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 show

4:09 What should your receiver group look like?

9:43 First piece of a receiver room

13:53 Building around a WR1

25:51 Impact on offense as a whole

32:31 What to surround a WR1 with

43:12 Impact of heavy personnel

48:35 Ideal skill sets for receivers in heavy personnel

56:09 Underrated skill sets for receivers

59:45 How to project a WR success in NFL

1:03:07 Changing landscape of slot receivers

1:07:43 Examples of properly-built receiver groups

1:11:42 Deploying pure speed

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Host: Robert Mays

Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman

Executive Producer: Michael Beller

Senior Producer: Katy Duffy

Social Producer: Scott Krinch

Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social

Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social

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Theme song: Haunted

Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs

Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC

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