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Mock Draft Simulator 2026 NFL Draft Big Board Big Board Builder NCAA Premium Stats SubscribeThe detail and nuance of route running in the modern NFL is at a level we have never seen before. Success at the wide receiver position no longer just requires size, speed or consistent hands. Instead, the modern passing game hinges on precision and timing.
With the level of motion employed by offenses around the league, wide receivers must now be comfortable running a variety of routes from all kinds of alignments.
PFF charted every route on every play throughout the NFL season, allowing us to go beyond standard stats to identify which wide receivers were truly dominant on specific routes in 2025.
NFL playbooks incorporate dozens of routes, many of which are so intricate or long-developing that they only feature a handful of times each season. This article won’t cover every route, only those that have a sufficient sample size of data to observe.
Slant Routes – George Pickens
The slant route still leads the way as the preferred route for athletic wideouts who possess an exceptional combination of size and speed. Therefore, it's no surprise that George Pickens, D.K. Metcalf and A.J. Brown led the league in total slant routes run this season.
Pickens is particularly well-suited to the sport’s most sudden route. He led the NFL in slant route receptions, yards, first downs, yards after catch and contested catches. Pickens’ 92.5 PFF grade on slant routes was the highest of any wide receiver to catch at least five passes on this route.
Pickens has been asked to run more and more slant routes with each NFL season he has played as offensive coaches continue to work on maximizing the 24-year-old’s raw talent.
Out Routes – Ja’Marr Chase
This one could go in several directions, as three players tied at the top of the leaderboard with 16 first downs apiece and six receptions of 15-plus yards on out routes.
Amon-Ra St. Brown led the league in total receptions on out routes, while Stefon Diggs led the league in yards, but ultimately the nod goes to Ja’Marr Chase with 10.8 yards per catch on his 23 out route receptions, crucially without any drops, which contributed to his league-leading 90.8 PFF grade on out routes.
Chase was also running out routes with a higher degree of difficulty for both quarterback and receiver. 89% of his targets came when aligned on the outside, while both Diggs and St. Brown were lined up in the slot for a quarter of their out routes. Chase’s average depth of target (10.3 yards) was consequently three yards deeper than both Diggs and St. Brown.
This is usually a route dominated by Chase’s former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson; however, out routes ask a lot from the quarterback throwing the ball, and Bengals quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco offered significantly more arm talent than the Vikings’ trio of passers this season.
In/Dig Routes – Puka Nacua
It says a lot about the Rams offense (and Matthew Stafford) when the two leaders in receiving yards on ‘in’ routes this season were Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
When people search for similarities in the offenses of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, this is one of them. The San Francisco 49ers have ranked inside the top three in receiving yards on In/Dig routes for four straight seasons.
However, Nacua and the Rams were a class apart in 2025. The first-team All-Pro tallied eleven In/Dig route receptions of 15-plus yards, and Matthew Stafford had a 133.2 passer rating when targeting Nacua on these routes, many of which were on the backside of Stafford’s route progression. The reigning MVP remains one of the best “backside dig” throwers the league has ever seen.
Hitch Routes – Drake London
This category buckets together several variations of the hitch route; however, they all share a similar principle — they benefit from defensive backs affording too much cushion to wide receivers who capitalize by first selling the deep route before rapidly pulling the handbrake and collecting easy yardage.
Naturally, this route suits a specimen like Drake London. Many defensive coordinators don’t dare press him at the line of scrimmage, fearing his physicality and confidence in man-to-man situations.
This thinking allowed London to find lots of joy on hitch routes, which accounted for over a quarter of his total yardage on the season. London led the league with 16 first downs on hitch routes and dropped just one of his 26 catchable targets.
If there is one area London must look to improve upon entering year five, it’s getting his head turned and finding additional yardage after the catch on these receptions. He amassed just 77 yards after the catch on 25 hitch route receptions.
Go Routes – Puka Nacua
Jaxon Smith-Njigba looked to be running away (literally) in this category two-thirds of the way through the regular season. Smith-Njigba had 336 yards on Go routes before anybody else had even cracked 200.
Then the well ran dry for Seattle’s explosive offense. Six straight games without a deep reception to close out the regular season saw Smith-Njigba overtaken by both Courtland Sutton and Puka Nacua.
While I would love to avoid a repeat selection here, Nacua edged out Sutton with one additional touchdown, one fewer drop and a 96.3 PFF receiving grade compared to Sutton’s 86.4.
Post Routes – Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Here is where Smith-Njigba will ultimately get his flowers. He caught 13 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns on post routes this year — all of which led the league.
This was an area of Smith-Njigba’s game that had lain dormant for a couple of years when the young wide receiver was pigeon-holed into a slot receiving role. Klint Kubiak unlocked the superstar’s full potential on the perimeter this season, and it was deep penetrating routes like these that made the Seattle Seahawks offense so potent.
It remains to be seen if Seattle’s newly-hired offensive coordinator Brian Fleury is able to rekindle the same magic that Darnold and Smith-Njigba brought to the Super Bowl champions. The template is fairly obvious anyway — let one of the league’s most gifted route runners attack deep down the middle of the field.
Corner Routes – Trey McBride
Breaking my own rules here slightly to talk about a tight end. Corner routes are not actually as common as the average NFL fan or Madden player might think. There were more than four times as many post routes as corner routes run throughout the 2025 season.
Trey McBride led the league with ten receptions on corner routes, accumulating 164 yards and three touchdowns. McBride also led the league in corner routes receptions last season, albeit with just six in total.
Three of McBride’s ten corner receptions this season were deemed to be contested catches. He also didn’t drop any of his catchable targets on corner routes, which are easy to mess up as both the receiver and the football travel in the same direction.
Crossers – Jameson Williams
This is an all-encompassing category that includes everything from shallow drags to deep over routes. These routes thrive against man coverage, with the aim of making defenders get their wires crossed as they pursue shifty wideouts across the formation.
It’s therefore no surprise that one of the fastest and shiftiest receivers in football dominated on crossers in 2025. Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams amassed 368 receiving yards on crossing routes, by far the most in the NFL.
He averaged 12.8 yards after the catch on these completions. These routes really lend themselves to players capable of turning on the afterburners and shooting up the sideline.
Williams was not without flaws on these routes, though. Five of his nine drops in the 2025 season came on crossers. Hanging onto the football over the middle of the field is one thing draft evaluators are constantly searching for. The prospect of getting hit by a larger safety or linebacker over the middle does not lend itself to Williams’ 189-pound frame. Regardless of this flaw, the 24-year-old has the production to back up his effectiveness in this area.
Wide Receiver Screens – Justin Jefferson
Finally, looking at all iterations of wide receiver screens, we don’t want to just choose the player with the most receptions (Khalil Shakir in this case) because that’s essentially determined by his offensive playcaller.
Justin Jefferson had a frustrating year, just barely maintaining his streak of six 1,000-yard seasons to start his career. While it felt like much of Jefferson’s grievances were a consequence of bad quarterback play and totally beyond his control, one area where he could heavily influence the outcome was on screen passes.
Jefferson caught all 20 screen pass targets, turning them into 7.8-yard gains on average. It’s an underrated part of his game, which he has really developed over the past two seasons.
Truthfully, there was no dominant screen pass wide receiver this year. Ever-elusive veteran Deebo Samuel was also right in the mix for this crown, but his 234 yards after catch were rendered down to just 157 yards from scrimmage due to the depth of Washington’s screen concepts.
Given the dominance Jefferson typically exudes in all other facets of being a wide receiver, I think it’s only fair that we throw him a bone here.