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Dare I say, this group of SEC receivers is potentially one of the best in recent memory.
Part of that sentiment could be the fact that the conference boasted just 2 wideouts who hit 1,000 yards last year. The Tre Harris injuries and the Ryan Williams late-season regression (in production) made for an anticlimactic year at the position.
But this year, narrowing it down to 10 receivers was hard. There might not be much separation between the top receiver on this list and the guys who barely made the cut. So what does that mean? And can this turn into a 2021-like year in which 7 guys hit the 1,000-yard mark? It’s on the table.
Here are my top 10 SEC receivers for 2025:
Honorable mentions: Noah Thomas (Georgia), Deion Burks (Oklahoma), Ryan Wingo (Texas), Germie Bernard (Alabama)
How challenging was it to put this list together? I’d be OK with all 4 of these guys landing as preseason All-SEC guys.
At Georgia, Thomas will fill a much-needed hole as an outside receiver who can win 50-50 battles. No returning SEC player had more receiving touchdowns than he had (8), and that was in a Texas A&M passing offense that mostly struggled in 2024.
Burks falls into a similar camp as Nic Anderson and Tre Wilson, both of whom will be mentioned on this list (spoiler alert) because they all had lost 2024 seasons due to injury. When Burks was healthy at Purdue in 2023, he was an all-conference wideout who had some early-round NFL Draft buzz. Let’s see if he can get back there operating out of the slot with a new-look Oklahoma offense.
I’m convinced that Wingo will be Arch Manning’s go-to target. Part of that was because of how in-sync those 2 looked during Manning’s 2 starts, and his 9.3 average yards after catch was No. 2 in the SEC. But for a preseason list, it would’ve felt a bit ambitious to include a guy that only had 155 receiving yards vs. SEC competition during his true freshman season.
Bernard is someone whom I was higher on last year because I thought he was the type of glue guy that Alabama lacked in the previous 2 seasons. He was that guy sometimes, but he couldn’t quite establish himself as a difference-maker in the way that I anticipated. He’s still a fine player and a nice No. 2 option in Tuscaloosa.
10. Kevin Coleman Jr., Mizzou
Wait a minute. No returning SEC player had more receiving yards than Coleman (932). He did that with a true freshman quarterback for a Mississippi State team that didn’t win an SEC game. On top of that, Coleman finished 5th among FBS wideouts with 26 missed tackles forced. As a primary slot receiver, Eli Drinkwitz couldn’t have found a better Luther Burden III replacement than Coleman. Why isn’t Coleman even higher on this list? He’s transitioning into a new offense with a new starting quarterback in Beau Pribula. I wonder if Coleman’s production will dip in what figures to be a more run-heavy offense that won’t be trailing as much as Mississippi State was. But limited ceiling aside, Coleman is one of the most proven wideouts in the conference.
9. Eric Singleton Jr., Auburn
Singleton’s performance in the regular-season finale against Georgia was a massive reason why Georgia Tech played roughly a million overtimes in Athens. He was Haynes King’s go-to target in a run-heavy offense. That’s important context because an ACC wideout who had 754 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns last year won’t jump off the page. But Singleton, who had 9 catches of 40 yards in the last 2 seasons, could follow in the footsteps of KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who was the SEC’s best transfer receiver last year. That would mean becoming an all-important safety valve for a resetting Jackson Arnold. What’ll benefit Singleton more at Auburn is that he has a true outside complement in Cam Coleman, so he should see plenty of mismatches in coverage. That could lead to him becoming Auburn’s first 1,000-yard receiver of the 21st century.
8. Nic Anderson, LSU
Again, Anderson had a lost 2024, which significantly impacted Oklahoma’s potential. There’s still plenty to like with Anderson. When he was last healthy in 2023, he was the only FBS player who averaged 20 yards/catch with 10 touchdown grabs. He’s not necessarily a big contested catch guy yet, having only really had 1 full college season, but he was 7th in the FBS with a 146.5 quarterback rating when targeted (min. 30 targets) in 2023. On top of that, his 7 catches of 40 yards were 11th in the FBS that year. Garrett Nussmeier needed that big-play threat on the outside, and Anderson could step into that role in a major way at LSU.
7. KC Concepcion, Texas A&M
Concepcion fits into a popular group here. He’s a transfer receiver who came from a rough passing situation. NC State lost QB1 Grayson McCall early and never recovered. As a freshman, he was 5th in the ACC in receiving (839) and 2nd in touchdown catches (10). That’s why Concepcion entered 2024 as one of the top 10 returning wideouts in the country. There’s a certain level of “dog” in a 3-star recruit who steps onto the college stage and breaks 20 tackles as a 5-11, 173-pound receiver. If he gets back to being that guy in his new home, Concepcion can become Marcel Reed’s new best friend in a passing game that needs to find some consistency.
