The NFL’s Hall of Fame Game is less than a month away. The season is approaching quickly, and we’re continuing our deep dive into all the NFL futures bets we can get our hands on! Today, we’ll focus on the receiving game and who the 2026 NFL receiving leaders will be. First, we’ll dive into receiving yards, and then receiving touchdowns.
In 2025, it was Jaxson Smith-Njigba who cleaned up the competition in the receiving yards category. Smith-Njigba had 119 receptions for 1,793 yards. Puka Nacua was the only player who kept it close to Smith-Njigba with 1,715 yards. George Pickens checked in with the third most at 1,429; Ja’Marr Chase had 1,412. Amon-Ra St. Brown rounded out the top five with 1,401 receiving yards on the year.
When it came to touchdown catches, Devante Adams crushed the competition. The Rams’ veteran receiver caught 14 touchdowns in 2026. Behind him, it was a four-way tie for second with 11 touchdown catches each for Tee Higgins, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and tight ends Trey McBride and Dallas Goedert.
NFL Receiving Yards Leader Best Bets
Justin Jefferson (+1200)
Last year, Justin Jefferson had to deal with JJ McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and superstar Max Brosmer. He still managed to go over 1,000 yards, ending the season with 1,048. Now, he’s got a competent quarterback in Kyler Murray. We know Jefferson is a superstar. We know Kevin McConnell is the quarterback whisperer, and Kyler Murray is a serviceable quarterback. There have been a lot of quarterbacks lately who, with a change of scenery, have flourished. This is the right situation for Murray, and he’s got a superstar to feed in Jefferson. Buy low on the superstar receiver.
DeVonta Smith (+4000)
DeVonta Smith got upgraded to a WR1 this offseason with the trade of AJ Brown. Smith has shown the ability to be a solid complement wide receiver, and he’s also shown the ability to break out and have massive games in the past. AJ Brown is now a New England Patriot, opening up a lot of targets and yards for Smith to fill in as the #1 target in a prolific offense. Smith missed games in 2024 and fell short of the 1,000-yard mark. Outside of that, he’s crossed the 1K mark in three straight seasons. As a longshot, Smith is worth a bet with the opportunity in front of him.
Trey McBride (+4000)
One more longshot gives us a star tight end in this market. It’ll be a tall task for a tight end to win this award, but we’ve seen crazy things happen before. For me, this one is also all about opportunity. Trey McBride will see plenty of opportunities in 2026. McBride went over 1,200 yards for the first time in his career last season. He’ll likely have Jacoby Brissett as his quarterback, which worked out well last season. The Cardinals will not be a good team, but we saw that last year lead to crazy garbage-time offense and racking up yards. If some of the top dogs don’t pull their weight, and McBride continues his career trajectory, he could be a threat.
NFL Receiving Touchdowns Leader Best Bets
Nico Collins (+2000)
We saw last season with Devante Adams, you don’t have to necessarily be the “best” wide receiver in the game to hit this. Just be on a good team, with a lot of scoring opportunities. Collins should have both. I have the Texans as one of the most surprising teams in the league this year. CJ Stroud isn’t in a contract year, but if he doesn’t play like we saw him play a few years ago, his seat could get warm in 2027. Stroud will answer that call, and with the defense they’ll have behind them, this team will have a lot of scoring opportunities, especially on short fields. Stroud needs to return to form; the defense is already there, and Collins needs to stay healthy. He’s never played 17 games, yet has seasons of seven and eight touchdowns in his short career already. 2026 is the Collins breakout year, and at 20/1 he’s worth a shot for receiving touchdown leader.
Mike Evans (+3500)
I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Mike Evans was 35/1 in this market. Remember Devante Adams, the veteran, tall possession receiver, on a good team winning this last year? Mike Evans checks all those boxes in San Francisco. He joins a solid team that’s going to score plenty. Christian McCaffrey is great around the goal line, but you can’t always trust him to be on the field. In 2023, Evans tied Tyreek Hill for the league lead with 13 touchdowns. In 2021 he had 14 touchdown catches, and in 2020 13. Evans is a touchdown machine, and now he’s on an elite team that can use him that way.
Emeka Egbuka (+6000)
We saw what Egbuka was capable of doing last season. The rookie had two touchdown catches in his first career NFL game. Over the first five weeks of the year, he already had five touchdown catches. That slowed down as the Buccaneers slowed down, but Baker Mayfield also had knee, arm, and shoulder injuries during the season we didn’t know about. With Baker healthy and Evans in San Francisco, Egbuka could have one of those Mike Evans seasons in 2026.