The influx of young talent at the wide receiver position has been noteworthy in recent years, and Bills General Manager Brandon Beane says it’s only going to increase.
Beane says that there’s a huge pipeline of talented wide receivers coming into the NFL because college football, high school football and youth football are all developing receivers in a way they didn’t in the past.
“I think you’re going to see receivers every year, from now on, being one of the deeper classes because of all the 7-on-7 and all the passing that’s starting at youth level,” Beane said. “You go watch Pop Warner football, they’re chucking the ball. None of us got to do that when we were little. If you threw it twice a game you were lucky. So I think that’s going to be a position that will generally be one of the deep ones in every draft.”
There was a time when football at the lower levels was a run-first game, and that meant the best athletes wanted to play running back, and the first round of the draft always had talented running backs. That time is in the past. This year, there probably won’t be a single running back drafted in the first round, but there are a lot of excellent prospects at wide receiver. And that’s the direction the sport of football will continue to head in, from Pop Warner to the NFL.
