It seems very likely that the Pittsburgh Steelers will select a wide receiver (or two) in the 2026 NFL Draft. Today’s goal is to look at which ones did the most damage downfield in their final college seasons among this year’s Combine invites. The data in this article is from Sports Info Solutions (SIS), starting with deep targets and catches of 20 or more air yards.
NOTE: A couple players aren’t included because SIS doesn’t track smaller schools – Jalen Walthall (Incarnate Word) and Bryce Lance (North Dakota State).
Of course, being on the top right is the goal, with high volume and doing their part on the receiving end. What stands out most positively is the receiver with the highest number of deep catches for the group in the 2025 regular season – Makai Lemon (USC).
He came down with 15 deep catches, four more than any other player we’re focused on. This came on 23 targets, tied for third most. An impressive part of the sure-fire first round prospects season that would likely require a trade up for Pittsburgh.
Two players had more deep targets than Lemon: Emmanuel Henderson Jr. (Kansas) and Brenen Thompson (Mississippi State). Thompson came down with one more deep catch (11) despite two fewer targets.
Twelve players got 20 or more deep targets in the 2025 regular season. Following the top three I just discussed are Georgia State’s Ted Hurst (23), Texas Tech’s Caleb Douglas (22), TCU’s Eric McAlister (21), Texas Tech’s Reggie Virgil (21), Washington’s Denzel Boston (21), Uconn’s Skyler Bell (21), Notre Dame’s Malachi Fields (20), Texas A&M’s KC Concepcion (20) and BYU’s Chase Roberts (20).
The list of receivers with 10 or more deep catches is much shorter: Makai Lemon (15), Brenen Thompson (11), Tennessee’s Chris Brazzell II (11), Oregon’s Malik Benson (11), Ohio State’s Carnell Tate (11), Emmanuel Henderson Jr. (10) and Georgia State’s Ted Hurst (10).
Nice volume context before we dive deeper into the quality.
Next, I wanted to provide deep completion rates, along with deep EPA per target. EPA is Expected Points Added, measuring how each play impacted the team’s likelihood of scoring. Past studies revealed a clear impact of deep passing to scoring. Here’s that visual:
Once again, we see Lemon atop the list at the extreme upper right. His deep receiving impact last season is becoming quite clear. His 1.336 deep EPA/tgt tied for second-best, along with a healthy 65.2 percent deep completion rate (third). Lemon ranked top three among his peers in all four deep receiving stats used in this article, impressively the only player with that bragging right.
Let’s look at the list of players with ten or more deep targets and 50-percent or better deep completion rates:
Makai Lemon – USC: 23 targets, 65.2 percent completion rate.
Chris Brazell II – Tennessee: 19 targets, 57.9 completion rate.
Malik Benson – Oregon: 17 targets, 64.7 percent completion rate.
Carnell Tate – Ohio State: 16 targets, 68.8 percent completion rate.
Elijah Sarratt – Indiana: 12 targets, 58.3 percent completion rate.
Caullin Lacy – Louisville: 10 targets, 60.0 percent completion rate.
C.J. Daniels – Miami (FL): 10 targets, 50 percent completion rate.
Seven players meet those parameters, compared to the 44 total names. The majority are projecting to be Day 1 or Day 2 selections, with the exceptions seemingly being Benson and Lacy.
Each name on the above list had positive EPA stats to boot, with Sarratt the only one outside of the top 15 ranks (17th).
And here’s the top 10 list of deep EPA results (min. 10 targets still): USC’s Ja’Kobi Lane (1.381), Makai Lemon (1.336), Malik Benson (1.336), Caullin Lacy (1.139), Chris Brazzell II (1.124), Brenen Thompson (0.932), C.J. Daniels (0.931), Carnell Tate (0.875), Georgia Tech’s Eric Rivers (0.832) and TCU’s Eric McAlister (0.815).
According to the EPA stat, these are the players who added more value to their offenses as deep receiver. That is certainly something the Pittsburgh Steelers could use more of, and there are some players in this class who could bring it.
Makai Lemon was clearly the best across the study, along with Chris Brazzell II, Malik Benson and Carnell Tate providing some of the best balance across this deep receiving study.
What are your thoughts?
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