{"id":511747,"date":"2026-03-08T20:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511747\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:25:07","slug":"insider-lists-three-new-wr-names-drawing-trade-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/511747\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Lists Three New WR Names Drawing Trade Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of the top trade WR candidates\u2014like A.J. Brown and Brian Thomas Jr.\u2014are well-known at this point in the offseason. But every year there are some surprise names that pop up around the start of free agency. With the legal tampering period starting Monday, ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler<\/a> listed a few under the radar trade candidates at wide receiver that are drawing interest around the league.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A.J.] Brown isn\u2019t the only receiver potentially available. Baltimore\u2019s Rashiod Bateman, Los Angeles\u2019 Quentin Johnston and Green Bay\u2019s Dontayvion Wicks have come up in my talks,\u201d Fowler wrote. \u201cTeams have interest in Green Bay\u2019s Jayden Reed, but I don\u2019t sense the Packers would trade him at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at those three names and their 2025 stats side by side for comparison.<\/p>\n

Rashod Bateman: 13 games, 19 receptions, 224 yards, two TDs
Quentin Johnston: 14 games, 51 receptions, 735 yards, eight TDs
Dontayvion Wicks: 14 games, 30 receptions, 332 yards, two TDs<\/p>\n

Johnston is the clear top option of the group. Bateman and Johnston are more experienced on the outside while Wicks has played a pretty even split of wide and slot snaps.<\/p>\n

Bateman is the least appealing option to me. The former first-round pick finally had a mini breakout season in 2024 after three years of struggling only to take a giant step backward in 2025.<\/p>\n

All three have one thing in common with notable drop issues throughout their NFL careers. Wicks is the worst offender at 11.1 percent, with Bateman behind him at 10.2 percent and Johnston at 7.5 percent. Drops defined Johnston\u2019s early career, especially in 2024 with six dropped passes. Many of those came in memorable moments, too. To his credit, he cleaned things up a bit, but still had four drops in 2025.<\/p>\n

Johnston is the only one of the three with the arrow firmly pointing up. He had his best season in 2025.<\/p>\n

At just 24 years old, and as a former first-round pick, he could make an intriguing option for the Pittsburgh Steelers. As a 2023 first-round pick, Johnston would come with a fifth-year option decision due May 1st. That would give the Steelers an opportunity to trade for him, pick up the option, and put off a long-term deal decision for one more year.<\/p>\n

Fowler listed several free agent WRs and these trade candidates, but did not mention the Steelers linked to any of them. I wouldn\u2019t assume that means a lack of interest<\/a>. They are notorious for keeping these things close to the vest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many of the top trade WR candidates\u2014like A.J. Brown and Brian Thomas Jr.\u2014are well-known at this point in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[31108,352,10850,349,85376,57447,99,3795],"class_list":["post-511747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-dontayvion-wicks","tag-espn","tag-jeremy-fowler","tag-nfl","tag-quentin-johnston","tag-rashod-bateman","tag-sports","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}