The college football focus shifts back to the southeast this weekend with a pair of top-10 matchups on the SEC schedule including #5 Mississippi at #9 Georgia on Saturday afternoon and #11 Tennessee at #6 Alabama that evening, while there’s a third matchup of ranked teams when #20 Southern California plays at #13 Notre Dame also Saturday night. Needless to say, there’ll be lots of good prospects on the field in those games (some of whom we mention below) and folks who are interested can access our full who to watch in college football this week here . However, for us, at least from a Giants’ draft perspective, this is going to be a Wide Receiver Weekend as literally all the top prospects at the top position for 2026 will be playing on national TV at some point over the next couple of days. In fact, we had one of those guys – Makai Lemon of Southern Cal – going to the Giants with the 9th pick overall in our mid-season mock which we released earlier this week.

All of this assumes, of course, that the Giants haven’t made a trade for a quality receiver by Saturday morning as they are reportedly shopping hard for a veteran to upgrade before the chance of hanging around the playoff chase withers away. And its hard not to make the case that finding a quality receiver to pair up with Malik Nabers is such a priority, particularly given the fact that Nabers is realistically only about 50-50 to be ready to start the 2026 season and there are no guarantees that he’ll actually be 100% if he ever even gets there.

Its also not hard to imagine that the Giants have noticed that former QB Daniel Jones is all of a sudden an MVP candidate over with the Colts who currently have the best record in the AFC. This is not to try and relitigate the whole Jones issue, but the fact is that during his entire tenure with the Giants he was working behind one of the 2-3 worst offensive lines in the country with THE worst WR room and I find it hard to imagine that Giants simply don’t want to make the same mistake with Jaxson Dart. Get the kid some weapons. So here we go …

• In fact, the weekend WR fest actually starts Friday evening when Louisville plays at #2 Miami (7 PM ET; ESPN) as the Cardinals’ Chris Bell (#0, 6-2, 220) is one of the hot prospects in the 2026 draft class; he’s a LB sized receiver with legit track speed (4.40) who is match-up headache waiting to happen. Bell is still a little rough around the edges when it comes to route running but he’s got as much physical upside as anyone in this draft. Currently, we have him as the #4 WR on our positional ranking and #24 overall on our latest big board. And not to digress, but if folks are watching Miami they will want to check out Canes’ DE Rueben Bain (#4, 6-3, 275) and G/T Francis Mauigoa (#61, 6-5, 315), both of whom are top 10 candidates who will almost assuredly at least be on the Giants’ short list come draft day. We’d also note Bain’s partner-in-crime at DE Ahkeem Mesidor (#3, 6-3, 270) who’s actually been a little more productive than his more heralded linemate and could get some second-day interest of his own. We also mention him because Mesidor is from Ottawa and played originally in the NCAFA league in which both my grandsons currently play. Cool!
• Getting back to the wideouts, it starts early Saturday afternoon when Washington plays at Michigan at Noon ET on FOX. The guy to watch there is the Huskies’ Denzel Boston (#12, 6-3, 210, 4.55; #7WR; 48GBN), a physical intermediate receiver who is also a very good red-zone target, although he lacks legit tarck speed with a projected 40 time in the mid-4.5 range.
• Wisconsin may not be top-ranked Ohio State’s biggest challenge of the year when the Buckeyes play the Badgers at 3:30 PM ET on CBS, but it is another chance to check out OSU WR Carnell Tate (#17, 6-2, 195; 4.60, #3WR; #13GBN) who isn’t even the #1 receiver with the Buckeyes – cue sophomore Jeremiah Smith (#4, 6-2, 225) who won’t be draft eligible until 2027 – but is still 2-3 on most boards around the league including ours. There are going to be questions about Tate’s long speed, but he is the most skilled pure receiver in this draft class as he runs precise routes and has great hands.
• The consensus top WR in this year’s draft class is Arizona State’s Jordan Tyson (#0, 6-2, 200; 4.50; #1WR; #7GBN) and he’ll be on the field when the Sun Devils host Texas Tech at 4 PM ET on FOX. Tyson is on pace to crack the 100 reception mark this season ad while he’s not the biggest receiver out there and has had some injury issues (knee in 2023; collarbone in 2024) he is the most skilled blocker in this year’s draft class. And as a little bonus coverage in this game, folks might also want to check out rising ASU OT Max Iheanachor (#58, 6-6, 330), especially when he goes up against Tech’s rising DE David Bailey (#31, 6-3, 250) who leads the country with 8.5 sacks.
• We mentioned #11 Tennessee at #6 Alabama (7:30 PM ET; ABC) as one of the games of the week and it may also be the best WR watching of the day as both teams have quality receivers in the Vols’ Chris Brazzell (#17, 6-4, 200; 4.45; #6WR; #40GBN), another physical receiver with big-play potential, and the Tide’s Germie Bernard (#5, 6-0, 205; 4.55, #5WR; #36GBN), who falls more in the skilled possession receiver category.
• Lastly, Makai Lemon (#6, 5-11, 195; 4.50; #2WR; #11GBN), as mentioned our pick for the Giants in this week’s 2026 projection, will be front and center when the Trojans travel to South Bend to face Notre Dame in their annual shoot-out (7:30 PM ET; NBC). For the record, Lemon is the 2nd leading receiver in the country and has started to show up as a top 10-15 prospect on a lot of teams boards around the league. Lemon combines with fellow WR Ja’Kobi Lane (#8, 6-3, 200), the Trojans big-play threat who is averaging over 21 yards per reception this fall and has some second-round potential of his own