The 49ers selected De'Zhaun Stribling at No. 33 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, while the Browns picked Denzel Boston at No. 39. Both players are expected to enhance their respective teams' receiving corps despite concerns about their production and quarterback play.
Key points
49ers selected De'Zhaun Stribling at No. 33 overall
Stribling had 811 yards and six touchdowns in college
Browns picked Denzel Boston at No. 39 overall
Boston caught over 70% of contested targets last season
Concerns about quarterback play may affect rookie performance
San Francisco 49ersCleveland BrownsDe'Zhaun StriblingDenzel Boston
De’Zhaun Stribling leads off round two
As they tend to do, the 49ers went off the board with their Day Two skill position picks, the first of whom was Ole Miss’s De'Zhaun Stribling at No. 33 overall. The former Rebel bounced around a few schools with modest production before landing at Ole Miss for his fifth season of college ball. Stribling led his team with 811 yards and six scores. He wasn't particularly efficient, averaging a measly 2.15 yards per route, bringing his career mark to 1.69. Stribling got more love from the film-watchers, with his crisp intermediate routes leading many to believe he would work well in a Kyle Shanahan offense. I, however, am skeptical that Shanny even knows what he wants in skill position players.
Strilbing has more than impressive physical traits. He ran a 4.36 40 at 6’2/207, and that speed shows up on tape. Still, his weak production profile and Shanahan’s mercurial relationship with the players he hand-selects in the draft have me taking a cautious approach with Strilbing in my upcoming rookie rankings.
Browns double up on wide receivers
The Browns made a great pick in Round 1 with Texas A&M wideout KC Concepcion. He is a dynamic wideout who can win at any level, even if his money is made on short and intermediate throws. They made a complete 180 at pick 39, going for Washington’s No. 1 boundary wideout in Denzel Boston. Boston was one of eight receivers in the country last year to catch over 70 percent of their contested targets (min. 10 opportunities). He is more than capable of earning separation, though. Only 13.7 percent of his targets were contested. Between Boston, Concepcion, Harold Fannin Jr., and Quinshon Judkins, the Browns could have a top-flight skill position corps this year. We may never know, given how bad the quarterback play is expected to be. That will make Concepcion and Boston tough bets from a fantasy perspective, but Browns fans should be happy with this haul.
Bernard is a Steeler to his core. He’s not overly impressive at any one thing. He averaged a solid 6.4 YAC for his career with an aDOT of 10.5. Bernard logged over 500 career routes from both out wide and in the slot. He’s a rugged wideout with 36 career carries and a mean streak as a run blocker. All of that being said, a career mark of 1.9 yards per route is below-average and he never earned a College Dominator (combined yardage and touchdown shares) over 23 percent. Bernard has some Robert Woods in his game and NFL teams are going to love that until the day he retires. For now, he looks like a distant WR3 on a Steelers team that may or may not have Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.
Vanderbilt’s No. 1 pass-catcher was billed as somewhat of a WR/TE hybrid after his impressive 2025 season. He posted a 62-769-4 receiving line but did so at just 6’4/239. He wasn’t asked to do much of the dirty work as a blocker didn't look the part when he did have to put his hand in the ground. With a career YPRR of 2.34 and a final-season mark of 2.55, Stowers was always going to be a favorite of the spreadsheet nerds. There was, however, a real risk that the NFL viewed him as a positionless tweener. That is at least untrue for one franchise: the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly used the No. 54 pick on him a day after trading up for USC receiver Makai Lemon. The Eagles have also not been shy about moving Dallas Goedert — a 2027 free agent — around the formation either. He ran 49 percent of his routes from the slot and 14 percent from out wide in 2025. Stowers had a 66 percent slot rate and an eight percent wide rate in 2025. He will undoubtedly need to get more comfortable as an inline tight end, but there is a path for him to be drafted as a breakout TE1 bet next year if he flashes as a rookie.
Jags start a run of blocking tight ends
As was the case with our Day One Draft Recap, this article is largely focused on the fantasy fallout of the picks. There were plenty of blocking tight ends taken in the second and third rounds. Not all of them need a lengthy write-up, but I’ll give them all some love here.
Boerkircher played five years of college football and never hit 200 yards in a season. He averaged under one yard per route for his career. There’s almost no receiving profile here, but PFF graded him as their No. 22 run-blocking tight end in 2025. Despite having an offensive guru head coach, the Jags couldn’t get anything going outside of 11-personnel.
This is another blocking pick… for now. Klein grew up in Germany for and didn’t pick up football until later in his youth, as far as future professional football players go. He spent most of his time at Michigan as a backup and the team didn’t throw much even when he was on the field. Klein ran an impressive 4.61 40 and earned a 9.05 RAS, giving him the athletic profile of a productive tight end. It will likely take multiple years for him to hone his skills as a pass-catcher, but he could be something down the road.
Roush could have been an interesting fantasy bet on another team, but he isn’t usurping Colston Loveland anytime soon. Roush is a true Y tight end who posted a solid 49-545-2 receiving line as a senior. Rush is a good blocker and logged an elite 9.94 RAS at the NFL Combine. The bad news is that he is likely the Cole Kmet replacement plan for Ben Johnson’s offense. Kmet’s role as the versatile TE2 could be vacated if Chicago cuts him for cap purposes next year, but it’s not a job we should expect to produce a fantasy-relevant player.
