It should be fairly obvious at this point that the top two wide receivers on everyone's 2011 NFL Draft big board will not change. A.J. Green and Julio Jones have locked up their draft status and should both be off the board in the first half of the first round, perhaps before the St. Louis Rams make their pick at #14. Beyond those two, opinions differ on how to rank the next group of wide receivers.
Rob Rang posted a new big board ranking the top 42 prospects in the draft. The receivers on his list and where he ranks them reflects the overall lack of consensus about those players with the Combine just one week away. Let's take a look.
Rang has Green and Jones at the 6 and 9. spots. You have to go all the way down to #31 to find the next receiver, Maryland's Torrey Smith. After Smith, Rang has Kentucky WR Randall Cobb at #35. The last name on the list is Jerrel Jernigan from Troy.
Notably absent is Jonathan Baldwin, who many pundits are still putting third in the receiver class. Leonard Hankerson would be on some lists, so I'm not entirely surprised to see him left out here.
Cobb is an interesting prospect that we haven't talked much about at TST. He used to be QB, but at 5'9" that wasn't the best fit. I suspect that's mostly due to the fact that he seems to fit best as a slot receiver. It's difficult for the Rams to think about how receivers like Cobb would fit into the mix until they know just what Donnie Avery is fully capable of.
Personally, I like Smith as a receiver that the Rams could use. He doesn't fit that 6'4" profile that so many prognosticators have fixed on for filling out the Rams receiver corps. Smith is also well established as a return man.
Expect this list to change dramatically after the Combine.