Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith and Auburn's Cam Coleman lead historic group of 2024 wide receivers

One of the biggest storylines in Monday’s release of the final 2024 On300 rankings is the cycle’s historically strong wide receiver group. Ohio State wide receiver signee Jeremiah Smith ranks as On3’s No. 1 overall prospect. The Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna product also checks in at No. 1 overall in the On3 Industry Ranking. Auburn wide receiver signee Cam Coleman checks in at No. 3. He’s followed by Alabama commit Ryan Williams (No. 8), Clemson signee TJ Moore (No. 13) and Texas Tech signee Micah Hudson (No. 20) within the five-star ranks.

To put it plainly, this is the best group of elite wide receiver talent to come through the high school football ranks in quite some time.

The group is headlined bye Smith and Coleman — two prototypes with a rare combination of size, athleticism, skill level and production as high school prospects. Either would have ranked the top wide receiver prospect within any cycle in the recent past — in most cases by a significant margin.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time two uncommonly gifted franchise wide receiver prospects have happened to be in the same cycle. Back in 2008, two five-star receivers — Julio Jones (Alabama) and A.J. Green (Georgia) — were viewed as two of the best prep wideouts in years. Both turned out to be more than deserving of the high school hype, starring at their respective colleges and being picked inside the top ten before turning in NFL careers that could land them in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

To be put in the discussion with the two best high school to college wide receiver prospects of the internet recruiting era is high praise in itself. With that said, Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman are the closest analogue we’ve seen to Julio Jones and A.J. Green in the past sixteen years.

Jeremiah Smith is the most advanced WR prospect in a decade

Jeremiah Smith has level of technical acuity and functional movement skills that we haven’t seen from a big wide receiver prospect in recent memory.

At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Smith would not look out of place on an NFL field right now. He is the most physically developed top wide receiver prospect in the cycle. Remarkably, he also looks to be the most advanced route-runner in the cycle with the movement skills of a much smaller player.

Smith has an elite release package, stacking cornerbacks off the line at will over the past two years. He gets to top speed in the blink of an eye and is able to seamlessly toggle speeds within the route. The ability to drop his weight and get in and out of breaks is as good as we’ve seen in recent cycles, let alone for such a big wideout. Smith’s functional athleticism and ability to quickly accelerate also shows up after the catch, with his burst and size making him a tough proposition to bring down in the open field.

The elite functional athleticism and route-running pairs with strong ball skills. Smith regularly wins at the catch point, flashing strong hands in contested situations. He’s also an elite ball-tracker, showing the ability to locate and come down with passes over his shoulder.

Unsurprisingly, the elite skill set led to a bunch of success and production on Friday nights. Smith was the top target in the most nation’s most talented wide receiver corps as a junior and senior at Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna. He hauled in 63 catches for 1,098 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior. Smith did better as a senior with 90 receptions for 1,389 yards and 19 touchdowns while leading Chaminade-Madonna to their third straight state title.

Despite being a national prospect for the majority of his high school career, Jeremiah Smith has shown marked improvement all the way through his senior season. The top prospect in the cycle saw his body, athleticism and skill level drastically change for the better during his high school years. In addition to adding several inches of height and upwards of 40 pounds to his frame throughout high school, Smith saw marked improvements in his athleticism. He cut over 1.5 seconds off of his time in the 110 meter hurdles from his freshman to junior year. The improvements led to him winning state titles in the 110 meter and 400 meter hurdles last spring. There’s little doubt his background in the hurdles has aided in his ability to accelerate on the football field.

After seeing Smith practice over the course of the week at the All-American Bowl, it’s not surprising to see why he’s developed into such a skilled player. Entering the event with little to prove, I was struck by how hard Smith practiced throughout the week. He was at the front of every line and took a ton of reps. The businesslike approach was readily apparent. Jeremiah Smith is a technician who works to master his craft – a great sign for his future.

Cam Coleman has a rare combination of physical gifts and skills

In a wide receiver group riddled with top athletes, Cam Coleman is the biggest freak. At 6-foot-3.5, 190 pounds with an elite combination of athleticism and ball skills, it’s safe to say no receiver in the 2024 cycle has a higher upside.

Coleman burst on the national scene with a promising junior campaign backed up by a phenomenal run of showings in the camp and 7-on-7 circuit. The flashes of athleticism we saw on junior film and on the basketball court were more than validated in the combine setting.

Cam Coleman registers as one of the top athletes in the 2024 cycle. Adjusted for size, no 2024 wide receiver has posted better combine results. At Under Armour’s Atlanta regional camp last February, Coleman ripped off an electronically-timed 4.48 second 40-yard dash, a 4.18 second short shuttle and a 10’8″ broad jump. The marks are all among the best of any wide receiver nationally.

The top notch athleticism pairs with special ball skills. Coleman’s elite vertical bounce and outstanding length (33.5-inch arms) pairs with arguably the best coordination in the receiver cycle to manifest in a monster mismatch in contested catch situations. Based on what we saw on Friday nights and in the national all-star setting, Coleman sports the largest catch radius among 2024 wide receivers. The ability to hang in the air and come down with high-point grabs is as good as we’ve seen in recent years. Coleman is also an exceptional ball tracker, coming down with over-the-shoulder catches with seeming regularity.

