{"id":226133,"date":"2025-07-22T04:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226133\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T04:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:20:10","slug":"todd-mcshay-explains-why-antonio-williams-is-his-top-wr-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226133\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd McShay explains why Antonio Williams is his top WR in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay defended his take after ranking Clemson<\/a> star Antonio Williams<\/a> as the top receiver in the 2026 NFL Draft. Williams is coming off of an impressive third season with the Tigers and McShay believes he could take another leap forward this season. <\/p>\n

Speaking on The McShay Show, McShay explained what he likes most about the receiver. He gave him the highest grade on his route-running ability, which is complemented by his speed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see if Antonio Williams takes his game to another level this year,\u201d McShay said<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s an average-sized playmaker. \u2026I would give him a one as a route runner. Our position-specific grades, a one is excellent, two is above average, three is average, four is below average and five is marginal. So I give him a one as a route runner. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was outstanding on all three levels. The stats matched up, 95th percentile in separation. I thought he was crisp off the line of scrimmage. Tempos and stems his routes beautifully. I love the way he drops his weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams recorded career highs across the board last season with 75 catches for 904 yards and 11 touchdowns. Perhaps this can be the season he finally surpasses the 1,000-yard mark as he and quarterback Cade Klubnik<\/a> will aim to take Clemson back to the College Football Playoff. <\/p>\n

If that happens, he should have a shot to be a first-round draft pick. But for as much talent as he has, Williams isn\u2019t without room to improve. <\/p>\n

McShay noted that he didn\u2019t give the receiver a perfect grade on his ball skills due to numerous drops from this past season. However, he added the caveat that he believes some of those drops were misleading and sees Antonio Williams as above average with his hands as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cFolks, this is why stats are super helpful and state can lead you somewhere, but stats also can lead you somewhere and you realize that\u2019s not accurate,\u201d McShay said. \u201cWhoever\u2019s doing their job for PFF did their job. The drops existed. But not scouting evaluation drops, if you will. Not all drops are made equal. There\u2019s focus drops, there\u2019s balls that are off target in like, bang, bang moments. But for him, he had the eight drops, but I was impressed for the most part. I thought he showed consistent ability to track the ball, adjust to the ball, pluck the ball away from his frame. I thought he\u2019s a hands-catcher, not a body-catcher. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest knock I had on him, the reason I didn\u2019t go one; two reasons. One, there were some focus drops. But I also think part of the reason for the number of drops is I don\u2019t think he has a huge catch radius. He\u2019s 5-11, 190. I just think he\u2019s got NFL-like separation skills. Intermediate possession weapon with some vertical ability. Needs fewer drops and a little bit more yards after catch. I didn\u2019t see enough \u2014 because he\u2019s shifty and he\u2019s quick and he\u2019s got speed \u2014 I didn\u2019t see enough after the catch from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time will tell whether McShay\u2019s prediction holds true with an entire season of football still in front of us. But with a stacked class of receivers that includes names like Germie Bernard<\/a> and Jordan Tyson<\/a>, Williams stands as good a chance as any to be No. 1. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay defended his take after ranking Clemson star Antonio Williams as the top receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11867,7,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-226133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-antonio-williams-22-dutch-fork","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114894971107433872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}