Updated 2025 Fantasy Football Rookie WR Rankings: Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, Luther Burden, Jaylin Noel, Jack Bech, Jalen Royals, Pat Bryant

June 18, 2025

Updated fantasy football rookie wide receiver rankings for 2025. RotoBaller's top rookie WRs and draft targets, including Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, Luther Burden, and more.

The fantasy football season is still a few months away, but dynasty and rookie drafts are in full swing. We're here to help with our 2025 fantasy football rookie wide receiver rankings. In the updated rookie WR rankings below, you'll see where key rookie wideouts like Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, Luther Burden III, Jaylin Noel, Jack Bech, Jalen Royals, and Pat Bryant stand, among others.

Continuous tweaks will be made to these rankings for fantasy football rookies all offseason long, so be sure to check back regularly for updates. In addition to this article, you should also be sure to check out our other dynasty rookie rankings and analysis articles, including in-depth coverage of various NFL rookie profiles. It's important to identify studs, sleepers, and duds among first-year players in rookie drafts and 2025 fantasy football leagues, so we have you covered.

Four of our lead fantasy football analysts -- Phil Clark, Jackson Sparks, Andrew Lalama, and Matt Donnelly -- have put together these fantasy football rookie rankings. In addition to these rookie rankings, in our 2025 fantasy football rankings dashboard, you will also find our team's Dynasty League rankings. Bookmark that page, and use it to prepare for all of your 2025 fantasy football dynasty league drafts.

NFL Rookie Wide Receiver Rankings for Fantasy Football (Post-Draft)

Rookie rankings are from after the 2025 NFL Draft

Fantasy Football Outlooks for Rookie Wide Receivers

Travis Hunter, Jacksonville Jaguars

New Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver/cornerback hybrid Travis Hunter was selected No. 2 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He'll join forces with one of the brightest offensive minds in the league, newly-hired Jags head coach Liam Coen. While Coen befuddlingly doesn't get much credit for his masterpiece of a Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense in 2024, he helped quarterback Baker Mayfield to his best career year by far, and produced four elite fantasy football players (Mayfield, WRs Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and RB Bucky Irving).

Thus, it's hard not to think that Coen can help quarterback Trevor Lawrence have a monster year, and thus both receivers, Brian Thomas Jr. and Hunter. Hunter is an interesting case because he'll almost certainly play defense. Yet, Coen has already stated that he'll start out playing mostly at wideout. To think that Coen, an offensive-minded coach, wants to take an elite talent like Hunter as a WR and put him on defense most of the time seems preposterous. Expect a huge year out of Hunter. He should be a league winner in all formats.

- John Johnson

Luther Burden, Chicago Bears

After a breakout sophomore season, Luther Burden III was talked about as someone who could be one of the top receivers drafted in 2025. However, Burden's volume and efficiency regressed to respectable, not eye-popping numbers. Burden had a whopping 3.20 Receiving Yards Per Team Pass Attempt in 2023, falling to 1.80 in 2024. The yards per route numbers followed suit, with 3.29 in 2023 versus 2.32 in 2024.

Burden played in the slot over 80 percent of the time in 2023 (81.7 percent) and 2024 (85.3 percent). Interestingly, he was deployed mostly out wide in his first collegiate season at Missouri in 2022, playing wide on 85 percent of his snaps. Burden was known for those manufactured targets in the short areas and behind the line of scrimmage.

That's evident in Burden being one of 10 receiver prospects in 2025, with a short area and behind-the-line-of-scrimmage target rate of 25 percent or higher in each category. Burden and Savion Williams were the only receiving prospects drafted in the top three rounds, with the rest having Day 3 draft capital or later.

Though Burden posted a mediocre 6.10 yards after the catch per reception (YAC/Rec), given the short target usage, he forced the highest rate of missed tackles among the 2025 class. His missed tackles forced per reception (MTF/Rec) suggest he made defenders miss on nearly 50 percent of his receptions (49.2 percent).

Burden's MTF/Rec and YAC/Rec align with the film and athleticism grades, leading to above-average speed scores (88th percentile) and freak scores (80th percentile). Some might be concerned after waiting for Rome Odunze to make a rookie impact. Odunze gave us three spike outings in 2024, with him reaching over 100 receiving yards in two (Week 3 and 9) and scoring a pair of touchdowns in the third (Week 14).

The Bears didn't re-sign Keenan Allen, likely moving Burden into the slot role, with DJ Moore and Odunze playing mostly out wide. Burden theoretically bodes well and aligns with his skill set since he projects as the Bears' slot receiver. There have been rumblings of the Bears possibly re-signing Allen, which would lower Burden's stock in the short term.

In 2024, the Lions under Ben Johnson had the second-highest EPA per dropback (EPA/DB), with the Bears at 27th. Meanwhile, the Lions ranked fifth in explosive pass rate (11.3 percent) versus the Bears at No. 27 (7 percent). Johnson's offensive system should impact the Bears by using more motion and play action. That's evident in the Lions using motion on 65.9 percent of their plays (No. 4) with the Bears at 47.9 percent (No. 19).

Furthermore, the Lions ranked first in play-action rate (35 percent), with the Bears toward the bottom, ranking 28th (17.8 percent) in 2024. Burden is one of the cheapest options in the Bears' offense, so we'll want to prioritize him in the middle rounds of redraft, assuming he's their primary slot receiver. In rookie drafts, he's being underpriced due to the Chicago offense being crowded. Take the value.

- Corbin Young

Jalen Royals, Kansas City Chiefs

At a glance, Kansas City’s receiver room is loaded, and opportunities may be tough to come by for the fourth-round rookie. But don’t forget that Rashee Rice destroyed his knee last season and has a potential suspension looming. If he misses time, which is likely, that leaves Xavier Worthy, Marquise Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Skyy Moore, and an aging Travis Kelce to compete with for targets.

While he looks to be the fifth option at best on paper with everyone healthy, Royals could work his way into the starting lineup with injuries, and it may be impossible to take him off the field once he gets on it. The Utah State product put up 834 yards and six touchdowns in just seven games with former Iowa castaway Spencer Petras throwing him the football this past season.

Royals is a dynamic playmaker with the ball in his hands, but also a great route runner. He stands 6 feet tall and weighs 205 pounds, offering legitimate NFL size. His game has few holes, and he could really thrive being tied to Patrick Mahomes in an offense that was clearly lacking additional weapons in 2024. In the late second round or early third round of rookie drafts, he is a great value.

- Brant Henson

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