Cam Coleman is much more than an catch-point maven, though. The high-end athleticism allows him to double as a dangerous deep threat. His long speed is a mismatch for most corners on vertical routes. We’ve seen him roast bracket coverage for long touchdowns on multiple occasions. Coleman is also able to out-run secondaries with the ball in his hands.

The athleticism and skills all showed up this fall, with Coleman exploding as a senior at Phenix City (Ala.) Central, catching 61 passes for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns, scoring a touchdown on nearly 30% of his receptions. He saved most of his best performances for the biggest games, with two 200+ yard outings against Auburn High and a five catch, 143 yard game against the four-time defending state champs, Alabaster (Ala.) Thompson High, including the game-winning touchdown from 73 yards out.

No wide receiver in the 2024 makes highlight plays both as a vertical threat and at the catch point at a higher clip than Coleman. In addition to Friday nights, we saw this on display at the Under Armour All-America Game earlier in January. Coleman made an array of eye-popping plays at each practice, while facing many of the top cornerbacks in the cycle. In attending national all-star games over the past decade, I haven’t seen a wide receiver make impressive plays at such a high rate in that setting.

Coleman is one of the youngest top prospects in the cycle. He doesn’t turn 18 years-old until the middle of August and could technically be a 2025 prospect. He’ll need to continue honing his route-running, but if developed, there’s no denying his immense upside.

Julio Jones and AJ Green set an extremely high bar

Back in 2008, Julio Jones and A.J. Green were viewed as can’t miss receiver prospects. Jones ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the cycle according to the On3 Industry Raking, while Green checked in at No. 6.

Julio Jones was the definition of an elite athlete at Foley (Ala.) High, doubling as a top talent on the gridiron and track and field, winning multiple state titles in the long jump, triple jump and high jump. His combination of athleticism and size at around 6-foot-3, 215 pounds is the gold standard at the position in the internet recruiting era. The ability to separate vertically, pick up yards after the catch and play with physicality was as good as you’ll see at the position. Jones was highly productive during his prep career and led Foley to a state title as a senior. He went on to star at Alabama for three seasons before being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons with the sixth pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

While Jones is the standard for what an elite athlete looks like as a wide receiver prospect, A.J. Green owned generational ball skills. The 6-foot-3.5 185-pounder was the most productive high school wide receiver of his time, writing his name in the national record books, catching 279 passes for 5,373 yards and 53 touchdowns during his career at Summerville (S.C.) High. Green’s elite length (34.5-inch arms) and coordination were always on display as he made unreal catches with regularity. He played for three years at Georgia before going 4th overall in the 2011 NFL Draft to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Jones and Green had more contrasting skill sets than Smith and Coleman do as high school prospects. Jones was the elite athlete while Green was the ball skills wizard. Each had more defined areas to shore up in college, with Jones becoming a more consistent pass catcher and Green improving his speed and route-running. In what’s likely due in part to the advances in training over the past 16 years, Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman don’t appear to have as obvious areas for improvement as they enter college.

While all four prospects are different in their own way, there is a common thread – size and elite traits or skills.

Moving forward

Simply drawing the parallel between Julio Jones and A.J. Green to Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman as high school prospects is one thing. The probability of any high school prospect living up to the standard of two top ten picks and potential hall-of-famers is unlikely. Pure talent as a high school prospect is just one factor in determining a football player’s career arc and ultimate success. Smith and Coleman will need to continue developing and be put in good enough situations at the college level to both showcase and maximize their considerable talent.

Smith and Coleman also face much, much more competition within their own cycle. Few other blue-chip wide receivers from the 2008 cycle made a dent in college football, let alone the NFL. That’s likely not the case in 2024. Ryan Williams is an elite athlete for the position and projects as a star in Kalen DeBoer’s offense in Tuscaloosa. TJ Moore has a technical skill set rivaled only by Jeremiah Smith in the cycle. No receiver made more big plays on a weekly basis during the fall than Micah Hudson. The No. 6 receiver in the On300, Gatlin Bair, has 10.15 speed at 6-foot-1.5, 195 pounds.

The wide receiver position has averaged 4.6 first round picks over the past five NFL Drafts. Four receivers have gone inside the top ten picks over the past three drafts with anywhere from one to three wideouts projected to go inside the top ten in April.

On3 was the lone outlet to rank one of those projected top ten picks – Marvin Harrison Jr. – as a five-star prospect out of high school three years ago. By comparison, Jeremiah Smith and Cam Coleman – and perhaps a few other 2024 prospects – are further along than Harrison was at the same stage. While it remains to be seen if Smith, Coleman or any other 2024 wideout will develop into a top pick like Jones, Green and likely Harrison – we haven’t seen a cycle with so many receivers with that type of potential in recent memory.