Delp is a film-watcher's dream tight end. He’s a tenacious blocker whose highlight reel features loads of YAC. He went for 509 yards over the past two years and 309 of them came after the catch. Delp then crushed the Underwear Olympics with a 4.49 40 and a 9.82 RAS.
The spreadsheets tell a different story. Delp averaged a pitiful 1.23 career YPRR and clocked a final season College Dominator of eight percent. A player with this little production turning into a TE1 fantasy option would be extremely rare. With Juwan Johnson occupying a receiver-first tight end role for the Saints, Delp’s path to playing time in 2026 will be as a blocking No. 2 tight end.
Kacmarek was a backup to Max Klare in his final season, serving almost exclusively as a blocking tight end. He caught just 15 passes and only reeled in eight the previous year. Pro Football Focus graded him as a solid blocker in both run and pass pro, but that’s all we’re getting from him in the NFL.
Rams won’t stop until they employ every tight end
Moving on to a slightly more interesting tight end, the Rams just keep adding them. They signed Colby Parkinson two years ago and brought Tyler Higbee back in free agency this offseason. LA drafted Terrance Ferguson out of Oregon last year and even has Davis Allen as a nice depth piece. Sean McVay, of course, reinvented his offense around multi-TE sets in 2025, meaning he needs a stable of players who can fill the various facets of that role. He kept adding this year with Ohio State’s Max Klare. Klare dominated Purdue’s offense in 2024, operating as a de facto WR1. He then transferred to OSU where Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith comfortably outshone him. Klare put on some weight and got extra reps as a blocker with the Buckeyes, rounding out his skill set ahead of the draft, even if his counting stats (43-448-2) were hurt by the move. He should be the favorite to take over Parkinson’s role as the top snap-earner on LA’s roster in 2027 when the latter hits free agency. For now, fantasy managers will have to wait.
Cardinals get their QB
The Cardinals were comfortable favorites to land Ty Simpson heading into Round One, but the Rams blew that plan up with the 13th pick. Instead, Arizona pivoted to Miami’s Carson Beck with the first pick of the third round. The Cardinals have Jacoby Brissett penciled in as their Week 1 starter, but he went 1-11 in that role last year. He may have the approval of first-year head coach Matt LaFleur right now, but will that hold up when the team is 2-9 coming out of the bye? I doubt it. Beck has NFL size at 6’5/233 and is coming off a run to the National Title game. He looks the part of a pro passer, but neither the data nor the film are buying it. His efficiency was middling in 2025 and scouts aren’t awfully impressed by his arm or his decision-making. Beck will make some starts this year, and that has some value in Superflex leagues. Beyond that, this is simply a flyer for the Cardinals as they bide their time until the 2027 draft.
Washington needed a layup target for Jayden Daniels. They passed on receiver in the first round and circled back at pick No. 71. Williams was a solid producer at Clemson who did most of his damage out of the slot. He ran 93 percent of his routes from the slot in 2025 and went for 604 yards in 10 games, missing a handful of contests due to injury. Williams also excelled on manufactured touches, scoring a rushing touchdown in each of his final two games with a pair of passing scores to boot. Williams’ YAC production was just average at 5.3 per catch and he stalled out at a 26 percent College Dominator as a junior. This is a high-floor pick for a team that needs more easy-button looks on offense, but I don’t know if Williams has much of a ceiling for fantasy purposes.
New York lost Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency and has Malik Nabers recovering from a torn ACL. Receiver wasn’t their top need heading into the draft, but it was on the list. At 6’5/218, Fields has true alpha size. He ran nearly 90 percent of his routes from the boundary at Notre Dame and Virginia while bringing in just shy of half of his contested targets. Fields is also a willing blocker in the run game. He wasn’t particularly efficient in college, averaging 1.94 YPRR for his career, though that did rise to 2.0 in 2024 and 2.2 in 2025. A 4.61 40-yard dash means he doesn’t have the speed to separate from NFL defenders, but he could operate as a full-time X receiver, freeing Nabers up to move around the formation more often.
Dolphins draft a pair of third-round receivers
Miami double-tapped receiver in Round Three with Texas Tech’s Caleb Douglas at No. 75 and Louisville’s Chris Bell at 94. I and every big board on the planet would have flipped those picks before giving Douglas another 50-slot discount. For reference, Douglas was ranked just outside the top 200 players on Arif Hasan’s Big Board, which is just an aggregate of over 100 boards from around the industry. Douglas plateaued around 800 yards in both of his seasons at Texas Tech and averaged 1.79 YPRR for his career. At 6’4/206, you would want to see Douglas bully corners on 50/50 balls, but he brought in just 41 percent of his career contested targets and averaged a middling 1.7 YPRR against press coverage in 2025.
