Our Experts Mock Draft was held last night. I'm not going to spoil it, you can read about it in the magazine. But I will mention one late pick I was pretty pleased with: Carolina wide receiver Jalen Coker.
It's not a great passing game in Carolina, and I don't think Bryce Young is a great quarterback. But Panthers coach Dave Canales conceded earlier in the offseason that Coker would open camp as the No. 2 wideout (across from Tetairoa McMillan).
Carolina also still has 2024 first-rounder Xavier Legette, but Coker has regularly outproduced him when healthy, and he finished especially strong last year. Not just in Carolina's playoff game (in which Coker caught 9 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown), but from the second half of the season on.
Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, you can look at spans of games during the season (or any season). I looked at a span of 8 games over the second half of the season; receiving totals from all wide receivers who appeared in that many games from mid-November through the end of their seasons.
Not surprisingly, guys like Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba top the list of qualifiers. Also showing up in the top 15 are guys who were tearing it up late in the year: Michael Wilson, Parker Washington. And Coker.
The list is below, sorted by most receptions in an eight-game span. (Players who played fewer than eight games due to injury, rest or bye weeks aren't included.)
| TOP 8-GAME SPANS, WRS, WEEK 9- | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Rec | Yds | TD |
| Puka Nacua | 66 | 976 | 7 |
| Jaxon Smith-Njigba | 56 | 752 | 5 |
| Michael Wilson | 56 | 775 | 6 |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown | 53 | 708 | 3 |
| A.J. Brown | 50 | 620 | 4 |
| George Pickens | 44 | 665 | 3 |
| CeeDee Lamb | 40 | 586 | 2 |
| Khalil Shakir | 39 | 344 | 1 |
| Jameson Williams | 38 | 643 | 3 |
| Parker Washington | 37 | 624 | 4 |
| Stefon Diggs | 37 | 475 | 1 |
| DeVonta Smith | 36 | 413 | 1 |
| Zay Flowers | 36 | 586 | 4 |
| Jalen Coker | 35 | 462 | 4 |
| Luther Burden | 34 | 472 | 1 |
| Nico Collins | 34 | 588 | 3 |
| Justin Jefferson | 33 | 362 | 0 |
| Keenan Allen | 32 | 263 | 0 |
| Christian Watson | 30 | 459 | 7 |
| Tetairoa McMillan | 29 | 477 | 5 |
| Jauan Jennings | 28 | 364 | 6 |
| Romeo Doubs | 28 | 402 | 3 |
| Chimere Dike | 27 | 229 | 3 |
| D.J. Moore | 25 | 325 | 6 |
| Jakobi Meyers | 24 | 238 | 1 |
| Emeka Egbuka | 23 | 261 | 0 |
| Tre Tucker | 23 | 241 | 1 |
| Isaiah Williams | 22 | 158 | 0 |
| Jayden Higgins | 22 | 324 | 3 |
| Jerry Jeudy | 22 | 267 | 1 |
| Cooper Kupp | 21 | 226 | 1 |
| Christian Kirk | 20 | 239 | 2 |
| Darnell Mooney | 19 | 253 | 1 |
| Andrei Iosivas | 17 | 199 | 1 |
| Demarcus Robinson | 17 | 245 | 2 |
| Tre Harris | 17 | 219 | 0 |
| Jordan Addison | 16 | 218 | 1 |
| Xavier Legette | 16 | 190 | 1 |
I considered Coker early in the 11th round last night. But I thought he might last until the 13th, which he did; I selected him as the 54th wide receiver off the board. Carolina used a third-round pick two weeks ago on Tennessee wideout Chris Brazzell, but I suspect that's more of a concern for Legette's offensive role than Coker.
--Andy Richardson