6. Zachariah Branch, Georgia
If you think Branch is more of a special teams player than an every-down receiver, you’ll probably disagree with this ranking. If you think he’s potentially the most lethal ball-carrier in space in the sport, you’ll wonder why he didn’t crack the top 3. I’m closer to the latter on Branch, who had a down year amid some offensive turmoil at USC. At Georgia, you know that he’ll have no shortage of looks dialed up close to the line of scrimmage, but his ceiling will be determined by what he can do past the sticks. Last year, Branch had just 9 catches on passes that were thrown at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. But we could be talking about a massive bounce-back season with a handful of jaw-dropping touchdowns, which UGA lacked for the majority of last season.
5. Tre Wilson, Florida
I’ve held tight to my Wilson stock after watching what he did as a true freshman in 2023. There was a month in which he — not future first-round pick Ricky Pearsall — was the best wideout in that room. While I would’ve liked a full offseason of Wilson working with DJ Lagway instead of having the Florida quarterback shelved with a shoulder injury, he can still put together a 1,000-yard season (Florida hasn’t had that since 2002). When Wilson was last healthy in 2023, no SEC WR had a better QB rating when targeted in the intermediate range (10-19 yards). That’s important because that’s where Lagway needs the most help. Billy Napier isn’t going to be elite scheming guys open in the passing game, and Wilson will be tremendously valuable if he can get separation with his route-running in those areas. He might not have 1,300-yard upside as a guy with 1 career catch on a pass that traveled 20 yards, but Wilson could lead the SEC in catches for someone who could become the conference’s top quarterback.
4. Cayden Lee, Ole Miss
If there was a guy who benefited from Tre Harris’s absence, it was Lee. In those final 7 games of Ole Miss‘s season, he had 39 catches for 577 yards. He didn’t drop a single target, which is one of the many reasons why he and Austin Simmons are going to become one of the top 1-2 punches in the SEC. That connection will determine whether Lee can take another step. He’ll primarily line up in the slot, but he’s capable of making plays as an outside target, too. He’s got big-play ability, as well. Matthew Golden was the only SEC receiver who had more 20-yard catches than Lee (20). Can he become a better contested catch guy? Sure. He only had 1 of those in his breakout 2024 campaign. But if he continues to be that slippery as a route-runner, there’s still a path for him to have a 2020 Elijah Moore season in Oxford.
3. Aaron Anderson, LSU
Anderson was a revelation in the slot after transferring from Alabama. It’s easy to forget that he had the second-most receiving yards among SEC returners behind only the aforementioned Coleman, who also had a ton of production out of the slot. Anderson gets the benefit of having the continuity of playing in the same offense with the same elite quarterback. That’s significant for a guy who had at least 60 receiving yards in 9 games last year (even Ryan Williams only had 6 such games). His explosiveness, which led to 20 missed tackles forced (4th among SEC WRs), will pair well with transfer additions Barion Brown and the aforementioned Nic Anderson. On top of that, he’s a slot receiver who had 10 catches on throws that traveled at least 20 yards, and he had 458 yards after the catch. Both of those are the most among all returning SEC receivers.
2. Cam Coleman, Auburn
I’m all in on Coleman. I’m so all in on Coleman that we did a draft of non-QB Heisman candidates on The Saturday Down South Podcast, and I took him as one of my 5 selections. Why? Coleman might’ve gotten off to a slow start, but he finished his true freshman season on a tear. In his last 3 games, he had 22 catches for 306 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns. He didn’t drop a pass once the calendar turned to October, and he looked every bit like the 5-star recruit he was billed as. He and Ryan Williams both finished with 8 touchdown grabs. No SEC true freshman wide receiver has had more than that since Amari Cooper in 2012. Mind you, that was with an early-season shoulder injury and Payton Thorne throwing him passes. Call me crazy, but Coleman should be in an even better spot in 2025. There’s an expectation that he could be Auburn’s first first-team All-SEC receiver at season’s end since 1994.
1. Ryan Williams, Alabama
Yeah, he’s No. 1 even though he’s 18 years old now. While Williams’ second-half numbers dipped, I blame that more on Jalen Milroe’s struggles. The Georgia performance will forever be a part of Williams’ college legacy. That game was the exclamation point on a season in which he finished with more receiving yards than any SEC true freshman wide receiver since Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk both hit the 1,000-yard mark as first-year players in 2016. The body control and ability to make people miss after the catch is already at an NFL level. Williams, who led the SEC with 273 receiving yards on 3rd down, will be in for a monster year with OC Ryan Grubb reunited with Kalen DeBoer. If Alabama’s quarterback situation isn’t a liability, this passing game (which added Miami transfer Isaiah Horton) should be a significant upgrade. Williams could have a Biletnikoff Award in his immediate future.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
