Former Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate and former USC wide receiver Makai Lemon are largely viewed as the two best prospects at the position entering the 2026 NFL Draft on April 23.
But former Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson is a wild card.
“Jordyn Tyson is a little bit more difficult because of the durability factor,” draft analyst Dane Brugler said on The Athletic Football Show. “All the injuries he’s been working through and even into this draft process. It was a hamstring that bothered him throughout the year, and then it kind of spiked a little bit during training. He wasn’t able to work out at the Combine. He’s not gonna work out at the pro day.”
Brugler continued, “There’s a hope he can maybe run some routes before the draft, but we’ll find out about that as we get closer. So, he’s a guy that has missed a lot of time over his four years in college. It’s hard to understand how much to factor that in, but based just on the tape, to me, I see a guy like Stefon Diggs.”
Last season, Tyson missed four games with an injured hamstring. When healthy, he caught 61 passes for 711 yards and eight touchdowns.
Tyson’s injury history dates back to his freshman season at Colorado.
He led the Buffaloes in receiving before tearing his ACL, MCL, and PCL after nine games, resulting in a redshirt year in 2023. In 2024, Tyson transferred to Arizona State and enjoyed his most productive year, with 75 catches for 1,101 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 14.7 yards per catch. But that season ended prematurely with a broken clavicle, so he missed the Sun Devils’ Big 12 championship win. He missed most of 2023 with a fractured clavicle.
“I had never had soft-tissue injuries," Tyson said at the 2026 NFL Combine in Indianapolis last month, according to the Arizona Republic’s Theo Mackie. "Kinda just working through that right now, and I feel like if you look at my track [record], after I got injured, I came back better than ever, I feel like.”
After the Combine, Daniel Jeremiah dropped Tyson four spots to No. 21 in his rankings of top 2026 draft prospects. He is ranked third among WRs, behind Tate (No. 6) and Lemon (No. 11).
“Tyson is an explosive receiver with a lot of ‘wow’ plays littered throughout his tape,” Jeremiah wrote. “He is a very fluid mover, and he incorporates a variety of releases and general creativity into his route-running. He has suddenness off the line and out of breaks down the field. He will weave and get cornerbacks off balance before exploding away from them.”
Jeremiah continued, “He makes some incredible catches on deep balls; he tracks the ball with ease over the shoulder and can almost hover in the air waiting for it to come down. After the catch, he has some wiggle to make defenders miss and excellent speed to pull away. Durability was an issue throughout his college career - that’s the only factor keeping him from a higher grade/projection.”
Jeremiah doesn’t project a drastic draft-day slide for Tyson, projecting him to go at No. 14 overall to the Baltimore Ravens in his Mock Draft 3.0 published this week.
Brugler projects Tyson to go at No. 24 in his latest mock draft, while ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. predicts Tyson will go at No. 11 overall to the Miami Dolphins.
2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
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