If you want to make a lot of money playing professional football, you should probably get really good at either throwing or catching the football.
Wide receivers are the NFL's highest-paid players outside of quarterbacks in 2025. Six wideouts currently make at least $30 million per year; quarterback is the only position with more players making that.
There could be at least one more wide receiver joining that list. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is the top-ranked free agent set to hit the market this offseason, according to USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis. Higgins has a decent chance of matching or surpassing the $30 million AAV mark that denotes the top tier of NFL receivers.
There are several other talented pending free agents at the wide receiver position. USA TODAY Sports is here to rank them.
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These five wide receivers are all pending free agents and will be the best options on the market at their position:
1. Tee Higgins
2024 stats: 12 games | 73 receptions | 911 yards | 10 touchdowns
Higgins is not just the top wide receiver in this year's free agent class, he very well may be the top player in the class.
Despite playing second fiddle to star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase for much of his career, Higgins has been incredibly productive. He crossed the 1,000-yard mark in two of his first three seasons and surpassed 900 yards in two more. The only season Higgins didn't manage at least 900 yards was 2023, when he was limited to 12 games due to injuries and didn't have starting quarterback Joe Burrow throwing to him for much of the season.
The 2020 second-round pick was once again limited to 12 games in 2024 by hamstring and quad injuries. Even so, and even with Chase taking a majority of the Bengals' target share en route to the receiving triple crown, Higgins tallied over 900 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Higgins is a player that thrives in contested catch situations, plays on the outside and in the slot and succeeds at making catches at all three levels of the field: short, intermediate and deep. With that skill set and at just 26 years old, he'll be a top name on the market ... so long as the Bengals don't use the franchise tag on him again.
2. Chris Godwin
2024 stats: 7 games | 50 receptions | 576 yards | 5 touchdowns
Godwin was on pace for the best season of his career by far when his season was cut short abruptly due to an ankle injury.
As the former third-round pick prepares to enter his age-29 season, the gruesome ankle injury could be a point of concern for teams going forward. However, the production Godwin had with Tampa Bay, even with another elite wide receiver in Mike Evans taking away some of his target share, should be enticing for a team looking for a talented veteran receiver.
The Buccaneers are preparing for a fourth straight season with a new offensive coordinator – Byron Leftwich was fired after the 2022 season, Dave Canales took the Panthers' head coaching job after the 2023 season and Liam Coen just took the Jaguars' head coach gig. Tampa will be trying to keep some consistency on offense. One ESPN report last week said the Buccaneers were doing "everything in their power" to keep Godwin around.
Should he end up hitting the open market, Godwin, too, will command a heftier price tag than some other free agent receivers on this list.
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3. Stefon Diggs
2024 stats: 8 games | 47 receptions | 496 yards | 3 touchdowns
Diggs is another veteran receiver that had his 2024 season cut short due to injury. The former Vikings and Bills star tore his ACL during a Week 8 matchup with the Colts and missed the remainder of the year.
Houston traded for Diggs ahead of last year and agreed to void the last three years of a four-year contract extension he had signed with the Bills in 2022. At the time, the deal was set up to allow Diggs a chance to cash in on another big payday if he performed well in 2024. Instead, he missed most of the season.
However, the seven full games Diggs did play in proved that the veteran wideout still has some gas left in the tank. He was an excellent second option for second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud next to Texans lead receiver Nico Collins. Through the seven-and-a-half games before his injury, Diggs was on pace to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for a seventh consecutive season.
4. Amari Cooper
2024 stats: 14 games | 44 receptions | 547 yards | 4 touchdowns
Cooper only missed three games all season – two with a wrist injury and one for rest in a meaningless Week 18 game – and was traded halfway through the season to the team with the eventual MVP at quarterback. Yet he still managed to have the least productive season of his career by virtually every metric.
His 44 receptions, 547 yards and four receiving touchdowns were all career-low marks for Cooper, but there is some important context to add to those numbers.
For the first half of the season, Cooper was playing for a Browns team that – to put it lightly – had issues at quarterback. Starter Deshaun Watson didn't surpass 200 yards in any of his seven games before his season-ending Achilles injury. Then, the 30-year-old Cooper traveled to an AFC contender mid-season and had to learn a new playbook and offensive system in Buffalo on the fly. Missing two of his first four games there with his wrist injury didn't help.
There's real potential for Cooper to return to at least a No. 2 receiver level in a full season with his 2025 team, even if he doesn't still have the 1,000-yard consistency he once did as he enters his age-31 season.
5. DeAndre Hopkins
2024 stats: 16 games | 56 receptions | 610 yards | 5 touchdowns
Hopkins will be 33 when next football season starts, which alone will be enough to scare off some prospective teams. That, and the lackluster production he had this year with the Titans and Chiefs.
At this point in his career, the 12-year veteran is no longer going to play like the first-team All-Pro receiver he was in his final three years in Houston. However, a team in need of a veteran presence and secondary or tertiary receiving option in the offense could be interested in bringing in a player like Hopkins, who still can be a valuable contributor.
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