Bell, on the other hand, eviscerated press coverage at 3.2 YPRR in 2025 and corralled 55.9 percent of his career contested looks. At 6’2/222, Bell is built like a wrecking ball. Douglas’s biggest advantage in 2026 will be time. Bell tore his ACL late in the 2025 season, meaning he will likely miss most, if not all, of the offseason program and some games. Douglas will get to spend the summer stacking up against Jalen Tolbert, Tutu Atwell, and Malik Washington in practices. Even though I’m down on him as a prospect, he could easily shine when his competition is that weak.
Drew Allar is a strange prospect. He was a high-pedigree passer on a first-round trajectory ahead of 2025. Then he struggled for two months, the Penn State football program imploded, and Allar bowed out early with a broken ankle. At 6’5/228, Allar has NFL size and looks capable of making almost any throw. He simply struggles to get in rhythm for more than a few plays in a row, often leading to frustrating blunders. He’s an interesting developmental piece if he gets to sit behind Aaron Rodgers for a year. Things will get ugly in a hurry if Rodgers retires and Allar is rushed into the lineup.
Falcons address WR depth at pick 79
The Falcons had to add a name to their WR2 mix. They entered the draft with Jahan Dotson and Olamide Zaccheaus vying for the role. Instead, they left the draft with a gadget WR3 candidate. Zacharia Branch ranked second in the country in screens (44) and 135th in non-screen catches (37) during his lone season at Georgia. He averaged 7.8 YAC, which would normally be an elite mark. After adjusting for his 3.6 aDOT, it’s just good. The Falcons don’t have a YAC guy, and Branch brings plenty of that to the table. With an extremely limited skill set at 5’9/177, he may not get on the field enough to make a major impact as a rookie.
Ravens nab USC WR Ja’Kobi Lane
Lane played second-fiddle to Makai Lemon at USC, but he carved out a role as the team’s X receiver early on. Lane scored a whopping 12 touchdowns in 2024. Even though that fell to four last year, he upped his yardage total to 745. Lane’s 4.47 wheels at 6’4/200 are impressive, but he doesn’t have the physicality to separate from corners despite his speed. Nearly a third of his career targets were contested, and he brought down just under half of them. Matt Harmon’s Reception Perception data also shows a player simply unable to pull away from DBs in man coverage.
At a high level, Lane is very similar to Alec Pierce as a prospect when the latter was coming out of Cincinnati. At his best, Pierce has been a feast-or-famine WR3. Lamar Jackson’s arm could unlock similar production from Lane, though he’s no threat to take over as Baltimore’s No. 1 receiver anytime soon.
A pair of deep threats head to the NFC South
Chris Brazell and Ted Hurst were two of the most interesting Z receiver candidates in this class. Both players are lengthy boundary wideouts with career aDOTs over 14 and slot rates under 20 percent. Hurst was a bit more versatile at Georgia South compared to Brazzell at Tennessee, but his landing spot is a tough one for fantasy purposes. At pick No. 84, the Bucs nabbed Hurst, potentially sticking him in a WR4 role for his rookie season. Brazzell, on the other hand, has a chance to take over as his team’s WR2 by going one spot earlier to the Panthers. Brazzell played a limited, deep-ball role in Tennessee’s highly specialized offense, meaning it may take a year or more for him to learn a “real” receiver position.
Thomas peaked at 503 receiving yards as a sophomore at Mississippi State. He eventually transferred to LSU, where 488 yards was his high-water mark. He did, however, add 99 yards and a score on the ground. Thomas has two career kick return touchdowns and another house call on a punt. Thomas cemented himself as one of the best return specialists in the class with a blazing 4.28 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. The Bears are fully committed to Luther Burden and Rome Oduzne as their top two wideouts, but there is a WR3 gig up for grabs. I expect Ben Johnson to have a veteran such as Kalif Raymond fill that role like he did with Zaccheus last year, but Thomas could push him for the job at some point in 2026.
This was the first draft in the Super Bowl era to have only one running back go on Day Two (the second and third rounds). Indiana’s Kaelon Black became Kyle Shanahan’s latest fixation, though that has rarely worked out. Shanny’s only hit at running back so far is Elijah Mitchell, who ran for 963 yards as a rookie and has never hit 300 in a season since. More importantly, Black doesn’t have a strong profile as a runner. He ranked 104th in the country in yards after contact per carry (3.5) while being out-carried by backfield mate Roman Hemby, a fellow 2025 prospect. It was Black’s sixth collegiate season and he added a measly four catches through the air. The 49ers rarely give any deference to the consensus of the draft community when making their picks, and that has come back to bite them more often than not. Maybe this time will be different.
Pats make a move at tight end
New England made the last skill position pick of Day Two by taking Notre Dame tight end Eli Raridon at No. 95 overall. Raridon is a monster athlete with 4.62 speed at 6’6/245. He also recorded burst measurables over the 90th-percentile at the NFL Combine, giving him a 9.81 RAS.
He didn’t perform the agility drills, which makes sense for what he brings to the table. Raridon is a straight-line seem-strecher without much wiggle when the ball gets in his hands. The Pats will park him behind Hunter Henry as a rookie, but his size/speed combo could be a great complement to Drake Maye’s elite arm strength when his time comes.
