It’s obvious at this point that Jeremiah Smith is the best WR prospect alive and easily one of the best prospects of all time. However, some fans wonder where he ranks among the all-time great WRs. For one former NFL general manager, Smith almost clears the majority of the best WR prospects of this century.

On CBS Sports’ With the First Pick Podcast, host Ryan Wilson put former NFL GM Ran Carthon on the hot seat with a rapid-fire “yes or no” game. Wilson wanted to know how Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith stacked up purely as a draft prospect against some of the greatest wide receivers to enter the league since 1998.

Carthon gave a fascinating peek into the mind of a pro evaluator, explicitly judging these players strictly on what they looked like ‘coming out’ of college rather than what they later accomplished in the NFL. To start the game, Carthon put some immediate respect on the names of two undisputed legends.

When asked to choose between Jeremiah Smith and Randy Moss or Calvin Johnson, Carthon didn’t give in to recency bias, he picked both of them over Smith.

Fair enough, Moss and Johnson are widely considered two of the most flawless, physically unstoppable receiver prospects in football history. So keeping Smith behind them tells Carthon is still keeping his evaluation grounded in reality.

Then came in Jeremiah’s frenzy run. When Ryan brought 2010s best WR prospect, Julio ‘Coolio’ Jones. Ran took a deep sigh on this one.

“Ooh, this one’s tough. I don’t know if we gonna make it to the break before I gotta think about this one, but if I gotta, if I have to put, I’ll go on a limb and say coming out, I’ll say Jeremiah,” Ran said.

Carthon admitted this one was a brutally tough decision because he was actually working in the front office for the Atlanta Falcons when they famously drafted Jones in 2011.

Next on the list was none other than NFL’s current best WR, Justin Jefferson. Shockingly, Ran chose Smith here as well due to how the draft process works.

The former Titans GM reminded everyone that Jefferson was actually looked at as the 5th or 6th best wide receiver in his own draft class back in 2020. The reason he picked Smith over JJ is because JJ had a lot more question marks surrounding him during his college scouting process than Smith does right now.

Carthon also easily took Smith over Davante Adams, pointing out that the Ohio State star is just a much more explosive athlete than Adams was during his college days.

To close it out, Wilson asked the toughest question of them all. “This last one, dig deep into your thought process because you I don’t think I’m telling tales. You said that Les Snead had you go and check this player out in person because he really liked him and you liked him as well. Cooper Cup or Jeremiah?” Ryan asked.

After chuckling for a second, Carthon still picked Smith. But did not fail to give Cooper Cupp his flowers.

“Cooper Cup is he’s a different animal. He’s not a guy that you’re gonna evaluate from a height, weight, speed, all the measurable stuff that we care about. Yeah. He’s not going to pass that test. He was just a much better football player than tester,” Ran said.

Then again, it is just not fair to judge Jeremiah Smith based on the incredible NFL legacies of these possible future Hall of Famers. When evaluating a college kid, a general manager can only grade what the player is “coming out” of school, which is exactly why Ran Carthon leaned so heavily toward Smith’s unmatched physical traits and raw potential.

If we are talking strictly about league legacy and what a player has actually done for the sport, Jeremiah Smith still has everything to prove before he can truly be mentioned in the same breath as guys like Julio Jones or Justin Jefferson.

Jeremiah’s very early draft profile

Over his first 2 seasons with the Buckeyes, Smith put up a ridiculous 163 catches for 2,558 yards and scored 27 touchdowns. He actually crushed the NCAA freshman receiving record in 2024 while helping his team win a national championship and then backed it up by becoming a unanimous All-American in 2025. He reached those historic benchmarks faster than any player in the entire history of Ohio State’s football program.

Smith stands about 6-foot-3 and weighs 234 pounds, with an alleged 9% body fat. Very similar to Julio Jones when he was at Bama. However, college coaches who have trained top-tier NFL talent believes he’s actually more fluid and faster than Julio Jones was at the exact same age, which is honestly terrifying to think about.

On top of that, he dropped only 3 of his 166 total targets during his dominant stretch as per PFF.

Even though he isn’t officially eligible to enter the NFL Draft until 2027, there are some rumors already surging that teams will actively “tank” their seasons just to get a chance to draft him. Some draft experts believe he would have easily been the No. 1 overall pick in past drafts if he was allowed to come out early.

Needless to say, he’s easily the most anticipated wide receiver prospect we have seen in decades.