in a lackluster offense,” PFF’s Sam Monson wrote. “Now on the wrong side of 30 and still yearning for a trade, Hopkins has a broad range of outcomes in 2023. But he has shown there is still plenty of juice left if he lands in a good situation.”
Tee Higgins is also ranked in the top 20 of PFF’s receiver rankings, checking in at No. 19.
Over his first three NFL seasons since being selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft, Higgins has caught 215 passes for 3,028 yards and 19 touchdowns. He has tallied exactly 74 receptions in each of the last two seasons while racking up more than 1,000 receiving yards in each of those seasons as well.
Last season, Higgins finished with 1,029 yards and seven touchdowns on those 74 catches in 16 games.
“2022 was a big year for Higgins because he was able to show that he could still look like a true No. 1 receiver without Ja’Marr Chase, who missed time due to injury, on the field drawing the attention of defenders,” Monson wrote. “Higgins justified the narrative that he can be an elite receiver in any offense and caught 61.5% of his contested targets.”
Former Clemson wideout Mike Williams also made PFF’s list as the No. 29 player at his position.
Last season, Williams missed several games due to injury but still hauled in 63 catches for 895 yards and four scores in 13 games for the Los Angeles Chargers. He has amassed 290 receptions for 4,557 yards and 30 touchdowns since being taken by the Chargers in the first round of the 2017 draft.
“A contested-catch specialist who can win deep down the field and on the vertical route tree, first and foremost, Williams is another receiver who has been battling injuries in his career,” Monson wrote. “The difference he makes to the Chargers’ offense is obvious when he is on the field, and the kind of big-play ability he brings to the table is a vital component of their passing attack.”
Xavier Thomas is back to win another championship. Dear Old Clemson has added signed posters from Thomas to our online store. For this weekend only they are on sale at an introductory price of only $30.
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Dear Old Clemson is doing NIL the ‘Clemson way’, but we need your help to make sure we build a sustainable, repeatable model that will help keep Clemson competitive with the other top programs around the nation.
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