ESPN: Big 12 Conference has two of three top NFL prospects in nation at wide receiver

Tony Adame

ESPN: Big 12 Conference has two of three top NFL prospects in nation at wide receiver image

If you’ve been paying attention to the NFL and its financial news recently, then you know we’re in the golden age of wide receivers — a position that’s being paid unlike any other time in NFL history. 

The position's future might already reside in the Big 12 Conference in 2024. 

ESPN’s Matt Miller placed two of the top three wide receiver prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft in the Big 12 with Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan and Colorado’s Travis Hunter. Missouri’s Luther Burden was the other prospect. 

From ESPN: “At 6-5 and 210 pounds, McMillan is a master of the 50-50 ball and an expert at tracking deep throws. My early player comparison for him is former USC star and current Falcons receiver Drake Lonon. Like London, McMillan could find himself selected in the top 10. He's coming off a masterful 90-catch, 10-touchdown season in which he posted 1,402 yards (107.8 per game, good for fifth in the nation).”

If you’re looking for a great example of how quickly the wide receiver position is evolving, just take into account that when Hunter started his college football career at Jackson State in 2022 it was widely thought he would eventually play in the NFL primarily as a cornerback. That’s not the case anymore for the player who won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player and was an All-American in 2023.

 

Tony Adame

Tony Adame Photo

Tony Adame covers the Big 12 Conference for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of Southern Oregon University and has been a sports journalist for 20 years. He has won APSE Awards for breaking news, games stories and feature writing. He is also the writer and host of the Florida Society of News Editors Award-winning podcast The Sheriff: Murder, Lies & Revenge in Okaloosa County for USA Today/Gannett.