The ideal way to build a WR room in 2026

We have long understood wide receiver as a premium position in the NFL, but the natural evolution of offenses and schemes has influenced everything—including the way you want to build out and balance your wide receiver corps. So what's the ideal way to put the pieces together in today's NFL? Matt Harmon from Yahoo Sports joins Robert Mays to fit it all into place on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.0:00 Welcome to the show4:09 What should your receiver group look like?9:43 First piece of a receiver room13:53 Building around a WR125:51 Impact on offense as a whole32:31 What to surround a WR1 with43:12 Impact of heavy personnel48:35 Ideal skill sets for receivers in heavy personnel56:09 Underrated skill sets for receivers59:45 How to project a WR success in NFL1:03:07 Changing landscape of slot receivers1:07:43 Examples of properly-built receiver groups1:11:42 Deploying pure speedJoin The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowHost: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.